How to Price Your Platypus by David Abbott

Brad Revell -

My Rating of “Price Your Platypus” by David Abbott: 8 / 10

Pricing Your Platypus was a recommendation from a friend and a pick-up for a specific reason; pricing for a conference. It is short, sweet and comes with succinct advice for anyone looking to price something new (e.g. your platypus).

The author David Abbott, an expert in pricing, starts the reader on the 4Ps (People, Price, Promotion and Place) and follows with a more advanced approaches on how to price. At the high level, there are two basic parts to pricing: the first is analysing and the second is communicating that price. Note, the second part is not just deciding on the price.

I came away with the considerations I would need to make in order to achieve my goal in pricing my conference. Essentially this is one of those books you will buy and use on multiple occasions. Recommended given the short read and practical advice.

Three key takeaways from the book:

  1. The four elements to the analysis stage: 1. Simplified ABC, 2. Buyer Influences and Value Perception, 3. Buyer Behaviour and 4. Price Potential
  2. Identify and leverage pricing anchors of your consumers as these drive what they are prepared to pay. Sometimes they are related and many times are not.
  3. The more precise any price is, the smaller it seems to the customer; and in addition, the more it looks like it has been arrived at through detailed and scientific analysis, and so the less likely they are to negotiate the price down.