Pricing Flashcards
Pricing Concepts Pricing Strategies
Price Setting
The determination of a product’s/service’s price
- Prices are instrumental, if not the most important factor in a buyer decision.
- Price perception – Humans are irrational by nature and their preferences (obviously) play a big part in decisions.
- Stated Price & Market Price must be noted
The company can select a price based on:
- Customer’s demand curve
- Cost function
- Competitor’s prices
Price Setting Methods
- Markup pricing
- Target-Return pricing
The Six Step Systematic Approach
- Selecting the Pricing objective
- Determining / Estimating Demand – evaluating the demand of the market and the psycology of consumer.
- Estimating Costs
- Analyzing Competitors Costs, Prices and Offers
- Selecting a Pricing Method
- Selecting the Final Price
Situations for Price Setting
- Survival
- Maximizing Current Profits
- Maximum Market Share
- Maximum Market Skimming
- Product-quality correlation
When does price setting occur?
- Product Development Stage – When the company develops a new product
- Introduction – A new market or geographical area, a new distribution channel
- Bid Proposal – When the company enters bids on new contract of work. When giving price quotas
Who sets prices?
Small Businesses: Owners set prices
Large Corporations: Product line managers, as well as top management set prices
“Given the current situation, do I need a higher or lower price? “
Increasing price could lead to higher profits…
VS
Lowering the price could lead to more customers which leads to higher revenues…
Requires knowledge of cost & demand fuctions, which in reality are difficult to estimate…
Reference Price
The price that consumers anticipate paying or consider reasonable to pay for particular good or service
- Consumers have a fairly good knowledge of product price ranges, not specific prices
- When they examine prices – they employ reference prices as a benchmark.
Types of Reference Prices
- Fair / reasonable price
- Average price – (What consumer usually pays, despite reasonability)
- Typical price – (Not sure what is different between average and typical…)
- Last price paid
- Upper-bound price – (Highest price ever paid at some point)
- Lower-bound price – (Lowest price ever paid at some point)
- Competitor prices – (Marketers can take advantage of this)
- Expected future price – (What could be in the future?)
- Usual discounted price – (Sale price can eventually turn into actual price)
Consumer Response to Price Setting
Consumers can be surprised by Reference price (price judgement), which can have a positive or negative response.
Unpleasant surprise (odds of lowering number of consumers increase)
Vs.
Pleasant surprise (odds of Increase number of consumers increase)
Price Manipulation
The attempt or act to change the price of an offering/product/service with the intent to maximize profits
Don’t confuse with market manipulation (Illegal)
Price Setting Situations
Survival
- Based on Market Circumstances
- Overcapacity
- Intense competition
- Changing consumer wants
- Price is lowered significantly, to increase sales enough to keep the business going
- The company accepts short-term losses in order to stay in business in the long term
- This short run objective also aimed to add long run value
Price Setting Situations
Maximizing Current Profits
Set a price to maximize CURRENT profits
- Marketers estimate the demand/costs for alternative prices and must choose prices that:
- Maximize current profit, cash flow and Rate of return on investment (ROI)
- Risking long term performance, Ignoring other marketing variables (Scarifying customer relationships,Legal restraints on price and Competitors reactions)
High Price:
- Inelastic demand – consumers willing to pay higher prices for product
- Few/no alternatives (customer clock-in)
Low Price
- Stronger customers (bargaining power)
- Low switching costs
Price Setting Situations
Maximum Market Share
% of the brand sales of the overall category sale
- Marketers set the lowest price possible
- Assumption: the market is price sensitive
- A market-penetration pricing strategy
Supporting conditions
- A highly price sensitive market and a low price stimulated market growth
- Production and distribution costs fall with accumulated production experience
- A fixed cost structure
- A low price discourages competition – both actual and potential.
Price Setting Goals
Maximum Market Skimming
“Skimming the cream” off the top of the market
-
Price Skimming
- A firm charges the highest possible product price at first
- Demand of the first segment of customers is satisfied
- Lower price over time -> attracts more price sensitive segment.
-
Helps recover initial costs quickly before:
- Competition lowers market price
- Shrinks the company’s margins
Examples: Iphones, bluetooth headphones
Price Setting Situations
Product-quality leadership (Correlation)
“Affordable Luxuries”
- High perceived quality, taste and status
- A price just high enough not to be out of reach
Examples: Companies such as Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Hilton, BMW….