Taft College Talking to The Manager of Three of Style and Fashion Industry Interview

Select a company and interview the owner/manager regarding their pricing strategies and methods. Report on your findings. Ideally, this will be your current company, but you may need to be resourceful and find a business owner or manager from another company who is willing to visit with you. Your goal is to discover the following:

What is the company’s pricing  objective? For this question, it would helpful to show the interviewee a  list of the pricing objectives on page 489 with very brief  descriptions.(I suggest that you either highlight the first 1-3  sentences under each objective and then show the interviewee the  highlighted descriptions in your text OR simply retype them on another  sheet of paper for use in the interview).

Do they have some target segments that are less price sensitive than others?

1. How much consideration does the company give to competitors’ prices when setting their own?
2. What method of pricing do they use  to arrive at the final price for the customer? For this question, you  should be very familiar with the methods found under “Step 5” on pages  475-480 before the interview, but do not ask the interviewee to select  from among them. Instead, simply listen to the description of their  pricing method(s) and process. Then, after the interview, try to  determine which of the textbook’s methods the company uses. You do not  need to request or report exact markups or profit margins! You should  make this clear when requesting the interview! We are looking for  methods of pricing, not exact figures.
3. Important note: This is your chance to do some  “primary research.” I understand that it may be difficult to find a  willing interviewee, but I expect you to try earnestly. If you fail to  find a willing owner/manager after at least 7 attempts at different  companies, then please email me and I will assist you. Don’t overlook  companies owned by friends, people at your church, and those in your old  hometown. In your post, you do not need to reveal the name of the  company you interviewed or its location. You should, however, reveal the  industry, the nature of the business (deli, grocery store, gift shop,  nursery, barber, etc), and a rough idea of the size (single mom and pop  or multi-location). If the business owner/manager is hesitant about what  you may write, offer to submit your post to them for review before  posting it.