The Change of Price

How quickly can you see the impact of a change in your prices?

If you’re a publisher of travel guide books, say a publisher like Fodor or Frommer, it may not be until the book hits the discount bins in a bookshop prior to the launch of a new edition. It can be up to six years between launches of new editions of travel guides.

Industries like the Yellow Pages directories around the world are all on annual sales cycles, and few if any companies in this industry, change prices during a sales canvass. Yellow Pages Pricing Analysts may be waiting a year to assess the impact of their price changes.

There’s a slightly different situation in the US airport-based car rental business. There, some companies can see the impact of price changes, especially when a competitor is involved, within 24 hours.

But perhaps the fastest impact of a price change is seen by Dell Computers. When they change prices on their website, they can see a change in customer behaviour literally within minutes.

The world, and the world of pricing, moves faster all the time.