Step 1 Consider how the psychology of pricing affects you. Think of a recent ins

Question

Step 1

Consider how the psychology of pricing affects you.

Think of a recent instance where you were influenced by a pricing tactic. This could be seeing a "2 for 1" offer, a special coupon discount, a time when something was advertised at a particular price but then not available, and the like

Consider how you came to learn about the pricing tactic and your initial reaction.

Step 2

Write your first post.

In your post, describe the instance you considered for step 1, analyzing your emotions and feelings.

Were you happy with the offer? Did you feel misled or cheated? Did you experience mixed emotions?

Speculate on what the company was trying to achieve with the pricing tactic. Do you think that it benefitted or hurt the company overall?

How did this instance affect your view of the company? Of the company's competitors?

As part of your post, discuss price adjustment considerations that the company may or may not have acted upon. Include legal and ethical issues that may have resulted from-or been avoided-by company's pricing such as predatory pricing, bait and switch, loss leader, and other such tactics.

Explanation / Answer

I recently bought a Datacamp yearly subscription. Datacamp has more than a hundred courses related to data science with hands on coding experience. I had tried the free courses on their platform and was very happy with the learning experience. When I tried to access t paid content, I was shown a page where they had a 90% discount on the yearly subscription. They clearly had the actual price striked out and the new price show boldly in a different color. I could immediately see the economy of buying at the discounted rate. But this discount also had a expiry date. I had to make the purchase within the next 20 days to avail this discount. I did not want to let go of this opportunity and immediately bought it.

I was very happy with the offer. I did not feel misled though I have other experiences where I have had felt cheated and had mixed emotions.

I believe that the company which has built the platform is now trying to acquire users. More number of users also means that the platform will be put to test for bugs and user experience. This was a temporary discount or pricing tactic and it benefits the company a lot. Platform based companies are evaluated on the number of users they serve and thus this is a non-monetary measure of the platform''s success. The discount users may also help spread the value of the platform through word-of-mouth publicity. So, actually, the revenue lost on discount is not actually lost but smartly invested.

As I could understand the motive of the company and I was really very happy with their product/service, this discounting strategy did not have any major influence on how I viewed this company.

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