How Do You Know When the Price is Right?

Pricing is managers’ biggest marketing headache. It’s where they feel the most pressure to perform and the least certain that they are doing a good job. The pressure is intensified because, for the most part, managers believe that they don’t have control over price: It is dictated by the market. Moreover, pricing is often seen as a difficult area in which to set objectives and measure results. Ask managers to define the objective for the company’s manufacturing function, and they will cite a concrete goal, such as output and cost. Ask for a measure of productivity, and they will refer to cycle times. But pricing is difficult to pin down. High unit sales and increased market share sound promising but they may in fact mean that a price is too low. And forgone profits do not appear on anyone’s scorecard. Indeed, judging pricing quality from outcomes reported on financial statements is perilous business.