GRA 6420 Pricing Strategies: Measuring, Capturing and Retaining Value

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

GRA 6420 Pricing Strategies: Measuring, Capturing and Retaining Value


Responsible for the course
Sangeeta Singh

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
The fastest and most effective way for a company to realize its maximum profit is to get it’s pricing right.
However, pricing is managers’ biggest marketing headache. It’s where they feel the most pressure to perform and the least certain that they are doing a good job. Yet getting closer to the ‘right’ price can have a tremendous impact, and slight improvements can yield significant results. The purpose is therefore to gain control over the pricing function.

Learning outcome
The objective of this course in pricing strategies and tactics is to systematically present factors that have to be considered when setting price, and to show how pricing alternatives can be developed and analyzed. The course is designed to provide the students with an integrative framework for making pricing decisions. The course covers economic aspects of pricing, strategy and tactics of market based pricing, in addition to psychological aspects of price sensitivity and decisions under incomplete information. Together these factors form a basis for analyzing pricing alternatives within legal, organizational, and competitive constraints.

Prerequisites

All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

Compulsory reading

Collection of articles:
A reading list of articles and cases will be provided in class. .

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.


Recommended reading
Books:
Nagle, Thomas T., John E. Hogan, Joseph Zale. 2014. The strategy and tactics of pricing : a guide to growing more profitably. 5th ed., New international ed. Pearson Education

Course outline
Part 1 - Price management
Part 2 - Economic foundations of pricing theory
Part 3 - Understanding customer and buyer behavior for price decisions
Part 4 - Profitability analysis for pricing decisions
Part 5 - Developing pricing strategies
Part 6 - Pricing on the Internet

Computer-based tools
Not applicable

Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

Class time will include lectures, group discussion of problems, and general class discussion. The lectures will further be supplemented with guest lecturers form the industry.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.



Examination
The course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
Assignment:45% of the grade (groups of 2-3 students)
Take home exam: 45% (individual)
Class participation: 10%



Form of assessment Weight Group size
Assignment 45% Group of max 3 students
Take home examination 45% Individual
Class participation 10% Individual

Specific information regarding student assessment will be provided in class. This information may be relevant to requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several components of the overall assessment. This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded using points on a scale from 0-100. The final grade for the course is based on the aggregated mark of the course components. Each component is weighted as detailed in the course description. Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam components will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the points system and the mapping scale in the student portal @bi.

Examination code(s)
GRA64201 continuous assessment accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course GRA 6420.

Examination support materials
BI approved exam calculator
Bilingual dictionary

Permitted examination support materials for written examinations are detailed under examination information in the student portal @bi. The section on support materials and the use of calculators and dictionaries should be paid special attention to.

Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught. The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code. Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes. All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee. Please note that you need to retake the latest version of the course with updated course literature and assessment. Please make sure that you have familiarised yourself with the latest course description.

Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask