In Response to Gretchen's Post...

Do you think exclusive brands are better than non-exclusive brands? Why or why not do you like them? Is the quality of these products actually better than not exclusive items? Have you ever been disappointed with a exclusive brands?

There is no way I could say that for every situation exclusive brands are better than non-exclusive brands. I personally had experience an instance where an exclusive brand didn't have the quality I had expected it to have. This happened when I bought a shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch, which is known for having moderately expensive clothes. After having the shirt for about a month, there was visible ware and tare. I believe the ware and tare was from the washer machine, which shouldn't cause the shirt to get holes. Where as on the other hand I had bought a nice polo type shirt from Wal-Mart that had lasted longer than this. So based from this personal instance I can't say that exclusive brands are better than others. In some cases exclusive brands are better than some non-exclusive brands. For example, I only get my jeans from American Eagle. I had noticed that my jeans from American Eagle have always lasted a lot longer than other competitors. When it comes to medication, generic vs. non generic, I believe not one is better than the other. For example, Advil is probably one of the most expensive pain reliever. There are generic brands such as equate, that have the exact same ingredients that Advil has. In this situation I do not believe Advil is any different than the generic brand. They are both the exact same thing, just one is more expensive than the other. There are some cases that I do believe exclusive brands are higher quality than non- exclusive brands. For example, an electric Braun razor I had purchased was fairly expensive. It has lasted me a long time and works really well. Where as the razor I had prior to this had broke after four months and was a non-exclusive brand. Also, the razor didn't work well at all. In this case the exclusive brand was overall better than the non-exclusive brand. Do you agree that within the medicine industry generic brands are just as good as non-generic brands?

Pricing

Pricing is an important variable to the marketing mix. When it comes to product decisions, price is a key component. There are many pricing objectives, there are seven that come in this category. The pricing objectives consists of the survival of the product, profit, return on investment, market share, cash flows, status quo and product quality. When any price is set the firm must evaluate competitors prices. Find out information about competitors prices is apart of market research. It is very important for a firm to know what their competitors prices are. By knowing competitors prices it helps marketers to set competitive prices for their products. Sometimes, depending upon the product, it can be an advantage to set your price at a higher price than their competitors and at a lower price than their competitors. For example, Fuji water is viewed as a pure, elegant type of water. The price of Fuji water is much more expensive than say poland springs. Since the price is higher than most competitors, customers will think that Fuji water is "better" than the poland springs water. There are both different dimensions to pricing as well as a basis for pricing. The three different dimensions of pricing consists of cost, demand and competition. The bases for prices are made up of the type of product, the market structure of the industry, the brands market share relative to competing brands, and the customer characteristics. There are also three different types of cost-based pricing. Cost-based pricing is the dollar amount to the cost of the product. Cost-plus pricing is adding a specified dollar amount to the seller's cost. Lastly, markup is adding to the cost of the product a predetermined percentage of that cost. If a company didn't conduct any research before pricing their product do you think the product will be a success or failure?