MG403      Half Unit
Pricing Strategy

This information is for the 2020/21 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof Om Narasimhan NAB5.06

Availability

This course is available on the MSc in Marketing. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Course content

This course is meant for the MSc Marketing students only and involves a higher degree of quantitative treatment.  Students who are not enrolled in the MSc Marketing degree should not take this course, and should take the "MG4J3 Principles of Pricing" course instead.

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.

Teaching

30 hours of seminars in the LT.

Formative coursework

Students will be engaged in analysing a number of cases, doing numerical problems, as well as analysis data sets using the techniques learned in class. This will set the stage for their group project (gathering and analysing data) as well as the take-home assignment (which will involve numerical problems, case analysis, and analysing data sets).

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

Coursework (55%) and project (45%) in the LT.

Coursework is an Individual Take-home assignment and the project will be in groups.

Important information in response to COVID-19

Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.

Key facts

Department: Management

Total students 2019/20: 57

Average class size 2019/20: 57

Controlled access 2019/20: Yes

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