Geographical pricing, in marketing, is the practice of modifying a basic list price based on the geographical location of the buyer. It is intended to reflect the costs of shipping to different locations. There are several ways to apply the cost of shipping to the prices.
With FOB (Free on Board) origin (or FOB plant) pricing, the shipping cost from the factory or warehouse is paid by the purchaser. Ownership of the goods is transferred to the buyer as soon as it is placed aboard a common carrier. Typically the choice of carrier is made by the buyer. FOB pricing is utilized by larger businesses capable of arranging their own logistics and marketing intermediaries. [1]
With a variation of the FOB pricing called FOB origin-freight allowed or freight absorbed, the terms allow buyers to subtract all or part of the cost of transportation from their bills. This amounts to a price discount, and is used as a market expansion tactic by the companies with high fixed costs. [1]
Uniform delivered pricing is the opposite of the FOB origin pricing, as the same price is quoted to all customers. The transportation costs are averaged across all buyers, and the nearby customers are in effect subsidizing the faraway ones (paying more for the delivery than it costs the seller, the difference is called the phantom freight). This approach resembles the fees for the first-class mail service, thus uniform pricing has another name, postage stamp pricing. [2]
Zone pricing (also zonal pricing) is a variant of the uniform pricing: the prices are the same within a "zone" (a geographical slice of the market), prices increase with the costs of shipping and reflect the average delivery cost inside the zone. This is the approach taken, for example, by the parcel delivery services. The zone pricing reduces the phantom freight, yet keeps the pricing structure relatively simple, thus making it easier for the seller to compete in a faraway market. [2]
The definition of zones is sometimes done by drawing concentric circles on a map with the plant or warehouse at the center and each circle defining the boundary of a price zone. Instead of using circles, irregularly shaped price boundaries can be drawn that reflect geography, population density, transportation infrastructure, and shipping cost. (The term "zone pricing" can also refer to the practice of setting prices that reflect local competitive conditions, i.e., the market forces of supply and demand, rather than actual cost of transportation.)[ citation needed ]
Gasoline marketers find it profitable to map out zones by determining what price the local market can bear and charging the gas station owners different wholesale prices depending on the zone. [2]
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Zone pricing, as practiced in the gasoline industry in the United States, is the pricing of gasoline based on a complex and secret weighting of factors, such as the number of competing stations, number of vehicles, average traffic flow, population density, and geographic characteristics.
Many businesspeople and economists state that gasoline zone pricing merely reflects the costs of doing business in a complex and volatile marketplace. Critics contend that industry monopoly and the ability to control not only industry-owned "corporate" stations, but locally owned or franchise stations, make zone pricing into an excuse to raise gasoline prices virtually at will. Oil industry representatives contend that while they set wholesale and dealer tank wagon prices, individual dealers are free to see whatever prices they wish and that this practice in itself causes widespread price variations outside industry control.
With basing-point pricing, certain locations are designated as basing points. The quoted price includes the freight fees from the basing point closest to the customer (not necessarily being the place the product is actually shipped from). The well-known example was the "Pittsburgh-plus" scheme, where all steel deliveries in the US were priced as if the shipment originated in Pittsburgh, even as the steel manufacturing moved away from Pittsburgh. The basing-point pricing is unpopular with the buyers. [2]
Freight transport is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been extended to refer to transport by land or air as well. "Logistics", a term borrowed from the military environment, is also used in the same sense.
Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acquire the goods, the manufacturing cost, the marketplace, competition, market condition, brand, and quality of product.
In economics and marketing, product differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or service from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's own products. The concept was proposed by Edward Chamberlin in his 1933 The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
Porter's Five Forces Framework is a method of analysing the operating environment of a competition of a business. It draws from industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, therefore, the attractiveness of an industry in terms of its profitability. An "unattractive" industry is one in which the effect of these five forces reduces overall profitability. The most unattractive industry would be one approaching "pure competition", in which available profits for all firms are driven to normal profit levels. The five-forces perspective is associated with its originator, Michael E. Porter of Harvard University. This framework was first published in Harvard Business Review in 1979.
The Incoterms or International Commercial Terms are a series of pre-defined commercial terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) relating to international commercial law. They are widely used in international commercial transactions or procurement processes and their use is encouraged by trade councils, courts and international lawyers. A series of three-letter trade terms related to common contractual sales practices, the Incoterms rules are intended primarily to clearly communicate the tasks, costs, and risks associated with the global or international transportation and delivery of goods. Incoterms inform sales contracts defining respective obligations, costs, and risks involved in the delivery of goods from the seller to the buyer, but they do not themselves conclude a contract, determine the price payable, currency or credit terms, govern contract law or define where title to goods transfers.
Disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in economics from a supply chain, or "cutting out the middlemen" in connection with a transaction or a series of transactions. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediary, companies may now deal with customers directly, for example via the Internet.
FOB is a term in international commercial law specifying at what point respective obligations, costs, and risk involved in the delivery of goods shift from the seller to the buyer under the Incoterms standard published by the International Chamber of Commerce. FOB is only used in non-containerized sea freight or inland waterway transport. As with all Incoterms, FOB does not define the point at which ownership of the goods is transferred.
Base point pricing is the system of firms setting prices of their goods based on a base cost plus transportation costs to a given market. Although some consider this a form of collusion between the selling firms, it is common practice in the steel and automotive industries. It allows firms to collude by simply agreeing on a base price.
A freight rate is a price at which a certain cargo is delivered from one point to another. The price depends on the form of the cargo, the mode of transport, the weight of the cargo, and the distance to the delivery destination. Many shipping services, especially air carriers, use dimensional weight for calculating the price, which takes into account both weight and volume of the cargo.
A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. To determine the most effective pricing strategy for a company, senior executives need to first identify the company's pricing position, pricing segment, pricing capability and their competitive pricing reaction strategy. Pricing strategies and tactics vary from company to company, and also differ across countries, cultures, industries and over time, with the maturing of industries and markets and changes in wider economic conditions.
A freight forwarder, or forwarding agent, is a person or company that organizes shipments for individuals or corporations to get goods from the manufacturer or producer to a market, customer or final point of distribution. Forwarders contract with a carrier or often multiple carriers to move the goods from one country to another.
Once the strategic plan is in place, retail managers turn to the more managerial aspects of planning. A retail mix is devised for the purpose of coordinating day-to-day tactical decisions. The retail marketing mix typically consists of six broad decision layers including product decisions, place decisions, promotion, price, personnel and presentation. The retail mix is loosely based on the marketing mix, but has been expanded and modified in line with the unique needs of the retail context. A number of scholars have argued for an expanded marketing, mix with the inclusion of two new Ps, namely, Personnel and Presentation since these contribute to the customer's unique retail experience and are the principal basis for retail differentiation. Yet other scholars argue that the Retail Format should be included. The modified retail marketing mix that is most commonly cited in textbooks is often called the 6 Ps of retailing.
Industrial market segmentation is a scheme for categorizing industrial and business customers to guide strategic and tactical decision-making. Government agencies and industry associations use standardized segmentation schemes for statistical surveys. Most businesses create their own segmentation scheme to meet their particular needs. Industrial market segmentation is important in sales and marketing.
Value-based price is a pricing strategy which sets prices primarily, but not exclusively, according to the perceived or estimated value of a product or service to the customer rather than according to the cost of the product or historical prices. Where it is successfully used, it will improve profitability through generating higher prices without impacting greatly on sales volumes.
A marketing channel consists of the people, organizations, and activities necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. It is the way products get to the end-user, the consumer; and is also known as a distribution channel. A marketing channel is a useful tool for management, and is crucial to creating an effective and well-planned marketing strategy.
In the retail industry, a buyer is an individual who selects what items are stocked. Buyers usually work closely with designers and their designated sales representatives and attend trade fairs, wholesale showrooms and fashion shows to observe trends. They may work for large department stores, chain stores or smaller boutiques. For smaller independent stores, a buyer may participate in sales as well as promotion, whereas in a major fashion store there may be different levels of seniority such as trainee buyers, assistant buyers, senior buyers and buying managers, and buying directors. Decisions about what to stock can greatly affect fashion businesses.
Free shipping is a marketing tactic used primarily by online vendors and mail-order catalogs as a sales strategy to attract customers.
Customer cost refers not only to the price of a product, but it also encompasses the purchase costs, use costs and the post-use costs. Purchase costs consist of the cost of searching for a product, gathering information about the product and the cost of obtaining that information. Usually, the highest use costs arise for durable goods that have a high demand on resources, such as energy or water, or those with high maintenance costs. Post-use costs encompass the costs for collecting, storing and disposing of the product once the item has been discarded.
Third-party logistics in logistics and supply chain management is an organization's use of third-party businesses to outsource elements of its distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services.
CitizenShipper is an American online auction-based peer-to-peer shipping marketplace, which aims to connect shipping customers with couriers and transport providers, especially citizens already driving the customers' routes anyway. The company matches "citizen shippers" to couriers and drivers who bid on shipments. Shippers can then choose the driver who best matches their pricing requirements and schedule needs.
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