The Pricing Conundrum

The Pricing Conundrum

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Pricing Case Study: The Dark Side of Costco's Pricing Strategy
A combination of self-imposed low margin and an outsized reliance on membership dues can lead to heavy-handedness and detract from the experience of…
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Utpal Dholakia
B2B Pricing Case Study: Cepheid's Tuberculosis Test Pricing Dilemma
A coordinated global effort led by Médecins Sans Frontières to lower the price of a core Cepheid product creates a significant challenge. What should…
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Utpal Dholakia
Tracing the history of left-digit bias research to its origins: Lessons from Ginzberg’s (1936) “Customary Prices”
Two recent field studies have strongly endorsed the use of just-below prices. But Ginzberg's (1936) classic communication reached a very different…
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Utpal Dholakia
Pricing Case Study: The Moonswatch Success Story (plus a Typology of Collabs)
With the growing popularity of asymmetric brand collabs, we explore the logic, economics & business strategy behind the Moonswatch collab.
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Utpal Dholakia
How Managers Made Pricing Decisions in 1939
We take a deep dive into the classic Hall and Hitch (1939) paper, "Price Theory and Business Behaviour" to explore how pricing decisions were made in…
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Utpal Dholakia
Every Price Tells a Story: The Case of Movies-On-Demand Platform Pricing
Like brands, prices can convey subtle information, leverage customers' tacit knowledge, boost the product's image, and facilitate purchase decisions.
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Utpal Dholakia
Pricing Tool: The Value Pricing Framework
The Value Pricing Framework provides managers & entrepreneurs with a comprehensive and versatile approach to approach pricing strategy.
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Utpal Dholakia
Experience Curves, Declining Cost Incrementality & Extreme-Value Pricing Strategies
Incremental costs that are typically lower than average costs will decline even further with unit sales, increasing the potency of extreme-value pricing…
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Utpal Dholakia
Why Shrinkflation Works So Well (and When it Doesn’t)
A framework of consumer response to shrinkflation based on Indifference, Inattention, Ignorance, and Inertia explains the effectiveness of shrinkflation…
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Utpal Dholakia
Pricing Case Study: Burger King's "Tomato Vacation" Approach to Raising Prices
When should the seller publicize the fact they've degraded their product effectively raising prices?
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Utpal Dholakia
An End-of-Year Post Thanking Pricing Conundrum Readers & Supporters
Includes a list of the best eleven posts from 2023
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Utpal Dholakia
Pricing Strategy: Retail Shoppers Can Negotiate the Price of Almost Anything --- What This Means for Managers
As posted prices decline and haggling becomes common, every retailer should consider adopting participative pricing mechanisms and train frontline…
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Utpal Dholakia
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