Use of Marketing Metrics: A Different Point of View

There is a more important problem than developing new marketing metrics. Most packaged-goods manufacturers and other marketers are not getting anywhere near full value from the metrics currently available. In this article, I summarize some data on the underutilization of metrics, hypothesize some reasons for this, and describe some steps to be taken to improve firms’ performance by using metrics more effectively

When Do Higher Prices Increase Demand? The Dual Role of Price in Consumers\u27 Value Judgments

Drawing on literature on judgment and decision-making, we examine the proposition that price serves two distinct roles in consumers\u27 value judgments. First, as a product attribtute, price affects the perceived similarity of the target product to the mental prototype of a higher or lower quality product. However, price is not the only attribute used to make similarity based quality judgments. Other relevant and available product attributes moderate the effect of price on quality judgments. Second, as a measure of sacrifice, price serves as the benchmark for comparing utility gains from superior product quality. However, this comparison process is dynamic because the relative importance of money and product quality changes across consumption occasions. We present a signal detection model of consumer\u27s price-value judgment to explain how high prices simultaneously increase as well as decrease purchase intentions. We describe how managers can use this model of value judgment to identify situations when higher price may increase demand

NFAT-mediated defects in erythropoiesis cause anemia in Il2-/- mice.

The role of NFAT family transcription factors in erythropoiesis is so far unknown, although their involvement has been suggested previously. We have shown recently that Il2-/- mice develop severe anemia due to defects in KLF1 activity during BM erythropoiesis. Although, KLF1 activity is indispensable for erythropoiesis, the molecular details of Klf1 expression have not yet been elucidated. Here we show that an enhanced NFATc1 activity induced by increased integrin-cAMP signaling plays a critical role in the dysregulation of Klf1 expression and thereby cause anemia in Il2-/- mice. Interestingly, enhanced NFATc1 activity augmented apoptosis of immature erythrocytes in Il2-/- mice. On the other hand, ablation of NFATc1 activity enhanced differentiation of Ter119+ cells in BM. Restoring IL-2 signaling in Il2-/- mice reversed the increase in cAMP-NFAT signaling and facilitated normal erythropoiesis. Altogether, our study identified an NFAT-mediated negative signaling axis, manipulation of which could facilitate erythropoiesis and prevent anemia development

Drug discovery for Diamond-Blackfan anemia using reprogrammed hematopoietic progenitors

Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital disorder characterized by the failure of erythroid progenitor differentiation, severely curtailing red blood cell production. Because many DBA patients fail to respond to corticosteroid therapy, there is considerable need for therapeutics for this disorder. Identifying therapeutics for DBA requires circumventing the paucity of primary patient blood stem and progenitor cells. To this end, we adopted a reprogramming strategy to generate expandable hematopoietic progenitor cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from DBA patients. Reprogrammed DBA progenitors recapitulate defects in erythroid differentiation, which were rescued by gene complementation. Unbiased chemical screens identified SMER28, a small-molecule inducer of autophagy, which enhanced erythropoiesis in a range of in vitro and in vivo models of DBA. SMER28 acted through autophagy factor ATG5 to stimulate erythropoiesis and up-regulate expression of globin genes. These findings present an unbiased drug screen for hematological disease using iPSCs and identify autophagy as a therapeutic pathway in DBA.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant R24-DK092760)National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant R24-DK49216)National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant U54DK110805)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant UO1-HL100001)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant U01HL134812)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant R01HL04880)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R24OD017870-01

Empirical Models of Manufacturer-Retailer Interaction: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

The nature of the interaction between manufacturers and retailers has received a great deal of empirical attention in the last 15 years. One major line of empirical research examines the balance of power between them and ranges from reduced form models quantifying aggregate profit and other related trends for manufacturers and retailers to structural models that test alternative forms of manufacturer-retailer pricing interaction. A second line of research addresses the sources of leverage for each party, e.g., trade promotions and their pass-through, customer information from loyalty programs, manufacturer advertising, productassortment in general, and private label assortment in particular. The purpose of this article is to synthesize what has been learnt about the nature of the interaction between manufacturers and retailers and the effectiveness of each party’s sources of leverage and to highlight gaps in our knowledge that future research should attempt to fill