Generic Advertising and Product Differentiation

This article considers whether generic advertising lowers the differentiation among competing brands of the same good. Analytical results show that if the benefits from generic advertising from increased demand are outweighed by the costs from lower product differentiation then high–quality producers will not benefit from generic promotion. Hypotheses are tested empirically under a conditional–logit approach using retail–market sales and advertising data for the U.S. prune industry. Results from this study provide evidence that generic advertising has a slight differential effect on the perceived qualities of different brands.     

Beggar-Thy-Neighbor Advertising: Theory and Application to Generic Commodity Promotion Programs

Profits from generic advertising by a producer group often come partly at the expense of producers of closely related commodities. The resulting tendency toward excessive advertising is exacerbated by check-off funding. To analyze this beggar-thy-neighbor behavior we compare a scenario where different producer groups cooperate and choose their advertising expenditures jointly to maximize the sum of profits across the groups, and a scenario where they optimize independently. In an illustrative example using 1998 data for U.S. beef and pork, the noncooperatively chosen expenditure on beef and pork advertising is more than three times the cooperative optimum.     

Spatial and Temporal Marketing Considerations under Marketing Loan Programs

Marketing assistance loan (MAL) and loan deficiency payment (LDP) programs differ in their treatment of transportation costs. Marketing decisions are analyzed under these programs when producers are differentiated by location with respect to the terminal market. Under certain conditions, a complete characterization of equilibrium is developed. The proposed model broadly fits several "stylized" facts about producer enrollment in these programs. If LDPs are uniform at all locations, LDP programs do not interfere with marketing decisions. MAL programs distort the optimal marketing pattern by providing incentives to store for producers who should be among the first ones to supply the market.     

The Influence of Commodity Programs on Acreage Response to Market Price: With an Illustration Concerning Rice Policy in the United States

Farm programs influence the parameters of typically estimated supply functions. We develop and apply an approach that uses detailed information about farm program incentives and constraints to identify underlying structural acreage response parameters when the data reflect behavior under complex government commodity programs. We illustrate the approach with data on rice acreage response to market price in the United States. For U.S. rice, estimates that fail to appropriately incorporate the program rules under which market data were generated are three to four times smaller than the structural parameters that are useful for most policy analysis or projections under alternative policies.     

The Significance and Insignificance of Demand Analysis in Evaluating Promotion Programs

The estimated effects of promotion on demand are often small and insignificant. Yet, the estimated effects of promotion on industry profit are often positive and large. This puzzle is explained by demonstrating that (in)significance of promotion in a demand equation does not imply, and is not implied by, (in)significance of promotion in an industry profit equation. A Monte Carlo example is provided. The econometric modeling implications are discussed. The short-run marginal effect of a dollar of generic beef promotion on slaughter cattle industry profit is estimated to be about $9.84 with a standard error of 3.77 for 1997.     

南方集体林经营方案研究综述

根据中国的研究现状,对南方集体林经营方案的内涵、方案的编制、方案的实施及执行效益评估、方案的相关制度等研究文献进行了综合分析。结果表明:理论研究严重滞后于森林经营实践,急需将南方集体林经营方案的编制与实施看作一项系统工程,将与之有关的各项因素都纳入,开展综合性、系统性的交叉研究。     

Optimal Storage by Crop Producers

When post–harvest marketing strategies are restricted by disallowing speculative purchases, sales out of storage becomes an irreversible decision and the dynamic marketing problem becomes analogous to the optimal exercise of a financial option. The optimal marketing strategy is to hold at low prices and to sell at high prices with a cutoff price function marking the boundary between low and high prices. A method for estimating the cut–off price function is developed and applied to Illinois soybean prices. The decision rule is demonstrated to result in substantial gains from storage.     

Optimal Institutional Mechanisms for Funding Generic Advertising: An Experimental Analysis

Given the uncertain legal status of generic advertising programs for agricultural commodities, alternative voluntary funding institutions are investigated that could provide a high level of benefits to producers. This experimental study simulates key economic and psychological factors that affect voluntary producer contributions to generic advertising. The results suggest that producer referenda play a critical role in increasing contributions and that producer surplus is maximized by a provision point mechanism instituted by producer referendum with thresholds ranging from 68% to 90%, and expected funding from 47% to 77% of the time, depending on the level of advertising effectiveness.     

Political Market Power Reflected in Milk Pricing Regulations

We investigate revealed political market power reflected in the pattern of price discrimination by end use that is the hallmark of U.S. milk marketing orders. We show that the pattern of prices that would maximize producer profits, if producers operated a cartel with monopoly power in a regional market, is far above actual government-set price differentials between milk used for fluid products and that used for manufactured products. The pattern of actual price differentials is consistent with political welfare weights for producers relative to consumers that are small compared to the weights that would yield maximum producer profits.     

入世与绿色食品营销

入世把中国市场与世界市场紧密的连为一体 ,许多行业都会感受到国际市场极富挑战性的冲击。绿色食品业作为国民经济新增长点的新兴行业历经十几年的发展 ,在这与国际市场接轨的时机 ,应如何面对入世的机遇与挑战。本文着重从市场竞争方面分析入世对绿色行业造成的影响 ,认为绿色食品企业要不断地提高自己的市场竞争力 ,要从产品、定价、销售渠道、促销等方面制定有效的绿色食品营销策略 ,全方位拓展绿色食品市场     

浅议森林公园的营销策略——以神农谷国家森林公园为例

以湖南株洲神农谷国家森林公园为例,分析旅游营销中旅游形象推广、服务营销、互联网营销、营销整合等方面存在的问题;从突出形象营销、提高旅游工作人员的整体素质、树立服务营销理念、建立良好的服务体系和高效优质的网站以及开展网络促销、构建良好的电子商务平台和资源整合、营销策略整合等方面,提出完善和改进神农谷国家森林公园的营销对策。     

The Effect of Farmland Preservation Programs on Farmland Prices

Government agencies in urbanizing areas are increasingly utilizing purchase and transfer of development rights programs to preserve farmland and protect local farm economies. This paper tests the effect of development restrictions imposed by permanent easement sales on farmland sales prices, using Maryland data. We correct for selectivity bias due to the voluntary nature of these programs in estimating hedonic sales equations. Although preserved parcels' actual land values are lower, the effect of the restrictions is not statistically significant. These findings may encourage additional participation in preservation programs or justify reductions in the easement prices paid by agencies.     

Integrating Agri-Environmental Programs into Regional Production Models: An Extension of Positive Mathematical Programming

Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) has become a popular method for regional production models. The standard approach estimates cost (or production) functions for each land-use activity separately from each other. This means that the same crop grown under two technologies is treated as if it were two separate crops, which may lead to unsatisfying results, for example, if agri-environmental programs are modeled. We present an extended version of PMP that leads to more plausible results than the standard version in such cases. The extended method is applicable to other problems where differences in the elasticity of substitution between activities are important.     

林产品电子商务平台推广策略研究

首先介绍林产品电子商务平台的概念;通过检索搜索引擎、分类目录和门户网站分析林产品电子商务平台推广现状;根据电子商务平台一般性推广方法,并结合林产品的特点,从林产品生产企业、中间商和普通消费者的角度出发,阐述具有针对性的推广策略;最后提出只有根据林产品具体的市场行情和具体的推广对象,将各种策略综合运用才能达到最佳推广效果。