Question

For most consumers, maximizing utility through consumption generally means finding good deals in order to maximize the utility received for each dollar spent. However, some makers of luxury goods believe that their customers actually achieve utility by paying high prices, such that lowering prices may lead to reduced sales. How is this counterintuitive view rationalized in our analysis of consumer behavior and the utility-maximizing rule?

Answer 1

Ans.

WHAT IS PRICING:

Price is the value that is put to a product or service and is the result of a complex set of calculations, research and understanding and risk taking ability. A pricing strategy takes into account segments, ability to pay, market conditions, competitor actions, trade margins and input costs, amongst others. It is targeted at the defined customers and against competitors.

Pricing MODULE:

We offer an econometric framework that models consumer's consideration set formation as an outcome of her costly information search behavior. Because frequently purchased products are characterized by frequent price promotions of varying depths of discounts, a consumer faces significant uncertainty about the prices of the brands. The consumers engage in a fixed-sample search strategy that results in their discovering the posted prices of a subset of the available brands. This subset is referred to as the consumer's "consideration set." The proposed model is estimated using the scanner data set for liquid detergents. Our key empirical results are: (i) consumers zincur significant search costs to discover the posted prices of the brands; (ii) whereas in-store displays and feature ads do not influence consumers' quality perceptions of the brands, they significantly reduce search costs for observing the prices of the brands; (iii) per capita income of consumer's household significantly increases her search costs; and (iv) the consumers' price sensitivity is seriously underestimated if we were to assume that consumers get to know all the posted prices at zero cost. The proposed model is also estimated for the ketchup category to enable us to do cross-category comparisons of consumers' price search behavior.

"Some makers of luxury goods believe that their customers actually achieve utility by paying high prices, such that lowering prices may lead to reduced sales" == This Statement is also soo true,, answer as follow::

These are the four basic strategies, variations of which are used in the industry.::

Premium pricing: high price is used as a defining criterion. Such pricing strategies work in segments and industries where a strong competitive advantage exists for the company. Example: Porche in cars and Gillette in blades.

Penetration pricing: price is set artificially low to gain market share quickly. This is done when a new product is being launched. It is understood that prices will be raised once the promotion period is over and market share objectives are achieved. Example: Mobile phone rates in India; housing loans etc.

Economy pricing: no-frills price. Margins are wafer thin; overheads like marketing and advertising costs are very low. Targets the mass market and high market share. Example: Friendly wash detergents; Nirma; local tea producers.

Skimming strategy: high price is charged for a product till such time as competitors allow after which prices can be dropped. The idea is to recover maximum money before the product or segment attracts more competitors who will lower profits for all concerned. Example: the earliest prices for mobile phones, VCRs and other electronic items where a few players ruled attracted lower cost Asian players

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IT is also accorging the Utility-maximizing rule::

MUx/Px = MUy/Py, where MUx is the marginal utility derived from good x, Px is the price of good x, MUy is the marginal utility of good y and Py is the price of good y. A consumer should spend his limited money income on the goods which give him the most marginal utility per dollar. Only when the ratio of MU/P is equal for all goods is a consumer maximizing his total utility.

Now a days the mory costemer pays,, the more ulitily he will consume.