What is a Price?

 In the narrowest sense, price is the amount of money

charged for a product or a service.
 More broadly, price is the sum of all the values that
customers give up to gain the benefits of having or using
a product or service.
 Price is the only element in the marketing mix that
produces revenue; all other elements represent costs.
Major Pricing Strategies
 The price the company charges will fall
somewhere between one that is too low to
produce a profit and one that is too high to
produce any demand.
Customer Value-Based Pricing
 Customer value-based pricing uses buyers’ perceptions
of value as the key to pricing.
 The company first assesses customer needs and value
perceptions.
 It then sets its target price based on customer perceptions
of value.
 The targeted value and price drive decisions about what
costs can be incurred and the resulting product design.
Good-Value Pricing
 In response, many companies have changed their pricing
Everyday low
approaches to pricing (EDLP)
bring them in line with changing economic
conditions and consumer price perceptions.
EDLP and
 More involves
more,charging a constant,
marketers everydaygood-value
have adopted low price with few
or no temporary price discounts.
pricing strategies ─ offering the right combination of
quality and good service at a fair price.

High-Low Pricing

It involves charging higher prices on an everyday basis but

running frequent promotions to lower price temporarily on
selected items.
Value-Added Pricing
 Many companies adopt value-added pricing
strategies.
 Rather than cutting prices to match competitors,
they attach value-added features and services to
differentiate their offers and thus support their
higher prices.
Cost-Based Pricing
 Cost-Based pricing involves setting prices based
on the costs of producing, distributing, and
selling the product plus a fair rate of return for its
effort and risk.
 A company’s costs may be an important element
in its pricing strategy.
Types of Costs
The sum of the fixed and
variable costs for any
given level of production.
Costs that do not vary
with production or sales
level.

Fixed
costs Variable Total costs
(over- costs
head)

Costs that vary directly with

the level of production.
Cost-Plus Pricing
To illustrate markup pricing, suppose a toaster manufacturer
Markup pricing remains popular for many reasons.
 The simplest pricing method is cost-plus pricing (or
had the following costs and expected sales:
markup pricing) ─ adding a standard markup to the cost
of the product.Variable cost $10
Fixed costs $300,000
Sellers
Expected unit are more 50,000
sales certain
about costs than about
Then the manufacturer’s demand.
cost per toaster is given by the following:
unit cost = $10

Now suppose the manufacturer

Many people feel that wants to firms
When all earn ina 20
the percent
Markup on sales. The
cost-plus manufacturer’s
pricing is markup
industry useprice is given by the
this pricing
following: fairer to both buyers and method, prices tend to be
sellers. similar, so price
markup price = $20
competition is minimized.
Break-Even Analysis and Target Profit
Pricing
 Break-even pricing (target return) sets price to break
Theeven
totalon the costs
revenue and of making
total and marketing
cost curves a product,
cross at 30,000 or is the
units. This
setting price
break-even to make
volume. a target
At $20, return.must sell at least 30,000
the company
units
 to break
Target even,
return that is,uses
pricing for total revenue of
the concept to cover total cost. Break-
a break-even
even volume can be calculated using the following formula:
chart, which shows the total cost and total revenue
expected at different sales volume levels.
= = 30,000
Competition-Based Pricing
 Competition-based pricing involves setting
prices based on competitors’ strategies, costs,
prices, and market offerings.
 Consumers will base their judgments of a
product’s value on the prices that competitors
charge for similar products.
Other Internal and External
Considerations Affecting Price Decisions
 Internal factors affecting pricing include the
company’s overall marketing strategy, objectives,
and marketing mix, as well as other
organizational considerations.
 External factors include the nature of the market
and demand and other environmental factors.
Overall Marketing Strategy, Objectives,
and Mix
 Price is only one element of the company’s broader
marketing strategy.
 So, before setting price, the company must decide on its
overall marketing strategy for the product or service.
 Pricing may play an important role in helping to
accomplish company objectives at many levels.
 Target costing is the pricing that starts with an ideal
selling price, then targets costs that will ensure that the
price is met.
Organizational Considerations
 Top management sets the pricing objectives and policies,
and it often approves the prices proposed by lower level
management or salespeople.
 In industries in which pricing is a key factor, companies
often have pricing departments to set the best prices or
help others set them.
 These departments report to the marketing department or
top management.
 Others who have an influence on pricing include sales
managers, production managers, finance managers, and
accountants.
The Market and Demand
 In this section, we take a deeper look at the price-
demand relationship and how it caries for
different types of markets.
 We then discuss methods for analyzing the price-
demand relationship.
Pricing in Different Types of Markets
 Economists recognize
PureOligopolistic
Competition four
Competition
Four types
Monopolistic
types of of Competition
market markets, each
•presenting
It consists
• The ofamarket
different
many • pricing
consists of onlychallenge.
It consists of many buyers and
buyers and sellers
a few largetrading
sellers.sellers who trade over a range of
in a uniform commodity,
• Because there are prices
few rather
Purethan a single market
Monopoly
such
Pureas wheat,
sellers,copper, or price.
each seller •is alert
The market is dominated by
financialand
monopoly securities.
responsive•to A range of prices occurs because
one seller.
• No singlecompetitors’
buyer or seller
pricing
sellers
• Thecan differentiate
seller may be a their offers
Pure
has muchstrategies
effect onand
the marketing
to buyers. competition
government monopoly, a
going market
moves.price.
Oligopolistic • Sellers try regulated
to developmonopoly,
private
Monopolistic for different
differentiated
competition or a privateoffers
unregulated
competition
customer segments and, in
monopoly.
addition to price, freely use
branding, advertising, and personal
selling to set their offers apart.
Analyzing the Price-Demand Relationship
 Demand curve is a curve that shows the number
of units the market will buy in a given time
period, at different prices that might be charged.
Price Elasticity of Demand
 Price Elasticity is a measure of the sensitivity of
demand to changes in price.
 It is given by the following formula:
% change  in  quantity  demanded
price   elasticity  of  demand  = 
% change  in  price
• If demand is elastic rather than inelastic, sellers will
consider lowering their prices.
• A lower price will produce more total revenue.
• Marketers need to work harder than ever to differentiate
their offerings when a dozen competitors are selling
virtually the same product at a comparable or lower price.
The Economy
 Economic conditions can have a strong impact on the
firm’s pricing strategies.
 Economic factors such as a boom or recession, inflation,
and interest rates affect pricing decisions because they
affect consumer spending, consumer perceptions of the
product’s price and value, and the company’s costs of
producing and selling a product.
Other External Factors
 Resellers react to various prices
 Government
 Social Concerns