浅谈市场营销中的定价策略正文学习资料.docx

1、浅谈市场营销中的定价策略正文学习资料 Simple Discussion on Pricing Strategies in Business Marketing1 IntroductionWith more and more companies entering into the competition of marketing and countries becoming more open to each other, consumers are now facing ever more choices when they selecting the things they want to

2、 buy. How can companies stand out in this competitive market world and win the heart of its customers? The only answer to this question is to create more value on the products and services that going to sell to customers and price its products or services as low as possible. Take a glimpse around us

3、 you will see how important the price is to our daily lives. For instance, when people are intending to buy certain things, whether they are luxury items or daily necessities such as clothes, furniture, house, cars, books, everything. Normally, they would visit several places and check the prices. T

4、herefore, there is an old Chinese saying, “When you buy things, you would not be cheated if compare the prices from three stores”. So price plays a very important role in attracting customers to buy the products you offer and the prices have to be set according your companys Marketing Strategy and P

5、roduct Positioning.2 Basic concepts about Pricing Strategies in Business MarketingThe price is a amount of money charged for a product or the value exchanged for the benefits of the product or service. The price normally reflects the relative quality of the product, of course, covers all costs assoc

6、iated with production, marketing, after-sale service. A right pricing strategy will help you acquire the biggest profit. Furthermore, Pricing strategy is one of the four major elements of the marketing mix. It is related to product positioning, affects other marketing mix elements such as product st

7、rategy, channel strategy and sales promotion strategy. 3 Factors that Influence the Prices3.1 Inner Factors that Influence the PricesThere are so many factors existing inside an organization that affect the setting of price and all of them can hardly be overcome, such as pricing target, raw material

8、 cost, production cost, transportation cost, sales cost. Though these factors are unremovable, we can maximize companys profits by reducing the negative impact of these factors, optimizing the use of resources and lowering the relevant costs or finding alternatives.3.1.1 Organization PolicyEvery org

9、anization has its own policies, such as product policy, quality policy, environment policy, enterprise culture, etc. These policies, in the end would affect organizations pricing strategy to some extent. For example, a pump manufacturer promises its customers that if the customer found the pump purc

10、hased from the company has any problems within five years they would replace the parts free of charge for its customers and send the repairmen to the application spot within 72 hours after receiving the call from the customer. This is a good phenomenon and the customer would be very satisfied becaus

11、e of good after-sale services. However, manufacturer, of cause had already added all the costs associated with replaced parts and quick after-sale services to the price of product itself before he promised his customers for the simple reason that the cost for replacing defective parts and cost for s

12、ending his repairmen to customer side could be much more expensive than the total price of pump itself. In other words, It is customer himself who paid for the replaced parts and quick services and the product price of this manufacturer is much higher than other manufacturers or agents due to free p

13、arts and quick services that manufacturer provides.3.1.2 Pricing Target To survive in todays highly competitive marketplace, companies need pricing objectives that are specific, attainable, and measurable. Realistic pricing goals then need periodic monitoring to determine the effectiveness of the co

14、mpanys strategy. Generally speaking, the pricing objectives can be divided into two categories: profit-orientated objectives, sales-oriented objectives. Therefore, profit-oriented pricing objectives include profit maximization, satisfactory profits, and target return on investment. Profit maximizati

15、on means setting price so that total revenue is as large as possible relative to total costs, in other words, trying to make as much money as possible. In reality, profit maximization does not always signify unreasonably high prices because when an organization sets prices, the firm often prices its

16、 products based upon the type of competitive environment it faces, such as being in a monopoly position (being the only seller) or selling in a severely competitive marketplace. Satisfactory profits are a reasonable level of profits. Rather than maximizing profits, many organizations strive for prof

17、its that are satisfactory to the stockholders and management, in other words, a level of profits consistent with the level of risk an organization faces. Typical example of Satisfactory profits is: In some countries including China , in order to maximize profits the shop owner would keep his store o

18、pen for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, however, in some other countries, the shop owner may not want to work that hard and might be satisfied with less profit. The most common profit objective is a target return on investment (ROI), sometimes called the firms return on total assets. ROI measures

19、the overall effectiveness of management in generating profits with its available assets. The higher the firms return on investment, the better off the firm is. Many companies- including GENERAL MOTERS, VOLVE, BOCSH- use target return on investment as their main pricing goal.Return on investment is c

20、alculated as follows:Return on investment= Assuming that in 2004 Johnson Controls had assets of 4.5 million, net profits of 550,000, and target ROI of 10 percent . This was the actual ROI: 550,000 4,500,000 As you can see from the above, the ROI for Johnson Controls exceeds its target, which indicat

21、es that the company prospered in 2004. In practice, a company with target ROI can predetermine its desired level of profitability. The marketing manager can use the standard such as 10 percent or 20 percent to determine whether a particular Pricing and Marketing Strategy is feasible. In addition, ho

22、wever, the manager must weigh the risk of a given strategy even if the return is in the acceptable range.Sales-oriented pricing objective was based either on market share or on dollar or unit sales. Many companies believe that maintaining or increasing market share is an indicator of the effectivene

23、ss of their marketing mix. Large market share indeed often meant higher profits, so many companies would like to do their best to increase their market share by reducing product price and offering better products and services. Although companies who apply sales-oriented pricing objective may earn le

24、ss profits for each product, they can make up the loss of reduced prices by selling more products and services to customers, The more products, services you sell to your customers, the more profits you earn and the bigger market share you occupy.3.1.3 Research and Development CostR&D cost is a big f

25、actor that influences the pricing setting, in modern society, innovation and uniqueness plays a big part in attracting customers to buy the commodities you sell and price setting. The quicker you can innovate a new product and launch the product on to market, the more money you can earn and quicker

26、return you can get. Of cause, the more complicated the product is, the quicker you want to get your products onto the market, the more cost you will have to spend on the research and development of new products, in the end, all of these costs have to be added into the final prices of new product and

27、 the costs have to be born by end customers.3.1.4 Production CostProduction cost is direct cost that the manufacturers and service providers have to pay, including the cost of raw material, machines, equipments, resources, labor, management, building, etc. The production cost is the direct cost and

28、biggest cost that product or service providers have to bear. So the production cost is the biggest factor that affects the setting of price.3.1.5 Sales CostSales costs include making sales planning, hiring sales staff and selecting sales channel, hiring distributors or even setting a sales office ab

29、road, etc. The sales processes can be very complicated and expensive. In order to lower the cost as much as possible and win bigger profits, to select right sales channel and sales staff are very important. 3.2 External Factors that Influence the Prices3.2.1 Government PolicyGovernment policy has bi

30、g impact on price setting, even affect the sales of the products. For instance, if government increases taxes or customs tariffs on certain commodities, or put a constraint on certain products, the sales and prices of the commodities would be greatly affected. Although in modern world, the countries

31、 are becoming more open to each other, the rate discriminations and unfairness are still existing, government policy changes frequently in some countries. So when an organization is planning to export their commodities to other country, or import the products from overseas, it is very important to m

32、ake sure the situation of the country that the firm is going to deal with is stable, such as the political stability, government policy and economic status. For example, a firm signed a sales contract with a small country and delivered all the commodities that contract requires to the cooperated cou

33、ntry, during the transportation period, there is a war broke out in that cooperated country, so it is almost impossible for the firm to get the money back or it has to spend much more efforts and costs to get the money back.3.2.2 Market ConditionsWhen setting price it is extremely important to investigate market co