Choose a current events article on pricing from: •Learn the 4 P’s©: http://www.l
ID: 453154 • Letter: C
Question
Choose a current events article on pricing from: •Learn the 4 P’s©: http://www.learnthe4ps.com/category/price/
Step 2: Cover the following topics in your Discussion answer in essay format:
•Discuss the key purpose of the article in relation to the pricing component of the Marketing Mix.
•Identify two pricing concepts that you learned from reading this article.
•From the perspective of a professional, what impact does the information on pricing in this article have on the marketplace?
•From the perspective of a consumer, what impact might the pricing concepts in the article have on the buying decisions of consumers?
•How might this information on pricing affect you personally?
Explanation / Answer
My selected article is “How online retailers price discriminate — and how to beat their system”.
The given article talks about the price discrimination strategy used by the online retailers and its ethical aspects besides finding ways to beat their system. Thus, the purpose of the article includes following:
a. Understanding the pricing strategy and inherent tactics behind discriminatory pricing used by retailers
b. Focus on its benefits and loss of this pricing strategy from a consumer’s perspective
c. Discussion on scope of strategy to beat the system adopted by retailers
There is only one pricing strategy discussed in the article that is “Discriminatory pricing”. Though, a similar pricing strategy named as “Differential pricing” is also used by retailers on the basis of product related features. Under discriminatory pricing, different prices are offered to different consumers on the basis of their browsing history and buying history. Retailers use cookies, a small program that stores and send information related consumers’ browsing data. On the basis of this information, dynamic pricing is quoted. Many online tools also offer the upstream and downstream traffic that gives a fair idea of consumers’ movement on other websites.
Discriminatory pricing is adopted by many retailers in the market place and this information is known to everyone. Thus, it has increased the bargaining power of consumers. Further, it forces firms to be price competitive that leads to thinning profit margin.
Consumers will compare the prices and then buy the product. Such strategy will lead a consumer to buy products from the website that offers the lowest price without compromising the quality.
I will also go for price comparison to get the best deals. Also, I will clean the cookies from my computer history to prevent the retailers from getting any information that can be used to offer a costly deal by the retailers.