2025 Autumn Speaker

Wednesday, October 29, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

OSU Gerlach Hall, 2108 Neil Avenue, Room 285, Columbus 43210 (in-person) and Zoom (link will be distributed to registered participants)

Dinner Following @ Bravo Italian Kitchen

10 free spots available for chapter members on a first-come, first-served basis

Event is free but registration is required! 

Register now at

https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6l2j6KDaIFqE2tU 

Greg M. Allenby, Ph.D.

Kurtz Chair in Marketing

The Ohio State University

"A Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Model for Customer Heterogeneity"

Abstract: Customer heterogeneity plays an important role in product management as firms optimize their offerings to maximize profits. Higher levels of heterogeneity reflect greater differences in preferences and sensitivities among customers, and lead to greater varieties of goods offered by firms. A challenge in modeling heterogeneity is in flexibly representing it when there exists little theory and/or information to guide analysis. In this paper we propose a new non-parametric model of heterogeneity that simultaneously identifies customer segments and classifies respondents to them. We apply our model to two marketing studies and find that it provides a better and more interpretable fit to the data. Our estimation results are used to explore an optimal product and product-line design.