Strategic Pricing for High Technology Goods and Services

To say that pricing of products is an important marketing decision variable is obviously a cliche. The specification of a price for a particular product has both revenue generation and promotion ramifications. And nowhere is this more true than in the marketing of high technology products and services. The extreme volatility of pricing structures, and cost configurations, typical of high tech marketing, introduces the high risk levels so familiar to those who deal with the introduction of new products of all types.

The purpose of this paper is to recall in a descriptive way the various considerations pertinent in the strategic pricing decision taking into account critical environmental factors peculiar to the marketing of high technology goods and services. While some might argue that the environments faced by the high tech marketer are really not much different from those of the marketer of any new type of product, this is absolutely untrue. Similarly, the hyper-sensitivity of the market to strategic decisions regarding high technology goods and services makes the arena of high tech decision making unique.