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up vote 1 down vote favorite

The wording can influence their response, so which way to ask is the best ?

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What is the purpose of the question - for making projections prior to the product's availability (e.g. to present to investors) or to actually set the price of the product? – Elie Aug 4 '11 at 15:46
To set the price. – user2534 Aug 4 '11 at 20:32

4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I've solicited feedback on prices before and got what appeared to be very honest answers.

I agree that wording is very important. I think it's a very bad idea to mention any price at all because that will skew the results towards those price points.

Don't ask how much they think it should cost, but how much they think it would cost.

The wording I use is along these lines: If [name of product] were available today, how much do you think it would cost?

Using this technique I've had people answer from $0 up to $1800 for a practice test product. The most profitable price ended up being $20.

I think it's also a great idea to do some A/B price testing before you launch the product. Doing so might help you fine tune your prices.

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up vote 3 down vote

Mark Paul has a video on this (if you can get past the dude eating right next to the video camera, but the content is great).

http://blip.tv/otbc/how-to-value-price-your-products-and-services-1951374

Start around 15:30.

To paraphrase, spend a good deal of time honing in what value your product brings. Put this in a survey and then ask them these 5 questions (in this order):

  1. At what price is this product/service expensive?
  2. At what price is this product/service inexpensive?
  3. At what price is this product/service too expensive that you won't buy it?
  4. At what price is this product/service too cheap that you question it's quality?
  5. What other features or functions would you like to see?

It is a good watch. I highly recommend it.

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up vote 1 down vote

I think the answer is don't.

You set your own prices based on market research and what your product offers.

It's fairly obvious that you can lower prices, but it's less obvious that it's also okay to raise prices, as long as your give your customers fair warning in advance that you're going to do so.

Remember the price isn't how much it cost you to make, it's how much it helps the customer.

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Exactly. So if I don't ask them I risk setting the price too low. It's the kind of product (book) that is usually sold at 15€ but from a prior survey I found that most people find the same information (product) elsewhere for free. I was thinking of selling it at a low price, 5€ - this new survey is going to show if that would have been a mistake or not. – user2534 Aug 4 '11 at 17:27
up vote 0 down vote

Here is a problem for you...

Ask a customer if they would like to pay $5 or $10 for x, they'll always say $5.

The best way is to test price points and go from there. You're looking at making the most money, so choose the price point and volume that makes you the most.

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heh, people are cheap huh ? well I know what similar products cost, so I'll probably take the highest price some people voted for, and use the lower prices most people voted for, for future sales, what do you think ? – user2534 Aug 4 '11 at 11:35

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