Unit pricing and its implications for B2B marketing research

While it is well known that price is the only marketing mix variable that generates revenue, it is also true that pricing strategies are diverse in complexity and formulations. Over 40 years ago, legislation was approved to require the use of unit pricing to facilitate consumer decision making. Among other research, Monroe and LaPlaca (1972), examined this new phenomenon; and after some controversy, the benefits of unit pricing were confirmed by the general scholarly community. Will those benefits sustain in B2B settings? As a result of the findings from this research, we propose the fusion of unit and value-based pricing as a new approach. We call it unit value-based pricing. The main difference with classical unit pricing is the perspective shift from cost to the customer perceived value. Unit value-based pricing helps the supplier to capture a fair share of the value created and makes more robust and efficient the purchasing procedures of industrial customers. After reviewing the impact of the Monroe and LaPlaca (1972) article on pricing research, we discuss the implications of unit-value based pricing, offer nine propositions for further research, and shed some light on the proposed benefits through a case study.