Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything 1st ed. 2015 Edition, Kindle Edition

A remarkably informative book on pricing strategy. A must read for everybody who's involved in strategy and product development and implementation.There are a few things to ponder for those who would jump on this bandwagon without a consideration for their own business model.I will just share one regarding the “every day low prices" (EDLP) model. It is not a model for every business and every market. Despite what is claimed in the book, there are legitimate uses of alternative or even existing pricing strategies simply because they sometimes work much better in the real world.To give you an example - in Australia it's very entertaining and enjoyable to see direct quotations from this book to be spearheaded in the Australian WSJ, called the Australian Financial Review, as state-of-the-art management practice. Specifically, as applied to the duopoly in the groceries market controlled by Coles and Woolworths. Seeing these ‘educational’ articles time and again on how the EDLP must be adopted in the industry to optimize their profitability is a naturally satisfying feat.Why? Well, the EDLP model would not work in the real world of Australian duopolistic groceries market. People shop for a large number of SKUs every week usually in shopping malls where Coles and Woolies sit side by side. I understand that Simon thinks it’s wasteful to allow a consumer to stock up on those deep-sale discounted deodorants, but he forgets that those are called loss leaders used to confuse customers and lure them from the rival chain.The two chains compete ONLY on cost of essentially commoditised perfectly substitutable products, there’s Pepsi and Coke in both. Which means that over time static prices would simply reveal to a customer who offers a better deal – you just go to two different stores on alternate weeks and see which one is cheaper for your basket. All these smoke and mirrors non-stop weekly promos play an essential business role of creating price confusion. Without them an objective quantifiable dollar differential between the two chains will become evident.Imagine what is going to happen when neither of the supermarkets has any difference in their value proposition i.e. selection, instore experience, customer service, locations and so on! This is the worst case scenario for Simon – the commoditised market where the only way you can extract premium from the consumers is by confusing them. Removing the confusion by introducing EDLP is NOT what those business really want. This is one of the main problems I found in the book.Although this book is - in my opinion - colossal, it cannot substitute for a solid business sense. There are no simple recipes in this world.

I follow pricing literature quite closely. Each book has its value, but many times it can drop rather quickly into the weeds of economic theory. This author is not afraid of complexity, but her does know how to create value for the reader. Pricing discipline for profit does drive everything and it is always wiser to maintain profit over volume. The analyses he presents with the multiple real world examples ( and you will likely recognize most of them) builds a very readable book in a genre that too often is not known for readability. Again I am struck by the contrast between firms understanding that they need to deliver value to a customer to stabilize/grow their profits, yet in North America it is all about commission sales based on volume, not profits. Every CEO, CFO and Sales manager should read this book.

Very insightful, and full of useful case stories about pricing in different industries.As a pricing scientist in IT company, I would like to recommend this book to everyone who wants to sell digital products without any physical form and has to make a decision about pricing without any reference.I give it 4star because there are editing issue in Kindle edition. many words with "... s" are white spaced and sometimes it can be very bothersome.

Very good but also a bit long and theoretical, i.e. a lot of less-useful stuff mixed in with real insights and gems. Could be about half as long and twice as useful. But still worth going through for insights, especially for various situations and concepts such as bundling, differentiation, segmentation, and several counter-intuitive elements.

He pointed out very early in the book that when he was most interested in pricing, people acted like he was dumb for thinking about it. It's certainly a component of the supply demand curve that we didn't spend much time on in my microeconomics or macroeconomics classes.I really have to say that the book is extraordinary and eye-opening. I would not have bought such an expensive book normally, but a different author pointed to this book as one of his top 50. And I know that I'll re-read this book over and over again just to absorb the different lessons.It also made me think about how I price my own products. It was a great nudge to carefully consider all the factors before pricing anything.

In the domain of pricing literature, there is nothing that touches Hermann Simon’s seminal book “Confession of the Pricing Man.” Interspersed with dozens of stories and examples, bringing together theory and practice, Simon lays a cogent and coherent roadmap to pricing excellence. Simon’s passion for pricing is contagious, inspirational and highly motivating. This incredibly valuable, informative and eminently digestible read is a must for those seeking to improve the performance of their organization and those interested in exploring the intriguing world of pricing.

Great book. I have learned a lot about pricing for my job through the stories here. I thought it was going to be a book with formulas and strategies on how to understand pricing as a consumer and as the seller. However, it is filled with stories from his travels that inform readers about how pricing is arrived at.

If you ever wanted to know about price, this is a real-life yet academic view of pricing. I really enjoyed getting both perspectives about one of the most important parts of business. Pricing is absolutely one of the most critical parts to building a long-lasting business (profits) that you owe it to yourself to read this book.

This book is in my top 10 business books of all time. We run great businesses but our pricing has been wrong for years. This has transformed our businesses already. If you have a business and feel that you make a difference to your clients, but you always seem to just break even or make a small profit then read it. This book has transformed our businesses. This should be part of an Economics or Business class room and it goes beyond supply and demand. It shown me why we have broken even some years and made a profit in other years. Without pricing your products properly how will you ever make a profit.

What I like, is for example: indicators, reffering to revenue, profit et., giving comparisons for different industries, next to number of real life examples of companies and their pricing strategy.You can read the book like literature almost. The title itself "Confessions..." indicates some personal and emotional aspect for the author. All this makes the book really worth reading by everybody.

Definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read. Clear, simple and addictive reading. The author knows his subject and what’s more important he ensures that the reader knows it too.Definitely recommend.

Recommended for all people involved in product or business. A strong approach to pricing and profit over general market share.

Everything was perfect. Great! Thank you!