Study of Pricing Factors For Profit Maximization

IJEBR / August, 2017/ Volume -IV /Issue 2/ Research Article 4 / 84-95 ISSN:2397-2237
International Journal of Economics Review & Business Research
Study of Pricing Factors for Profit Maximization

Wong Kok Yaw
School of Business and Finance, Quest International University Perak Malaysia
AUTHORS
* First Author Wong Kok Yaw, School of Business and Finance, gromit0107@hotmail.com
Abstract- Marketing pricing decision is the common difficulties faced by most of the marketers in
order to maximize the profits for their firms. Factors such as product cost, customer perception on
value and other important factors will be discussed in this paper to test the relationship with pricing
decision. Quantitative research will be conducted where 361 marketing executives from various firms
are selected to answer questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis is adopted to run the data. The
selected factors in this study are found to be significant with the dependent variable (pricing decision).
Practical recommendations are provided to organizations on how to improve the pricing decision.
Index Terms- Pricing Decision, Marketers, Profit
I. INTRODUCTION
This research is conducted to discuss the issue regarding marketing pricing strategy. One of the
common marketing difficulties faced by most of the organizations is the pricing decision which will
affect the customers buying decision. Emmanuel, Wujung and Emmanuel (2014) found that
organizational performance may contribute to the developing of a nation whereby the pricing
strategies adopted by the marketers are very important to create the profit. Customer loyalty is the
main criteria to determine the successful of a marketer. Koh, Moon and Schellhase (2011) stated that
the pricing strategies used by the marketers may affect the customer loyalty. When the firm is
successfully build the good customer relationship, it can capture customers life time value and they
will repeat their purchase in future (Kotler& Keller, 2012). Therefore, a good pricing strategy may
easily attract customers because it is the value they need to pay in order to exchange for desired
products or services.
Pricing decision is a common marketing difficulty. It is a component of the marketing program that
makes a firm either gain or loss money (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Marketers are concerned about how
many sales they can gain to fulfill the goal of profit maximization. Besides, firms normally facing a
fierce and fast changing pricing environment (Zhou & Caroline, 2010). Many marketers are using
price as a powerful tool to against their competitors to gain competitive advantage (He, Wang &
Cheng, 2013). Therefore, pricing decision is crucial to enhance the customer loyalty. It is essential to
understand the factors that affecting pricing and set the best price which can justify its value (Hsu, Ray
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& Hsieh, 2014). Furthermore, pricing is the most flexible marketing mix where the firm can easily
adjust the price based on situations (Helm &Gritsch, 2014). It can be seen that pricing is very
important for a marketer to make adjustment on marketing strategy and the factors affecting this
strategy need to be identified before taking necessary marketing decision.
The significant of this research is it can contribute to the development of marketing pricing strategy.
Studies had shown that economic growth may rely on the performance of the organizations
(Emmanuel et.al, 2014). It can be measured by the profit generated from the operating sales.
Marketing strategy has played an important role in helping the organization to gain profit by selling
the product or service to the public. Therefore, findings of this study can assist the marketers to
understand the different factors which can affect the pricing decision before carry out the marketing
mix adjustment. Besides, result from this study can provide the guideline for marketers to understand
the factors that need to consider into setting the best price for products and services. It can also assist
the marketers to gain stronger competitive advantage in terms of pricing to maximize profit and
enhance customer equity. Furthermore, it can provide role models for new marketers on how to set the
price. Gradually, the findings from the study can provide fundamental information and hopes to lay the
groundwork for future research while also offering practical recommendations to marketers.
The objective of this paper is to analyze the factors that affecting marketers pricing decision. This
study will examine the relationship between (i)product cost, (ii)customer perception of value,
(iii)market type, and (iv)competitor and external factors towards pricing decision to create more profit.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Pricing and Customer Satisfaction

In the simple definition, price is defined as the amount of money charged for a product or service, or
the sum of the values that customers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or
service (Kotler& Armstrong, 2011). Price is one of the powerful tools to help the firm gains
competitive advantage. Firms are facing rapid changing environment in the real market place. There
are many strategies to adjust the price. Traditionally, marketers will cut the price to boost the sales but
studies found that this strategy is not very effective in today business world (Mullikin& Petty, 2011).
It is because the price set for the product and service is not only affects the sales and profit but also the
brand image. Besides, it may result in unnecessary price war which can bring the negative
consequences to both marketer and economic (Janssen &Parakhonyak, 2013).
Therefore, many studies had suggested that marketers should focus value, not the price. They can
convince customers to pay more prices for the product or service which able to justify its value.
Customers today are not just looking for cheaper product but they are concerning about the value
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(Kumar, 2010). Besides, price is the only marketing mix that can generate revenue but other marketing
mix such as product, promotion and place are representing cost for marketers. Price is viewed as the
most flexible elements because it can be easily adjusted based on situations (Helm &Gritsch, 2014).
Price has direct impact on the firms and this is the reason why many marketers perceive pricing
decision is very tough and need to be well planning.
Customer satisfaction is important to determine the sales of product or service. Consumers are
exploring to many competitor brands which provide the similar benefits. If they perceived that the
value received from the offerings can satisfy with their expectation, they will feel satisfied. Satisfied
customers will buy again and share the good experiences with others. Customer value is refers to the
difference between the benefits received from a market offer and the cost of obtaining its benefits
(Perreault, Cannon & McCarthy, 2010). Therefore, marketers must understand what are the products
and services actually are considered worth to customers.
Many marketers are assumed that low price is equal to high customer value. However, it is not always
reflects the real situation. Perreault et al. (2010) stated that most of the customers will see the benefits
obtain from the offers and compared with the price. It will result in lower customer value when the
offers do not meet a consumers needs. Marketers need to evaluate ways to improve the benefits and
on the same time reduce the cost for better pricing setting.
Product Cost
Firms will set the price based on its production, distribution and other manufacturing cost plus a fair
rate of return (Kotler& Armstrong, 2011). This factor needs to be considered when the marketers are
focus on cost efficiently where they are producing low cost product their industry. Besides, they
normally offer undifferentiated products. Firms with lower costs can set lower prices that will result in
greater sales and profit. It will help the firm to achieve greater performance.
Zhang and Xia (2010) found that product cost has the significant relationship with pricing decision
because it serves as the price floor for the firm. It is the minimum price that marketer needs to charge
to cover the cost. If the firm set the products price below the price floor, there will be no profit
.Therefore, firm must always look at its company& product cost before make the pricing decision.
Besides, marketers must utilize their resources during the production, build a good relationship with
partners and practice a good supply chain management in order to reduce the overall cost (Shin,
Sudhir& Yoon, 2011).
There are two major costs that a firm must take into consideration in this pricing factor which are fixed
cost and variable cost (Zhang, Chiang & Wu, 2014). Fixed cost is the cost that does not vary with
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production or sales level. Variable cost is the cost that varies directly with the level of production.
When the fixed cost and variable costs sum up will become the total cost. By using the cost based
pricing, firms must set the price that must at least cover the total cost. They will normally set a markup
for the cost to charge on the product and service. In order to practice this pricing decision effectively,
firm must watch its cost carefully. If the firm able to reduce the cost so that the product or service can
be offered to customer with a lower price compare to competitor, the firm is viewed as able to make
more profit and gain a better competitive advantage.
Customer Perception of Value

From the perception of buyers, price is about what the buyer will give up in exchange for a product
(Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Customer perception of value plays an important role in deciding the price
because firm must determine how much the buyer will give up or what is the best price perceived by
customer. Therefore, marketers need to understand the customer perception on value in order to set the
price that customers perceive worth and willing to pay (Kreis&Mafael, 2014). This can help to firm to
enhance the customer loyalty.
Besides, customers are the last person to decide whether a products price is good or bad because they
pay to exchange for the product. This shows that customer perception of value has the significant
relationship with the pricing decision. Firms must understands the value customers expect to receive
from the product, then set the price that can captures this value effectively (Kotler& Armstrong, 2011).
Ferrel& Hartline (2011) stated that marketers must understand customer perception of value in order
to create superior value. It is effective to deal with competition and keep customers. Therefore, the
best way to improve customer value and win the competition is to satisfy the customers needs that
other marketers have not been considered.
Perceived value is very important to affect pricing decision. It is the value receives from the product
by customer. Value is means different things to different customer since there is no standardized
definition for value. Some may think that good value equal to higher quality but some may perceive
that lower price is deemed to be better value (Blocker, 2011). Daye (2012) found that same brand is
different in image when across culture in China. Chinese normally perceive medium quality western
brands as luxury when the product is selling at high price. Besides, Perreault et al. (2010) stated that
Starbucks is selling at higher price but it is not just a cup of coffee which can represent status and
superior quality in eyes of many customers. In order to identify the perceived value, marketers are
needed to understand customer cost and benefit. Customer benefits include everything that can obtains
from the product offering such as quality while customer costs include everything that customer must
give up such as money and time in exchange for the product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Once
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marketers understand this concept, they can easily create customer delight by offering the best price to
create customer quality.
Market Type
Pricing decision can be influenced by market type. Form the economic perspective, there is the inverse
relationship between price and demand (Tucker, 2011). When the price increases, demand will
decrease. Besides, marketers need to know the relationship between cost and market demand. Cost
will set the lower limit of price because any price that below the cost is considered loss to a firm.
Market demand will set the upper limit of price because there is no demand beyond the maximum
price customers willing to pay (Kotler& Armstrong, 2011). Therefore, marketers should closely
monitor the market demand to increase the demand for product and service.
Krishnan, Feng and Beebe (2011) found that there is significant relationship between market type with
pricing decision. Marketers need to adjust the price based on the market respond. Every single price
charge by firm will lead to different level of demand in the market. Owen (2012) stated that this
relationship can be represented by demand curve where the price elasticity of demand is also
formulated to justify how responsive the demand will be to a change in the price. Demand curve
shows the inverse relationship between price and demand.
Marketers also need to understand the pricing decision in different type of markets. There is different
pricing strategy adopts in different type of market which will decide the price on product and service
(Neary&Tharakan, 2012). This is one of the important factors that can influence the price. For
example, no single marketer has much effect on the going market price because sellers cannot charge
more or less than the market price in pure competition (Kotler& Armstrong, 2011). In monopolistic
competition, market consists of many marketers who trade over a range of price. They are free to set
any price because marketers will develop differentiated offer for different customer to gain
competitive advantage. In oligopolistic competition, each marketer is very alert to competitors pricing
strategies because there are fewer marketers in the industry (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Therefore,
firms must identify they are fall under what kind of market to affect their pricing decision in order to
set the best selling price for their product or service (Mesnard, 2011).
Competitor and External Factor

Competitor always will be one of the critical factors to determine the pricing decision. It is because
firms normally face a fierce and fast changing pricing environment in today organization. (Zhou &
Caroline, 2010). Many marketers are using price as a powerful tool to against their competitors. It is
also one of the effective marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage especially for customers
who are price sensitive (He et.al, 2013). Price sensitive customers normally able to access a lot of
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information for comparison before make their purchase. They will be more sensitive if the product or
service substitution is available.
Marketers must also consider competitors cost, price and market offerings. When accessing
competitors strategies, marketers need to compare their cost and value against competitors. They must
know how well their market offering compare with competitors offering in terms of customer value.
If customers perceive that the companys product or service has greater value than competitor does,
they are willing to pay more. Besides, firms also need to understand the current competitors market
position. If the market is dominated by strong competitors which they are low cost providers, firm can
try to target niche segment by offering unique products with higher price.
External factor is the factor that marketer cannot control but can take opportunity from it to exploit
competitive advantage. It is important to assist marketers understand clearly of their environment
when formulate pricing strategies (Makos, 2013). For example, firms can adopt advanced technology
in the production to reduce the cost in order to set lower price to increase the sales. For the
government and social concern, firms must identify the rules and regulations to make sure fulfill the
requirements when decide the price (Hallback&Gabrielsson, 2013). External impacts must take into
the consideration when decide the pricing decision in order to create profit and customer quality
(Garcia, Gaitan,&Cataluna, 2014).
III. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This framework identifies the relationship between the Independent Variables (IV) [IV1: product cost,
IV2: customer perception on value, IV3: market type and IV4: competitor and external factor] and
Dependent Variable (DV) [DV: Pricing decision].
Product cost
Customer perception on value

Pricing decision
Market type
Competitor and external factor
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IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Sampling Design
Quantitative research was adopted to test the factors affecting the marketing pricing
decision. The target population was marketing executives from various sectors and
organizations who are familiar with their companies pricing decision. Sampling frame or
name list of target respondents was not available due to the difficulty of locating the
member of population (Babbie, 2013). A total of 361 samples were collected for this
study. Target respondents are from urban areas which are Kuala Lumpur, Selangor,
Perak, Penang and Johor. These areas were selected due to higher population (Economic
Planning Unit & UN Country Team, 2005). Self-administrated questionnaire was used to
collect data from respondents. Snowball sampling strategy was also applied in this study.
The data was then analyzed using SPSS software. The relationships between independent
variables and dependent variable were analyzed with Multiple Regression Analysis.
V. DATA ANALYSIS
There were 285 usable data collected from marketing executives in this study. Most of the
respondents are from male which consists of 66.5%. In terms of age, 70.1% are from age
between 25 to 35 years old. Age group above 45 years old is the lowest (1.7%). The
respondents consisted of four races: Malay, Chinese, Indian, others. Most of the
respondents were Chinese (42.7%), followed by Malay (26%), Indian (21%) and others
(10.2%). Most of the respondents have less than 5 years working experience (36.8%)
compared to 7.3% of respondents who have works more than 20 years.
Reliability Test for Independent Variables

Table I: Reliability Statistic
Cronbach's
N of
Independent Variable Alpha (Actual
items
Study)
Product cost 0.695 5

Customer perception on
0.793 6
value
Market type 0.83 5
Competitor and external
0.704 5
factor
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The value of Cronbachs Alpha for Product cost is 0.695 (69.5%) which is considered fair
reliability. Customer perception on value and competitor and external factor were above
0.7 are considered good reliability. Market type has 0.83 (83%) is considered very good
reliability.
Table II: ANOVA

Sum of df Mean F Sig
Model
Squares Square
1 Regression 305.505 4 73.376 404.755 .000a

Residual 67.176 356 0.189
Total 372.681 360
Predictors (Constant), Product cost, Customer perception on value, Market type,

Dependent Variable: Pricing Decision
Based on the Table III: ANOVA, p-value is less than the alpha value 0.05. Therefore, this model is
best describes and confirm the relationship between predictors and dependent variable.
Table III: Model Summary

Model R R Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Square Square Estimate
1 .905a .820 .818 .43439
Predictors (Constant), Product cost, Customer perception on value, Market type,

Based on the Table V: Model summary indicates that independent variables can explain 65% of the
variations in dependent variable (pricing decision). However, it is still leave 35% unexplained in this
study.
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VI. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Discussion on Results
H1: Product cost is positively related to pricing decision

H1 will be accepted in this research. Therefore, product cost is significant to explain the
pricing decision. Marketers have to consider the overall cost associated with the product
when setting the price. The finding and result from this variable is supported by previous
studies which mentioned that cost is one of the important determinants for company when
setting the price especially industrial service firms (Indounas, 2015).
H2: Customer perception of value is positively related to pricing decision

H2 will be accepted in this research. Marketers will consider the customer perception on
their products or services which they have to determine the superior value from their
offers. Alavi, Wieseke and Guba (2016) stated that it is very important for firms to
estimate customer price that will affect the purchase decision and salespersons
negotiation process.
H3: Market type is positively related to pricing decision

H3 will be accepted in this research. Different market types will affect the pricing
decision where firms have to understand their market environment because market
structure will affect the supply and demand of the products (Neary&Tharakan, 2012).
H4: Competitor and external factor is positively related to pricing decision

H4 will be accepted in this research. Previous research had supported this result where the
competition is getting intense in current business environment and firms must adjust the
price accordingly to compete with competitors (Makos, 2013).
Managerial Implication
It is essential to understand the factors that affecting pricing decision in order to create
better profit. Besides, it can help the firms to gain stronger competitive advantage in
today business environment. Marketers have to make effective pricing decision in order
to maximize the profit. Product cost, customer perception of value, market type and
competitor and external factor are significant to affect pricing decision.
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Firms can work well with the suppliers and distributors to reduce the overall production
cost. By implementing effective supply chain management, firms also can ensure the
quality to make sure the products and services are able to satisfy customer needs.
Therefore, customers are more willing to pay for the price. It can enhance the firms
competitiveness. Besides, firms should monitor the business environment to receive more market
information such as changes on government policies, technologies improvement and changes on
societies trends. They are useful for firms to discover the opportunities to set different pricing which
important to compete with competitors (Hills, 2013).
VII. Conclusion
Pricing strategy is an important marketing decision which can help the firms to gain profit. It is the
only element in marketing mix to generate returns on investment. Due to the globalization and intense
competition in business environment, marketers have to make wise pricing decision in order to
maximize profit.
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IJEBR / August, 2017/ Volume -IV /Issue 2/ Research Article 4 / 84-95 ISSN:2397-2237

International Journal of Economics Review & Business Research

Study of Pricing Factors for Profit Maximization

School of Business and Finance, Quest International University Perak Malaysia

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Pricing and Customer Satisfaction

Customer Perception of Value

Competitor and External Factor

III. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Customer perception on value

Competitor and external factor

Reliability Test for Independent Variables

Product cost 0.695 5

Table II: ANOVA

1 Regression 305.505 4 73.376 404.755 .000a

Predictors (Constant), Product cost, Customer perception on value, Market type,

Dependent Variable: Pricing Decision

Table III: Model Summary

Predictors (Constant), Product cost, Customer perception on value, Market type,

VI. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

H1: Product cost is positively related to pricing decision

H2: Customer perception of value is positively related to pricing decision

H3: Market type is positively related to pricing decision

H4: Competitor and external factor is positively related to pricing decision

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