Pricing Strategies Pricing Strategies Additional Considerations Chapter 11 Priciples of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong PEARSON.

Pricing StrategiesAdditional Considerations

Chapter 11

Priciples of Marketingby Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong

PEARSON

1

New-Product Pricing StrategiesDescribe the major strategies for pricing new products.

2

Product Mix Pricing StrategiesExplain how companies find a set of prices that maximizes the profits from the total product mix.

Objective Outline

3Price-Adjustment Strategies

Discuss how companies adjust their prices to take into account different types of customers and situations.

4

Price ChangesDiscuss the key issues related to initiating and responding to price changes.

Objective Outline

5

Public Policy and Marketing Overview the social and legal issues that affect pricing decisions.

Objective Outline

New-Product Pricing Strategies

Pricing strategies usually change as the product passes through its life cycle.

The introductory stage is especially challenging.

Companies bringing out a new product face the challenge of setting prices for the first time.

They can choose between two broad strategies: market-skimming pricing and market-penetration pricing.

Market-Skimming Pricing

Market-skimming pricing (or price skimming) set a high price for a new product to skim maximum revenues layer by layer from the segments willing to pay the high price; the company makes fewer but more profitable sales.

Market-Penetration Pricing

Market-penetration pricing sets a low price for a new product in order to attract a large number of buyers and a large market share.

Product Mix Pricing Strategies

The strategy for setting a product’s price often has to be changed when the product is part of a product mix.

In this case, the firm looks for a set of prices that maximizes its profits on the total product mix.

Pricing is difficult because the various products have related demand and costs and face different degrees of competition.

Product Line Pricing

Product line pricing sets the price steps between various products in a product line based on cost differences between the products, customer evaluations of different features, and competitors’ prices.

In product line pricing, management must determine the price steps to set between the various products in a line.

The price steps should take into account cost differences between products in the line.

More importantly, they should account for differences in customer perceptions of the value of different features.

Optional Product Pricing

Many companies use optional product pricing ─ offering to sell optional or accessory products along with the main product.

And when you order a new computer, you can select from a bewildering array of processors, hard drives, docking systems, software options, and service plans.

Captive Product Pricing

Captive-product pricing sets a price for products that must be used along with a main product, such as blades for razor and games for a video-games console.

By-Product Pricing

Using by-product pricing, the company seeks a market for these by-products to help offset the costs of disposing of them and help make the price of the main product more competitive.

The by-products themselves can even turn to be profitable ─ turning trash into cash.

Product Bundle Pricing

Using product bundle pricing, sellers often several products and offer the bundle at a reduced price.

Price Adjustment Strategies

Companies usually adjust their basic prices to account for various customer differences and changing situations.

Discount and Allowance Pricing

Discount is a straight reduction in price on purchases during a stated period of time or in larger quantities.

Discount has many forms.

A price reduction to buyers who pay their bills promptly.A price reduction to buyers who pay their bills promptly.

Cash Discount

A price reduction to buyers who buy large volumes.A price reduction to buyers who buy large volumes.

Quantity Discount

A sellers offers a discount to trade-channel members who performcertain functions, such as selling,storing, and record keeping.

A sellers offers a discount to trade-channel members who performcertain functions, such as selling,storing, and record keeping.

Functional Discount(Trade Discount)

A price reduction to buyers who buy merchandise or services outof season.

A price reduction to buyers who buy merchandise or services outof season.

Seasonal Discount

Discount and Allowance Pricing

Allowance is promotional money paid by manufacturers to retailers in return for an agreement to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way.

It has two types.

• A price reduction given for turning in an old item when buying a new one.• It’s most common in the automobile industry but are also given for other durable goods.

• A price reduction given for turning in an old item when buying a new one.• It’s most common in the automobile industry but are also given for other durable goods.

Trade-in allowance

It’s the payments or price reductions thatreward dealers for participating inadvertising and sales support programs.

It’s the payments or price reductions thatreward dealers for participating inadvertising and sales support programs.

Promotional allowance

Segmented Pricing

In segmented pricing, the company sells a product or service at two or more prices, even though the difference in prices is not based on differences in costs.

It takes several forms.

Different customers pay different prices for the same product or service.Different customers pay different prices for the same product or service.

Customer-segment pricingCustomer-segment pricing

Different versions of the product are priced differently but not according to differences in their costs.Different versions of the product are priced differently but not according to differences in their costs.

Product-form pricingProduct-form pricing

A firm varies its price by the season, the month, the day, andeven the hour.A firm varies its price by the season, the month, the day, andeven the hour.

Time pricingTime pricing

A company charges different prices for different locations, even though the cost of offering each location is the same.A company charges different prices for different locations, even though the cost of offering each location is the same.

Location pricingLocation pricing

Psychological Pricing

In using psychological pricing, sellers consider the psychology of prices, not simply the economics.

Another aspect of psychological pricing is reference prices ─ prices that buyers carry in their minds and refer to when looking at a given product.

The reference price might be formed by noting current prices, remembering past prices, or assessing the buying situation.

Promotional Pricing

• With promotional pricing, companies will temporarily price their products below list price ─ and sometimes even below cost ─ to create buying excitement and urgency.

• Promotional pricing takes several forms.• A seller may simply offer discounts from normal prices to

increase sales and reduce inventories.• Sellers also use special-event pricing in certain seasons to draw

more customers.

• Manufacturers sometimes offer cash rebates to consumers who buy the product from dealers within a specified time; the manufacturer sends the rebate directly to the customer.

• Some manufacturers offer low-interest financing, longer warranties, or free maintenance to reduce the consumer’s “price.”

Geographical Pricing

Geographical pricing sets prices for customers located in different parts of the country or world.

We will look at five geographical pricing strategies for the following hypothetical situation.

FOB-originpricing

Uniform-deliveredpricing

Zonepricing

Basing-point

pricing

Freight-absorption

pricing

This practice means that the goods are placed free on board a carrier.

At that point the title and responsibility pass to the customer, who pays the freight from the factory to the destination.

It’s the opposite of FOB pricing. Here, the company charges the same price plus

freight to all customers, regardless of their location. The freight charge is set at the average freight cost.

It falls between FOB-origin pricing and uniform-delivered pricing.

The company sets up two or more zones.

All customers within a given zone pay a single total price; the more distant the zone, the higher the price.

Using basing-point pricing, the seller selects a given city as a “basing point” and charges all customers the freight cost from that city to the customer location, regardless of the city from which the goods are actually shipped.

Using this strategy, the seller absorbs all or part of the actual freight charges to get the desired business.

The seller might reason that if it can get more business, its average costs will decrease and more than compensate for its extra freight cost.

Dynamic and Internet Pricing

They are using dynamic pricing ─ adjusting prices continually to meet the characteristics and needs of individual customers and situations.

For example, Amazon.com can mine their databases to gauge a specific shopper’s behavior, and price products accordingly.

International Pricing

Companies that market their products internationally must decide what prices to charge in different countries.

The price that a company should charge in a specific country depends on many factors, including economic conditions, competitive situations, laws and regulations, and the nature of the wholesaling and retailing system.

Price Changes

After developing their pricing structures and strategies, companies often face situations in which they must initiate price changes or respond to price changes by competitors.

Initiating Price Changes

In some cases, the company may find it desirable to initiate either a price cut or a price increase.

In both cases, it must anticipate possible buyer and competitor reactions.

Initiating Price Cuts

Several situations may lead a firm to consider cutting its price.

One such circumstance is excess capacity.

Another is falling demand in the face of strong price competition or a weakened economy.

Initiating Price Increases

A successful price increase can greatly improve profits.

There are two factors that influences price increases.

• A major factor in price increases is cost inflation.• Rising costs squeeze profit margins and lead companies to pass

cost increases along to customers.

Reason 1

• Another factor leading to price increases is over-demand.• When a company cannot supply all that its customers need, it may

raise its prices, ration products to customers, or both.• Consider today’s worldwide oil and gas industry.

Reason 2

Buyer Reactions to Price Changes

A price increase, which would normally lower sales, may have some positive meanings for buyers.

A brand’s price and image are often closely linked.

A price change, especially a drop in price, can adversely affect how consumers view the brand.

Competitor Reactions to Price Changes

The competitor can interpret a company price cut in many ways.

• It might think the company is trying to grab a larger market share or that it’s doing poorly and trying to boost its sales.• Or it might think that the company wants the whole

industry to cut prices to increase total demand.

Responding to Price Changes

Responding to Price Changes

If the company decides that effective action can and should be taken, it might make any of four responses.

Company could reduce its price to match the competitor’s price.

First

Company might maintain its price but raise the perceived value of its offer.

Second

Company might improve quality and increase price, moving its brand into a higher price-value position.

Third

Company might launch a low-price “fighter brand” ─ adding a lower-price item to the line or creating a separate lower-price brand.

Fourth

Public Policy and Pricing

Pricing within Channel Levels

Price-fixing states that sellers must set prices without talking to competitors.

Sellers are also prohibited from using predatory pricing ─ selling below cost with the intention of punishing a competitor or gaining higher long-run profits by putting competitors out of business.

Pricing across Channel Levels

Robinson-Patman Act seeks to prevents unfair price discrimination by ensuring that sellers offer the same price terms to customers at a given level of trade.

Price discrimination is allowed:• If the seller can prove that costs differ when selling

to different retailers• If the seller manufactures different qualities of the

same product for different retailers

Pricing across Channel Levels

Laws also prohibit retail (or resale) price maintenance ─ a manufacturer cannot require dealers to charge a specified retail price for its product.

Deceptive pricing occurs when a seller states prices or price savings that mislead consumers or are not actually available to consumers.

The End