Price Issue in the Marketing Context Coursework

Introduction

Marketing is an essential aspect of the business today. Even the simplest actions such as selling a car, applying for a job, collecting means for charitable needs or propagandizing an idea, involve marketing analysis. Marketing – a complex system of production organization and sale, focused on the satisfaction of the requirements of particular consumers where the profit is based on a researching and forecasting the market. Studying internal and external factors affecting products’ demands is a major aspect of marketing programs along with working out a strategy and behavior tactics in the market. This paper addresses the issue of price in the context of marketing, where it will present a problem statement that demand and price has been affected by different financial and economic conditions.

Analysis

The price influence over the consumer’s preferences has been an issue of many researches that analyzed the type of the relation formed. Alvarez and Casielle (2008), in particular, analyzed the influence prices have on consumers’ purchase decisions having found out that there are “differences in the intensity of response to price variances between manufacturer brands and store brands.” The marketing implications for such findings can be found in adjusting the consumers’ interest with discounts, where “categories of product with lower loyalty rates, the application of discounts is the most adequate action, since the use of other promotion actions does not produce any effect.”

In forming the acceptance of a certain price there are many other factors involved that might interpret the consumers’ desire to obtain a certain product. Bielski suggests that factors to measure such as “loyalty, customer engagement, and customer satisfaction” are influencing the consumers’ behavior.

These factors should also be analyzed against tendencies existent in online purchasing behavior, where such factors such as interactivity occurs (Ammeter&Kim, 2008).

Accordingly, the price factor mostly competes with different variables that are studied independently. Nakamoto and Mallalieu (2008), examined the compared different emotional aspects during sales encounter, Orth and Kahle (2008) on the other hand, outlined social psychological issues of brand characteristics stating that consumers seek brand benefits rather than attributes such as price and quality.

Problem Statement

On the scale of the world financial crisis, the factor of price is definitely could be put at the top list for an average consumer. In that sense, it could be supposed that in light of a decrease in income, the customer would pay attention to the price factor more than the quality of high brands. In such way a research could highlight the degree of correlation in prices by which the consumer will either stay with a brand or buy a lower category. As a marketing problem this research would help to find the interval above which the company can start losing a portion of loyal consumers.

Research Approach

The suggested research might find useful the usage of a quantitative analysis to establish the degree to which the consumer will be affected with the demand to a certain product against the changes in the price. The research would use a series of surveys that will test two different variables, the demand and the prices, at the same time attempting to establish the degrees in percentages in price changes, where the demand will seriously be affected. This research could unveil recent tendencies in consumers’ habits, which could be predicted to change in the near future.

References

1. Álvarez, B., & Casielles, R. (2008). Effects of price decisions on product categories and brands. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 20(1), 23-43.
2. Bielski, L. (2008). Guided by feedback: Measuring customer engagement. American Bankers Association. ABA Banking Journal, 100(8), 44-46.
3. Kim, D., & Ammeter D. (2008). Examining shifts in online purchasing behavior: Decoding the Net generation. Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Information and Management Sciences. Proceedings, 12(1), 7-12.
4. Mallalieu, L., & Nakamoto, K. (2008). Understanding the role of consumer motivation and salesperson behavior in inducing positive cognitive and emotional responses and emotional responses during a sales encounter. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 16(3), 183-197.
5. Orth, U., & Kahle, L. (2008). Intrapersonal Variation in Consumer Susceptibility to Normative Influence: Toward a Better Understanding of Brand Choice Decisions. The Journal of Social Psychology, 148(4), 423-47.
6. Wang, W. (2008). The interrelationship of retailer’s relationship efforts and consumers’ attitude and behavior. Measuring Business Excellence, 12(1), 13-28.