PRICE – The amt of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service.
“One can define price as that which people have to forego in order to acquire a product or service.” What does a buyer think? To a buyer, price is the value placed on what is exchanged. Something of value – usually purchasing power – is exchanged for satisfaction or utility. Purchasing power depends on a buyer’s income, credit, and wealth.
Buyers’ concern about price is related to their expectations about the satisfaction or utility associated with a product. Buyers must decide whether the utility gained in an exchange is worth the purchasing power sacrificed. Different terms can be used to describe price for different forms of exchange, (rent, premium, toll, retainer, fee, interest, etc.).
Historically, price has been the major factor affecting buyer choice. This is still true in poorer nations, among poorer groups and with commodity products. However, non-price factors have become more important in buyer-choice behavior in recent decades.
Price is also one of the most flexible elements of the marketing mix. Do you agree ? Unlike product features and channel commitments, price can be changed very quickly. At the same time, pricing and price competition is the number-one problem facing many marketers.
SETTING THE PRICE – Let us now attempt to understand the process of how firms set prices. When does a firm set prices? A firm must set a price for the first time when it develops a new product, when it introduces its regular product into a new distribution channel or geographical area, and when it enter bids on new contract work. Is Setting prices easy ?. It involves