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市场营销价格策略外文翻译文献

市场营销价格策略外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)DESIGNING PRICING STRATEGIESAll for-profit organizations and many nonprofit organizations set prices on their goods or services. Whether the price is called rent (for an apartment), tuition (for education), fare (for travel), or interest (for borrowed money), the concept is the same. Throughout most of history, prices were set by negotiation between buyers and sellers.Setting one price for all buyers arose with the development of large-scale retailing at the en d of the nineteenth century, when Woolworth’s and other stores followed a “strictly one-price policy” because they carried so many items and had so many employees.Now, 100 years later, technology is taking us back to an era of negotiated pricing. The Internet, corporate networks, and wireless setups are linking people, machines, andcompanies around the globe, connecting sellers and buyers as never before. Web sites like and allow buyers to compare products and prices quickly and easily. On-line auction sites like and make it easy forbuyers and sellers to negotiate prices on thousands of items. At the same time, new tech-nologies are allowing sellers to collect detailed data about customers’ buying habits, preferences—even spending limits—so they can tailor their products and prices.1In the entire marketing mix, price is the one element that produces revenue; the others produce costs. Price is also one of the most flexible elements: It can be changed quickly, unlike product features and channel commitments. Although price competi- tion is a major problem facing companies, many do not handle pricing well. The most common mistakes are these: Pricing is too cost-oriented; price is not revised oftenenough to capitalize on market changes; price is set independent of the rest of the marketing mix rather than as an intrinsic element of market-positioning strategy; and price is not varied enough for different product items, market segments, and purchase occasions.215Designing PricingStrategies andProgramsWe will address the following questions:■ How should a company price a new good or service?■ How should the price be adapted to meet varying circumstances and opportunities?■ When should the company initiate a p rice change, and how should it respond to competitive price changes?224 CHAPTER 12 DESIGNING PRICING STRATEGIES AND PROGRAMS Value PricingValue pricing is a method in which the company charges a fairly low price for a high- quality offering. Value pricing says that the price should represent a high-value offer toconsumers. This is a major trend in the computer industry, which has shifted from charging top dollar for cutting-edge computers to offering basic computers at lower prices. For instance, Monorail Computer started selling PCs in 1996 for as little as $999to woo price-sensitive buyers. Compaq and others quickly followed suit. More recently,eMachines began selling its PCs for less than $500 without a monitor, targeting the 55 percent of computerless households with annual incomes of $25,000 to $30,000.13Value pricing is not a matter of simply setting lower prices on one’s products compared to those of competitors. It is a matter of reengineering the company’s oper- ations to become a low-cost pro ducer without sacrificing quality, and lowering pricessignificantly to attract a large number of value-conscious customers. An important typeof value pricing is everyday low pricing (EDLP), which takes place at the retail level. Retailers such as Wal-Mart and use EDLP pricing, posting a constant, everyday low price with few or no temporary price discounts. These constant prices eliminate week-to-week price uncertainty and can be contrasted to the “high-low” pric-ing of promotion-oriented competitors. In high-low pricing, the retailer charges higher prices on an everyday basis but then runs frequent promotions in which prices are temporarily lowered below the EDLP level.14Retailers adopt EDLP for a number of reasons, the most important of which isthat constant sales and promotions are costly and erode consumer confidence in the credibility of everyday prices. Consumers also have less time and patience for such time-honored traditions as watching for specials and clipping coupons. Yet promo- tions are an excellent way to create excitement and draw shoppers. For this reason, EDLP is not a guarantee of success. As supermarkets face heightened competition from store rivals and alternative channels, many are drawing shoppers using a combi- nation of high-low and EDLP strategies, with increased advertising and promotions.15Going-Rate PricingIn going-rate pricing, the firm bases its price largely on competitors’ prices. The firm might charge the same, more, or less than its major competitor(s) charges. In oligop- olistic industries that sell a commodity such as steel, paper, or fertilizer, firms normallycharge the same price. The smaller firms “follow the leader,” changing their prices when the market leader’s prices change rather than when their own dema nd or costs change. Some firms may charge a slight premium or slight discount, but they typically preserve the amount of difference. When costs are difficult to measure or competitive response is uncertain, firms feel that the going price represents a good so lution, sinceit seems to reflect the industry’s collective wisdom as to the price that will yield a fair return and not jeopardize industrial harmony.Sealed-Bid PricingCompetitive-oriented pricing is common when firms submit sealed bids for jobs. In biddi ng, each firm bases its price on expectations of how competitors will price rather than on a rigid relationship to the firm’s own costs or demand. Sealed-bid pricing involves two opposite pulls. The firm wants to win the contract—which means submit-ting the lowest price—yet it cannot set its price below cost.To solve this dilemma, the company would estimate the profit and the probabil-ity of winning with each price bid. By multiplying the profit by the probability of win- ning the bid on the basis of that pr ice, the company can calculate the expected profit for each bid. For a firm that makes many bids, this method is a way of playing the oddsSetting the Price 225to achieve maximum profits in the long run. However, firms that bid only occasionally or that badly want to win certain contracts will not find it advantageous to use the expected-profit criterion.Step 6: Selecting the Final PriceThe previous pricing methods narrow the range from which the company selects its final price. In selecting that price, the company must consider additional factors: psy- chological pricing, the influence of other marketing-mix elements on price, company pricing policies, and the impact of price on other parties.Psychological PricingMany consumers use price as an indicator of quality. Image pricing is especially effec-tive with ego-sensitive products such as perfumes and expensive cars. A $100 bottle ofperfume might contain $10 worth of scent, but gift givers pay $100 to communicate their high regard for the receiver. Similarly, price and quality perceptions of cars inter- act:16 Higher-priced cars are perceived to possess high quality; higher-quality cars are likewise perceived to be higher priced than they actually are. In general, when infor- mation about true quality is unavailable, price acts as a signal of quality.When looking at a particular product, buyers carry in their minds a reference price formed by noticing current prices, past prices, or the buying context. Sellers often manipulate these reference prices. For example, a seller can situate its product among expensive products to imply that it belongs in the same class. Reference-price thinkingis also created by stating a high manufacturer’s suggested price, by indicating that the product was priced much higher ori ginally, or by pointing to a rival’s high price.17Often sellers set prices that end in an odd number, believing that customers whosee a television priced at $299 instead of $300 will perceive the price as being in the $200 range rather than the $300 range. Another explanation is that odd endings con- vey the notion of a discount or bargain, which is why both and set prices ending in 99. But if a company wants a high-price image instead of a low- price image, it should avoid the odd-ending tactic.The Influence of Other Marketing-Mix ElementsThe final price must take into account the brand’s quality and advertising relative to competition. When Farris and Reibstein examined the relationships among relative price, relative quality, and relative advertising for 227 consumer businesses, they foundthat brands with average relative quality but high relative advertising budgets were able to charge premium prices. Consumers apparently were willing to pay higher prices for known products than for unknown products. They also found that brands with high relative quality and high relative advertising obtained the highest prices, while brands with low quality and advertising charged the lowest prices. Finally, the positive relationship between high prices and high advertising held most strongly in the later stages of the product life cycle for market leaders.18 Smart marketers there-fore ensure that their prices fit with other marketing-mix elements.定价战略以营利为目的的组织和非营利组织的都对他们的商品或服务制定价格。

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