By now you should have a pretty good idea about the major information sources available on the company you have chosen for your SLPs (Keurig Coffee Maker). Unfortunately, few if any companies will directly admit what pricing strategy they use. Most will say "of course we are charging you the lowest possible price". But find out what you can about your company's pricing strategy and also do some research on what some of your company's competitors charge for the same products.

When you have finished researching about your company's prices, answer the following questions:

How does your company's prices compare to competitors who sell the same or similar products? Overall, do your company's prices seem high or low?

Do you think your company is basing their pricing mostly on cost (such as a cost-plus approach) or are other factors at play? Consider the concepts of prestige pricing mentioned in Forsyth (2007) or value-based pricing mentioned in the Pearson tutorial.

Discuss at least three other pricing strategies from the background materials and explain whether or not you think your company is using these strategies. Explain your reasoning, and remember to cite the sources where you read about the pricing strategies from in your answer.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Answer the assignment questions directly.

Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, and don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.

Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the internet, make sure it is from a credible source.

Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the "Writing Style Guide", which is found under "My Resources" on the TLC portal.

As with Modules 1-3, start off by reviewing the Pearson tutorial:

Pricing. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY.

The following reading is relatively simple and reinforces the discussion of some of the key pricing strategies discussed in the Pearson tutorial such as skim, penetration, and cost-plus pricing and also covers some additional pricing strategies.

Richardson, N. & Gosnay, R. (2011). Chapter 7: You paid how much? Develop Your Marketing Skills- Creating Success Series. Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR.

Now read up on pricing strategy in more detail with the following two readings:

BPP Learning Media. (2013). Chapter 10: Pricing. Marketing Principles: Course Book. London: BPP Learning Media. [EBSCO eBook Collection]

Forsyth, P. (2007). Chapter 4: Pricing policy and tactics. Demystifying Marketing: A Guide to the Fundamentals for Engineers. London: IET. [EBSCO eBook Collection]

Optional Reading

Richardson, N. & Gosnay, R. (2010). Chapter 7: You paid how much? Creating Success: Develop Your Marketing Skills. Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR. [Ebrary]

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (2013). Chapter 6: Pricing decisions and pricing strategies. Performance Management. London: BPP Learning Media. [eBook Business Collection]