A relação entre as estratégias de precificação e o desempenho das empresas

Abstract

The price is one of the main aspects when costumers are choosing products. Factors such as a higher level of differentiation of products, technological developments and globalization of the economy increased the importance of price, because it is a key element in order to reach the sales amount desired as well as for having an impact in the profitability of the companies. Furthermore, the pricing strategies are paramount for a suitable market positioning consolidation. Therefore, this paper has analysed the strategies and the processes of pricing of 153 companies that are part of the Sindicato das Indústrias Metalúrgicas e de Material Elétrico de Caxias do Sul (SIMECS), verifying the relationship between pricing decision make and their performance. As for the research method, a survey was conducted with a quantitative approach and descriptive study with the persons responsible for the pricing process in their respective enterprises. The analysis of the results used the Factor Analysis, Variance Analysys (ANOVA) and Cluster Analysis. The main results suggest that enterprises tend to consider as a main method of pricing definition a cost based method. However, there are differences in the price strategies and performance verified in different fields of economic activity as well as in the size of the companies researched, defined by the segregation in the three different groups of companies in which the Cluster 1 concentrates the companies of lower performance and smaller size and the other Cluster concentrate the companies of superior performance. Moreover, the data suggest that companies that manage to better understand the perceived value of the customers, allied to strategies of higher prices present an improved performance when compared to their main competitors.