The Price Is Wrong: Understanding What Makes a Price Seem Fair and the True Cost of Unfair Pricing - Hardcover

by Sarah Maxwell (Author)

Fair pricing is an issue that affects us all, whether we?re consumers or merchants. Throughout her career, Sarah Maxwell has seen how pricing practices?across a variety of different areas, from mobile phones and airline tickets to prescription drugs and gasoline?impact our everyday lives. Now, with The Price Is Wrong, Maxwell shares her deepest insights on this issue and examines both the psychological and sociological basis of fair pricing.

Front Jacket

The subject of price fairness is one that affects us all, whether we're consumers or merchants. And while concerns about fair pricing are constantly being voiced, this topic has not been explored as thoroughly as you might think.

Author Sarah Maxwell is a pioneer in the field of fair pricing. Throughout her career, she has seen how pricing practices--across a variety of different areas, from mobile phones and airline tickets to prescription drugs and gasoline--impact our everyday lives. Now, with The Price Is Wrong, Maxwell shares her deepest insights on this issue and examines both the psychological and sociological basis of fair pricing.

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this book puts fair pricing into perspective by integrating the author's own research with examples of right and wrong pricing, reports from reliable resources, and the contributions of those who have experienced the true cost of unfair pricing firsthand.

Divided into three comprehensive parts, The Price Is Wrong opens with a brief background discussion of this important issue. It quickly moves on to outline a model that explains how personal and social fairness can lead to escalating emotions within consumers. Each element of this model is skillfully illustrated, so you'll become familiar with how judgments of price fairness can increase consumer trust, as well as destroy it--if sellers decide to abuse their power. In the final section, Maxwell reveals how you can effectively apply this model to real-world situations of price fairness such as tipping, negotiations, price discrimination, taxes, and much more.

A fair price is one that is emotionally okay. It is acceptable and just. It has passed the test of personal and social fairness by adhering to the social norms. But when the norms are violated and the price is judged personally and socially unfair, something must be done. With The Price Is Wrong as your guide, you'll come to grips with the slippery idea of price fairness and be in a better position to make more informed decisions when faced with the pricing challenges that are a part of both everyday business and life.

Back Jacket

Praise For The Price Is Wrong

"Consumers will no doubt benefit from the book's insights and arguments. They will, for example, be better able to negotiate a fair price and avoid the unfair pricing practices of unscrupulous salespeople. Businesses will also benefit from understanding the emotional aspect of pricing, and students, too, can benefit from appreciating the principles of fair play that underlie our economic system."
--From the Foreword by Jon Luther, Chairman and CEO, Dunkin' Brands, Inc.

"Almost every day in our lives, we are confronted with purchasing something, and in all but the rarest situations, we pay the price which is placed directly under the object we are purchasing. There is no room for negotiation, simply acceptance. After reading this book, you will be a more informed consumer and recognize that price is a function of the marketplace tinged with some art and a little mathematical science. The Price Is Wrong will make the average consumer feel more educated and more understanding, and possibly make his next purchase a little more palatable."
--Edwin A. Cohen, Chairman, Intranasal Therapeutics, Inc., and founder and former CEO, Barr Laboratories

"This is a wonderful book that applies modern social science research to the problem of pricing. The Price Is Wrong illuminates the psychological nature of price perception and the disastrous consequences of unfair pricing policies. I recommend it to all who are concerned about the complex human aspects of business."
--David M. Messick, Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Decision in Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Sarah Maxwell's application of the considerable body of research on fairness to marketing is pathbreaking. Her work will undoubtedly move marketing research into a new direction, and will stimulate further applications of fairness research to world problems."
--Edward E. Zajac, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Arizona, and author of Fairness or Efficiency: An Introduction to Public Utility Pricing and Political Economy of Fairness

Author Biography

Sarah Maxwell, PhD, is an expert in fair pricing, with both academic and business experience in this field. She is an Associate Professor at Fordham University and is Co-Director of the Fordham Pricing Center. Dr. Maxwell is also Associate Editor of Pricing for the Journal of Product and Brand Management and has written for a variety of publications, including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Economic Psychology, and the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Previously, Dr. Maxwell was a vice president of marketing for Aramark and consulted with divisions in Europe and Japan. She has also consulted and taught in several countries including India, China, and Brazil.