MG403      Half Unit
Pricing Strategy

This information is for the 2015/16 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof Om Narasimhan NAB5.06

Availability

This course is available on the MSc in Management, MSc in Management and Strategy and MSc in Management, Organisations and Governance. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Course content

The content of the course is organised into two principal modules: (1) pricing strategy and fundamentals and (2) pricing tactics and implementation. The first module of the course covers the fundamental analytical tools, theories, and conceptual frameworks needed for price strategy formulation. Basic principles from marketing, economics, and psychology will be briefly reviewed and extended. The module provides an in-depth treatment of the role of price in the firm’s value proposition to the customer and the determination of customer response to price. The second module of the course covers pricing tactics and opportunities for achieving price customisation. Our focus shifts from setting the overall price level to making customer-specific or segment-specific pricing decisions. Topics include price promotions, reference prices, price customisation and bundling.

Teaching

30 hours of seminars in the LT.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Formative coursework

Students will be expected to produce 1 case study and 1 other piece of coursework in the LT.

1 Case Analysis (to be done in pairs) 1 Practice Exam (to be done individually)

Indicative reading

The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably (2010): Nagle, Hogan, and Zale, Prentice Hall.

Pricing Information: How to customize both the product and the price (1998): Carl Schapiro and Hal Varian, Harvard Business School Chapters.

How to Fight a Price War (2000): Akshay Rao, Mark Bergen, Scott Davis, Harvard Business Review.

Is it time to rethink your pricing strategy? (2012): Andreas Hinterhuber and Stephan Liozu, Sloan Management Review.

Pricing as a Strategic Capability (2002): Mark Bergen, Shantanu Dutta, Mark Ritson, Sloan Management Review

Assessment

Exam (60%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.
Project (30%, 2500 words) in the LT.
Class participation (10%).

Key facts

Department: Management

Total students 2014/15: 65

Average class size 2014/15: 33

Controlled access 2014/15: Yes

Lecture capture used 2014/15: Yes (LT)

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Leadership
  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Application of numeracy skills
  • Commercial awareness

Course survey results

(2013/14 combined)

1 = "best" score, 5 = "worst" score

The scores below are average responses.

Response rate: 80.9%

Question

Average
response

Reading list (Q2.1)

1.8

Materials (Q2.3)

1.9

Course satisfied (Q2.4)

1.4

Lectures (Q2.5)

1.3

Integration (Q2.6)

1.3

Contact (Q2.7)

1.2

Feedback (Q2.8)

1.5

Recommend (Q2.9)

Yes

100%

Maybe

0%

No

0%