Product Complements and Substitutes in the Real World: The Relevance of “Other Products”

Abstract

In the real world, buyer demand for a product can depend directly and indirectly on the marketing efforts of “other products” in different categories. The authors offer a behavioral rationale for the existence of the effects of “other products'” marketing efforts and propose a taxonomy of possible intercategory relationships. The discussion enables the authors to identify several promising new research directions.