Pre-Conference Interactive Workshop: 15th May 2006

Consumer Pricing Perspectives

Sarah Maxwell, Ph.D., Co-Director, Fordham Pricing Center, New York City

Pricing Workshop Agenda:

The purpose of the workshop is to familiarise participants with current pricing theories that they can use to develop new pricing structures for the mobile industry. The sessions will include exercises and will provide participants ample opportunity for discussion.

9:00 Registration and Coffee

9:30 Workshop Commences

Morning: The Psychology of Prices
The current theories of consumer behavior will be discussed as they apply to pricing:

• How pricing structures change over the Product Life Cycle
• How consumers make price-based decisions
• How consumers search and process price information
• Considerations of fairness that influence price acceptability

Pricing Strategy
Alternative pricing strategies will be presented so that respondents can determine how they can be applied to mobile pricing.

• Setting pricing objectives
• Different pricing strategies
• Segmenting customers based on price
• Instituting charges for handsets
• Developing a pricing plan

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch

Afternoon: Pricing Case Study
A case study will be used to apply the pricing concepts in a mobile pricing context.

• Discussion in small groups
• Conclusions shared with all the participants

Pricing Research
Pricing research methods will be demonstrated, with the pros and cons of each discussed.

• Focus Groups
• Direct question surveys
• Conjoint analysis

4:00 Workshop Ends

Doctor Maxwell has many years experience in pricing. As a former VP of Marketing for a $4 billion service management company, she was intimately involved in the real-world problems of setting a price in a highly competitive environment. As Co-Director of the Fordham Pricing Center and Associate Editor of the Journal of Product and Brand Management, she is currently involved in research into the social and psychological factors that make a price acceptable to consumers. She has published widely in leading journals including the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Economic Psychology. She also teaches pricing at the MBA level and conducts pricing seminars for industry.