Strategic Pricing Methods
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gre29007_ch15_452-479.indd Page 453 10/11/12 4:27 PM user-t044 /Volumes/202/MH01856/gre29007/disk1of1/0078029007 CHAPTER 15 Strategic Pricing Methods eeply discounted products or services cause find appealing but have been unwilling to try, whether retailers to lose money. However, if these pro- because they appear frivolous (e.g., spa services) or motions accomplish other because of cost (e.g., hot air balloon strategic goals, such as rides). D LEARNING OBJECTIVES bringing in new customers, they can Although Groupon searches for be tremendously valuable. Success de- deals with companies that demand LO1 Identify three meth- pends on reaching a wide audience of few fine-print restrictions, the site at- ods that firms use to interested consumers with a deal that set their prices. taches its own strings to discounts: A can’t be ignored. Finding the model minimum number of people must sign LO2 Describe the differ- that delivers this one-two punch is the ence between an up before the promotion takes effect. genius behind Groupon.com. everyday low price This caveat motivates users to Every day, Groupon alerts its us- strategy (EDLP) and spread the word, mostly through so- ers to several “featured deals.”1 The a high/low strategy. cial networking sites. Without a mini- discounts are organized according to LO3 Explain the difference mum number of buyers, the discount the major U.S. cities that Groupon between a price does not apply, and no one receives skimming and a serves, offered to site users who live market penetration the deal. in or near those markets. A woman liv- pricing strategy. So far though, maximums have ing in New York, for example, receives been more of an issue than minimums. LO4 Identify tactics used offers for discounts to nail salons to reduce prices to The Chicago Art Institute promotion nearby. Economically, the deals are at- consumers. added 5,000 new members, an im- 2 tractive: $10 worth of pizza for $5, a LO5 Identify tactics used pressive addition to the 85,000 mem- 64 percent discount on a membership to reduce prices to bers the museum had accumulated in to the Chicago Art Institute, or nearly businesses. the previous 100 years. The owner of half off interactive cooking classes LO6 List pricing practices the pizza chain offering 50 percent off that culminate with a four-course that have the coupons had 9,000 responses. gourmet meal. 3 They often revolve potential to deceive Business owners, Groupon warns, customers. around social events, like classes or need to be ready for this kind of inter- dining out, and encourage access to est. Some small businesses cap their goods or services that customers may offers to avoid overwhelming staff or CHAPTER 15 453 gre29007_ch15_452-479.indd Page 454 10/11/12 4:27 PM user-t044 /Volumes/202/MH01856/gre29007/disk1of1/0078029007 454 Section Five Value Capture frustrating customers who may have to wait months for Goods,” it makes clear that the offers are first come, first an appointment. served. Groupon itself faces an avalanche of interest from At a time when retailers are investing their marketing site users and businesses. A still struggling economy cre- dollars with great care, Groupon’s payment structure en- ates appeal among users, which has triggered growth courages businesses to sign on. If the promotion is suc- rates of up to 25 percent in just one month. Groupon has cessful, Groupon takes a share of the profits. If it’s sold more than 22 million deals to its approximately 50 unsuccessful, neither Groupon nor the company makes million subscribers, 4 and most of these users are young money. But even if actual redemption rates are high, professionals in their 20s and 30s, a highly desirable tar- many firms question whether Groupon promotions suffi- get market. ciently generate long-term customers.5 Many may try the Businesses see Groupon as a cost-effective way to promotion once, and never come back. Worse yet, if the bring in new customers; 120 were lined up for promo- promotion is too successful, and the firm is unable to ad- tions in Chicago, where Groupon launched in 2008, and equately satisfy demand, customers will become disgrun- Groupon has expanded to other cities. Investors are also tled, never to return again, and potentially spread negative excited about Groupon’s business model because it reviews to their friends and in social media. doesn’t involve inventory or shipping (users print The future of the daily deal is unknown. Analysts be- Groupon’s coupon and bring it to the vendor). Finally, be- lieve that Groupon and other daily deals will be absorbed cause most offers are intangibles, such as services or by larger online entities, and that companies like Amazon, classes instead of products or goods, Groupon rarely Google, and Facebook will have a daily deal as part of faces the problems with stock-outs that other group buy- their marketing strategy. Few daily deals are expected to ing sites suffer. Even as it has expanded into “Groupon survive as independent businesses. Coming up with the “right” price is never easy, as the opening example shows. How might this new option for finding deals cause shifts overall—both in what consumers are willing to pay and in what manufacturers can charge? What kinds of effects might Groupon have on future sales of products and services that cus- tomers first find on this deal site? What other members of the market might such price changes affect? To answer such questions, we examine various pricing strat- egies in this chapter. Chapter 14 was devoted to examining what “price” is, why it is important, how marketers set pricing objectives, and the factors that influence prices. In this chapter, we extend that foundation by focusing on specific considerations for set- ting pricing strategies and then discuss a number of pricing strategies. We also examine the implications of various pricing tactics for both consumers and busi- nesses, as well as some of the more important legal and ethical issues associated with pricing. LO1 Identify three methods CONSIDERATIONS FOR SETTING that firms use to set their prices. PRICE STRATEGIES Firms embrace different objectives, face different market conditions, and operate in different manners. Thus, they employ unique pricing strategies that seem best for the particular set of circumstances in which they find themselves. Even a single firm needs different strategies across its products and services and over gre29007_ch15_452-479.indd Page 455 10/11/12 4:28 PM user-t044 /Volumes/202/MH01856/gre29007/disk1of1/0078029007 Strategic Pricing Methods Chapter Fifteen 455 EXHIBIT 15.1 Pricing Strategies Value-Valu basebabased pricingii ComCompetitor- based pricing CoCost-baseds pricing time as market conditions change. The choice of a pricing strategy thus is spe- cific to the product/service and target market. Although firms tend to rely on similar strategies when they can, each product or service requires its own spe- cific strategy, because no two are ever exactly the same in terms of the marketing mix. Three different methods that can help develop pricing strategies—cost- based, competitor-based, and value-based—are discussed in this section (see Exhibit 15.1). Cost-Based Methods As their name implies, cost-based pricing methods determine the final price to charge by starting with the cost. Relevant costs (e.g., fixed, variable, overhead) and a profit are added. Then this total amount is divided by the total demand to arrive at a cost-plus price. For example, assume the fixed costs to produce an item are $200,000, the variable costs add up to $100,000, and the estimated number of units to be produced is 30,000. Then, (100,000 ϩ 200,000) Ϭ 30,000 ϭ $10 which is the total allocated cost per unit when 30,000 units are produced. If the desired markup is 20 percent, we multiply $10 by 1.20 (i.e., by 100 1 20 5 120 per- cent) to attain the cost-plus price for this item: $12. This sales price represents a cost-plus-percentage markup. Cost-based methods do not recognize the role that consumers or competitors’ prices play in the marketplace though. Although they are relatively simple, com- pared with other methods used to set prices, cost-based pricing requires that all costs be identified and calculated on a per-unit basis. Moreover, the process as- sumes that these costs will not vary much for different levels of production. If they do, the price might need to be raised or lowered according to the production level. Thus, with cost-based pricing, prices are usually set on the basis of estimates of average costs. Competition-Based Methods Recall from Chapter 14 that some firms set prices according to their competitors’ prices. But even if they do not have a strict competitor orientation, most firms still gre29007_ch15_452-479.indd Page 456 10/11/12 4:28 PM user-t044 /Volumes/202/MH01856/gre29007/disk1of1/0078029007 456 Section Five Value Capture know that consumers compare the prices of their products with the different product/price combinations that competitors offer. Thus, using a competition- based pricing method , they may set their prices to reflect the way they want con- sumers to interpret their own prices, relative to competitors’ offerings. For example, setting a price very close to a competitor’s price signals to consumers that the product is similar, whereas setting the price much higher signals greater features, better quality, or some other valued benefit. Value-Based Methods Value-based pricing methods include approaches to setting prices that focus on the overall value of the product offering as perceived by the consumer.