Price Planning Process in Multi-Product Companies from Fast Moving Customer Goods Sector

Abstract

The following paper is methodological in nature. It examines some practical issues related to price planning. Nowadays it is more important than ever to carry out a constant revision of the price plans and the results of pricing actions. The main reasons for this are customers’ priorities, values and behaviors which are fundamentally changing as well as the wild fluctuation of commodity prices. As it is known, each manufacturer and brand faces a unique set of situational factors. It is important to notice that due to economic uncertainty they are in an ongoing state of flux. For above-stated reasons, price planning concerning the company’s product portfolio is a complex process. Pricing is perhaps the most powerful tool available to marketers, so the outcome of its use is worth the efforts. The conducted research indicates that a methodological approach is needed aiming at optimizing price policy. Such an approach can be applied by the price planning process.   For the aims of elaboration of a conceptual and methodological framework of price planning, the deductive approach is applied.  It includes the following stages: first - after marking some principal arguments pertaining to price policy, the characteristics of companies from the Fast Moving Customer Goods sector (FMCG) are stated; second - the typical elements of price policy are identified and grouped in accordance with the specific features of the sector; finally - a methodological framework for price planning is proposed. The implementation of such a framework would contribute to making informed decisions related to price policy.  The paper also examines the relationship between price planning and the other strategic and tactical marketing components - differentiation and positioning, distribution, product and communication policies. It presents the main results of a survey made to investigate the implementation of price planning, conducted among a sample of companies from the FMCG sector. It determines the place of price planning within the companies’ complex  marketing planning process.