Response to Katie Longchamp

There are a lot of products I could think of that have an elastic demand, but there are also some products that I could think of that have in inelastic demand, as in no matter how the prices are changed, they will still be a necessity. A few  could include things such as:

• Gasoline
• Medicines
• Baby diapers
• Feminine Products

I am not sure if I believe the consumers has an impact on the price of products and services that have an inelastic demand. I would like to say all consumers have some sort of impact on the pricing of goods and services, because if something is prices far too high I would assume they are most likely to ignore it. However, if a product is an absolute necessity, especially fi there are no substitutes for it, then I feel a company can charge whatever they would like for their product or service knowing the customer is going to purchase it regardless.

Pricing Tactics

In this week, chapters 19 and 20 focus on pricing goods and services for sale, as well as how this is accomplished. However, chapter 20 goes on to specifically discuss various pricing tactics, elaborating on how they work and what they do. The specific pricing strategies the text focuses on are the following:

• Single-price tactic: offers all goos and services at the same price.
• Flexible pricing/variable pricing: means that different customs pay different prices for essentially the same merchandise bought in equal quantities.
• Trade-Ins: tends to coincide with flexible pricing, specifically depending on the quality of what is being traded in for something else.
• Professional Service Pricing: prices issued by people with lengthy experience, training, and often certification by a licensing board.
• Price Lining: the practice of offering a product line with several items at a specific price point.
• Leader Pricing/loss-leader pricing: an attempt by the marketing manager to attract customers by selling a product near or even below cost in hopes shoppers will buy other items once they are in that store.
• Bait Pricing: tries to get customers into a store through false or misleading price advertising and then uses high-pressure selling to persuade consumers to buy more expensive merchandise.
• Odd-Even Pricing/psychological pricing: uses odd-numbered prices to connote bargains and even-numbered prices to imply quality
• Price Bundling: marketing two or more products in a single package for a special price.
• Two-Part Pricing: charges two separate amounts to consumer a single good or service.

After reading and comprehending all of these different pricing tactics that exist, I was questionable about the ethics in a few of them; for example that of bait pricing. It seems to me that is is completely unethical to partake in false advertising, and I'm surprised that can legally exist. After looking at these pricing tactics, or any of the other pricing tactics, is there one or more that you think is more beneficial or like me, is there one that may not seems as beneficial or even ethical? Is there one that should be used more than others?