1. NetBuyer provides users an easy way to shop for PCs, peripherals and software
online. It allows browsers through thousands of products and prices from major
UK resellers and takes you directly to the point of purchase. NetBuyer is powered
by the same VLA (Virtual Learning Agents) technology used by MySimon, the leading price comparison site in
the US. This site uses 'crawler' technology, which is the use of special scripts
to search resellers' sites several times a day and build up a database of product,
price and delivery information. This allows NetBuyer to speedily find and display
prices and products. NetBuyer is a price comparison site. It searches for real-time
prices to provide you with the best market reference of a given product at any
time. Once you have found the product you are looking for, several links will
point you to the vendor's website where you can check for additional information
and place your order. NetBuyer is a comparison-shopping service only. They
don't sell or ship anything. Visit: www.netbuyer.co.uk www.checkaprice.com www.mysimon.com Questions: Discuss the impact that these “shopping bots” will have on the pricing strategy
of companies and distributors. Should companies encourage their usage? How do these sites obtain their revenue streams? What are the marketing implications of these “shopping bots”, in terms of pricing? 2. Philips have recently launched their new DVD recorder. DVD recorders allow
for the recording of television on DVD discs, signalling the end of videotape.
This product is trying to establish an industry standard for DVD recording.
At present there are numerous formats vying for industry supremacy such as DVD-R,
DVD+RW. Explore www.philips.com and www.amazon.co.uk (Electronics
> Home
Entertainment > DVD Recorders) to analyse Philips pricing strategies
for this new product. At the time of going to press, the press of these units was £700 stg (€1,100). Visit: www.philips.com www.amazon.co.uk Questions: What pricing strategy and what is their pricing objectives are Philips employing? Explain your reasoning. How price sensitive are “early adopters” of these types of electronic products? How does the product lifecycle curve affect their pricing strategy? Discuss how Philips should manage the pricing strategy for this new product. Discuss on whether you would recommend price standardisation of the DVD recorder
across borders. | 
2002 A McGraw-Hill Online Learning Centre