price war

(noun)

Price war is a term used in the economic sector to indicate a state of intense competitive rivalry accompanied by a multi-lateral series of price reductions. One competitor will lower its price, then others will lower their prices to match. If one of them reduces their price again, a new round of reductions starts.

Related Terms

  • off-price retailer
  • competitor
  • strategy

Examples of price war in the following topics:

  • Status Quo

    • They don't have the resources to survive a price war or the ability to claim better quality to charge a higher price.
    • Price wars are intense competitive rivalries characterized by a multilateral series of price reductions.
    • In the short term, price wars are good for consumers, who can take advantage of lower prices.
    • A small firm can avoid a price war by setting prices in line with its competition.
    • Walmart and Amazon are engaged in a price war with online books.
  • Competitor-Based Pricing

    • Competition-based pricing describes a situation where a firm has a pricing policy that reflects the pricing decisions of competitors.
    • Competition-based pricing describes the situation where a firm does not have a pricing policy that relates to its product, but reflects the pricing decisions of competitors.
    • It can lead to price wars.
    • Instead of setting market share objectives, firms should focus on identifying the most profitable segments to serve, and finding ways of profitably serving them while protecting themselves from price wars.
    • Show the basis of competitor-based pricing as a general pricing strategy
  • Price Competition

    • In general, a business can price itself to match its competition, price higher, or price lower.
    • Historically, one of the worst outcomes that can result from pricing lower than a competitor is a price war.
    • Price wars usually occur when a business believes that price-cutting produces increased market share, but does not have a true cost advantage.
    • Price wars are often caused by companies misreading or misunderstanding competitors.
    • Typically, price wars are overreactions to threats that either are not there at all or are not as big as they seem.
  • Success and Failure: Strategies to Improve Success

    • A retailer that wants to follow Wal-Mart's strategy of low prices needs to expand rapidly.
    • For this reason, Wal-Mart's low price strategy did not create sufficient competitive advantage.
    • After its expansion strategy failed, Wal-Mart began a price war to drive small competitors out of business.
    • One part of the price war was to introduce a private label called "Smart Brand" and sell most of these products below manufacturing costs.
    • Finally, the Federal Cartel Office interceded and stopped the price war.
  • Nonprice Competition

    • Non-price competition involves firms distinguishing their products from competing products on the basis of attributes other than price.
    • Since price competition can only go so far, firms often engage in non-price competition.
    • It can be contrasted with price competition, which is where a company tries to distinguish its product or service from competing products on the basis of a low price.
    • Firms will engage in non-price competition, in spite of the additional costs involved, because it is usually more profitable than selling for a lower price and avoids the risk of a price war.
    • Its prices are low, but not necessarily the lowest.
  • Pricing During Difficult Economic Times

    • A model of pricing based on 'rational' economic theory suggests that prices are set by the forces of supply and demand, and individual companies in a perfectly competitive market must follow the equilibrium price.
    • Sometimes prices go up and people buy more, and vice versa.
    • By knowing what value a company delivers to its customers, it can price more confidently and not panic into slashing prices when it does not necessarily need to.
    • Price-cutting may even lead to price wars where nobody wins.
    • Slashing prices on low value goods (while maintaining prices on high value goods) is a potential pricing strategy during difficult economic times.
  • Other Inputs to Pricing Decisions

    • Factors to consider in pricing include Economic Value added to Customers (EVC), competitor's pricing, and government regulations.
    • The price of two servers from the competitor is $6,800.
    • Price controls are governmental restrictions on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market.
    • There are two primary forms of price control, a price ceiling, the maximum price that can be charged, and a price floor, the minimum price that can be charged .
    • During World War I, the United States Food Administration enforced price controls on food.
  • Predatory Pricing

    • Predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market.
    • In the Darlington Bus War, Stagecoach Group allegedly offered free bus rides in order to put the rival Darlington Corporation Transport out of business.
    • However, It is usually difficult to prove that prices dropped because of deliberate predatory pricing rather than legitimate price competition.
    • Thus, they would not know predatory pricing is occurring.
    • Low oil prices in the 1990's were considered a case of alleged predatory pricing.
  • Demand-Based Pricing

    • Demand-based pricing, also known as customer-based pricing, is any pricing method that uses consumer demand - based on perceived value - as the central element.
    • These include: price skimming, price discrimination, psychological pricing, bundle pricing, penetration pricing, and value-based pricing.
    • Price skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time.
    • Penetration pricing is the pricing technique of setting a relatively low initial entry price, often lower than the eventual market price, to attract new customers.
    • By definition, long term prices based on value-based pricing are always higher or equal to the prices derived from cost-based pricing.
  • Psychological Pricing

    • Psychological pricing is a marketing practice based on the theory that certain prices have meaning to many buyers.
    • Inferring quality from price is a common example of the psychological aspect of price.
    • Another manifestation of the psychological aspects of pricing is the use of odd prices.
    • We call prices that end in such digits as 5, 7, 8, and 9 "odd prices. " Examples of odd prices include: $2.95, $15.98, or $299.99 .
    • Psychological pricing is one cause of price points.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.