Simon-Kucker Partners practice cases

Hi Domenico,

First, congratulations on the interview and good luck!

Pricing Thought Process

1. Value-based or Willingness to Pay

When: This is your top choice.

How: Find a $ value for what customers would pay. This is normally adding the revenue increase and/or cost reduction that your customers get by buying your product/service. If it's more of a utility/happiness product, then customer surveys of product comparisons serve well as well.

Then, charge a discounted amount of that WTP, based on your eagerness/desire to capture market share.

2. Benchmarking

When: This is what you have to do if there's competition

How: See what price your competition charges!

3. Cost-based

When: This is what you do if you can't benchmark (i.e. no competition) AND you can't get a gauge on WTP.

How: Figure out your cost structure. Get the break-even point (i.e. how much you need to price the product at for there for be 0 profit per item sold). Then, charge a % margin on top (normally 10-20%)

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What's the step-by-step logic in pricing?

Question #1: Are there competitors (or is this a new market)?

Q1A: If yes, can I differentiate my product?

If yes, value-based

If no, competitor pricing/benchmarking is eliminated.

Q1B: If no, can I determine the value-add of my product (i.e. if saves x costs or a survey says people will pay x)?

If yes, value-based

If no, cost-based

Summary: If you can, you always want to do value-based. This is the most effective form of pricing. If you have "something" to go off of, you use it, else you use cost-based because you have no other choice.

Value-based occurs if:

1) You are a monopoly

2) You are the first entrant into a market

3) You can differentiate your product from other (I.e. monopolistic competition)

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I also highly recommend you focus on other case types that revolve around their line of work:

• Strategy
• Marketing
• Sales
• Digitization

You should also make sure you understand the following industries:

• Automotive
• Banking & Financial Institutions
• Business Services
• Chemicals & Materials
• Construction
• Consumer & Retail
• Electronics & Semiconductors
• Energy & Utilities
• Healthcare & Life Sciences
• Industrial Goods & Machinery
• Insurance
• Logistics & Distribution
• Media & Entertainment
• Private Equity & Venture Capital
• Public & Social Sector
• Software, Internet, Tech
• Telecommunications
• Travel, Tourism, Leisure

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