In India, price is often affected by excise duty, sales
tax and local taxes like octroi, thereby making it difficult
to maintain a uniform price throughout the country.
You may opt for any of the following policies or modify
and combine them depending upon your objective or you
can have your own pricing policy :
"Return on Investment"
pricing:The price is fixed after taking
into consideration the financial aspect. 'Amount spent
and return expected' is the key factor in deciding the
price. This has relation with the sales forecast too.
"Penetrating
the Market with a Low Price":This involves
selecting the lowest yet profitable price per unit so
that you can sell a maximum number of units. Once your
product is in demand or is accepted in the market, you
can increase the price of your product.
Introducing
A Product At A Premium" Price Policy:When
a product is innovative and competition is low or non
existent, this policy can be applied. You can make optimum
profit. When you face competition later, you can lower
the price.
"Ethical"
Pricing:Price is fixed keeping the welfare
of the society in mind. For many life saving drugs,
this particular policy is used. The product is sold
at the lowest possible price with either a very reasonable
margin or no profit at all. Profit may be earned from
other products.
"Full Line"
Pricing:If you are selling a range
of particular product for example pickles, then you
price the product in a particular range, this way you
may earn more profit in one flavour and less on the
other. But, you cannot sell only the one that gives
you maximum profit, or else a customer may switch over
to another brand where he would be able to exercise
an option for other flavours.
"Pricing
On The Basis Of Competition":In
this case, you follow the leader for fixing the price.
"Rasna" is the leader in the area of synthetic sherbets.
Pricing of a similar product will have to be decided
based on the price of "Rasna".
Before fixing the price of product,
ask yourself is the price reasonable, would you buy
the product at the price you have decided upon if you
were a customer.
You must also ascertain:
the retail prices of competing
brands
the commission offered to traders/distributors/stockists
by competitors
the ex-factory price (including
taxes) of the competing brands
the pricing strategy you want
to adopt
the special features of your product
that would not hinder the customers from buying your
products
if you are charging higher price
than that of your competitor.