Customer Value in Pricing Strategy (Coursera)

Customer Value in Pricing Strategy (Coursera)

The traditional approach to pricing based on costs works to pay the bills, but it leaves revenue on the table. You can, in fact, price your products in a way that increases sales--if you know what your customers are willing to pay and can leverage psychology to create better deal and discount plans. In this course, we'll show you how to price a product based on how your customers value it and the psychology behind their purchase decisions.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and led by top-ranked Darden faculty and Boston Consulting Group global pricing experts, this course provides an in-depth understanding of value-based pricing and how to use it to capture more revenue.
By the end of this course, you'll be able to...
-- Apply knowledge of customer value to price products
-- Leverage core value-based pricing techniques to inform pricing decisions
-- Measure customer willingness to pay using models (surveys, conjoint analysis, other data)
-- Use knowledge of consumer psychology to set prices beneficial to both consumers and sellers
Course 2 of 4 in the Pricing Strategy Optimization Specialization.

What You Will Learn

  • Customer value applications in pricing products
  • How to leverage core value-based pricing techniques to inform pricing decisions
  • How to measure customer willingness to pay using models (surveys, conjoint analysis, other data)
  • Consumer psychology applications in setting prices beneficial to both consumers and sellers

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Understanding Customer Value
Welcome to Week 1! We kick off the week with an overview of the course so that you'll know what to expect with an optional review of the specialization and three pricing lenses (watch these if you want a refresher). Then we'll dive into the content! This week, you'll learn about customer value--what it is and its relevance to pricing. You'll see how consumers make decisions--and why knowing consumers' willingness to pay is so important when setting a product's price. Next, we'll take a look at customer value in developing economies and how and why companies succeed (or not!) with value-based pricing in these markets. You'll finish the week with a solid understanding of "customer value" and how that impacts pricing strategy.

WEEK 2
Implementing Value-based Pricing
Now that you have an understanding of customer value, let's dive into value-based pricing in greater depth. This week, we'll show you how to price to the demand curve using three tools: the price piano, the price ladder, and incentive curves. We'll take a look at customer value drivers in a B2B context and walk through a process to price a new product. Then Ron and Thomas will show you how price elasticity plays into value-based pricing. Implementing value-based pricing requires detailed analysis. Let's get started!

WEEK 3
Measuring Customer Preferences
As you learned in Week 1, understanding customer willingness to pay (WTP) is critical for effective pricing. This week, we'll show you two ways to measure willingness to pay: surveys and conjoint analysis. You'll see how one company, Adios Junk Mail, used surveys to better understand WTP. Conjoint is a terrific tool, and we'll walk you through how it's used to determine product preferences and prices. You'll finish the week with a solid understanding of how to measure customer preferences and use this information in your pricing strategy.

WEEK 4
Considering the Human Nature of Customers
Last week you considered pricing using a rational utility model. But humans are not always rational beings--and your pricing strategy needs to consider other behavioral drivers. We'll look at the psychology behind consumer purchase decisions and the mental accounting that impacts those decisions. Next we'll consider consumer price perceptions and ways to frame prices and create better deals and discount plans that work for both the consumer and the seller. Then, we'll take a look at two real-world cases, the Portland Trailblazers and Fidelity Investments so that you can practice using tools from throughout the course in a real-world case. You'll finish the course with fresh insights into value-based pricing and its applications.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Accounting: Principles of Financial Accounting (Coursera) Coursera
IESE Business School

Accounting: Principles of Financial Accounting (Coursera)

Financial Accounting is often called the language of business; it is the language that managers use to communicate the firm's financial and economic information to external parties such as shareholders and creditors. Nobody working in business can afford financial illiteracy. Whether you run your own business, work as a manager or are just starting your career, you want to understand financial information and be able to interact with accountants, controllers, and financial managers. You want to talk business!

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management (Coursera)

Projects are all around us. Virtually every organization runs projects, either formally or informally. We are engaged in projects at home and at work. Across settings, planning principles and execution methodologies can offer ways in which projects can be run more effectively and efficiently. Project management provides organizations (and individuals) with the language and the frameworks for scoping projects, sequencing activities, utilizing resources, and minimizing risks.

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Introduction to Google SEO (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Davis

Introduction to Google SEO (Coursera)

Ever wonder how major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo rank your website within their searches? Or how content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users? Welcome to the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This course is the first within the SEO Specialization and it is intended to give you a taste of SEO with some fun practices to get seen in Google.

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Inglés Empresarial: el márketing y ventas (Coursera) Coursera
Arizona State University

Inglés Empresarial: el márketing y ventas (Coursera)

If you work in marketing, sales, or advertising, you already know that effective communication is a requirement. This can be even more difficult when expressing your ideas in a persuasive manner in English. In this course, you will learn to use English more efficiently while joining successful global professionals around the world. Develop your skills along with authentic characters that work in marketing and also work hard to improve their communication skills. Learn from your successes and failures, reflect on your own style, strengths, and improvement areas.

Jun 15th 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Fundamentals of Revenue Management: The Cornerstone of Revenue Strategy (Coursera) Coursera
ESSEC Business School

The Fundamentals of Revenue Management: The Cornerstone of Revenue Strategy (Coursera)

With a fixed capacity, a highly disposable product and high fixed costs, hotels are a natural candidate for the application of revenue management. Originally developed by the airlines in the 1970s, these analytics-based techniques help predict consumer behavior at the hotel’s market level so that the hotel can sell each room each night at the optimum price. With modern-day rising acquisition costs and distribution complexities, revenue management techniques have increasingly been adopted by both small and large hotel companies, making a comprehensive understanding of segmentation, forecasting and pricing an essential requirement for today’s hospitality professionals. The purpose of this course is to provide a core understanding of the fundamentals of revenue management, which ties into the larger picture of revenue strategy.

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Marketing in a Digital World (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Marketing in a Digital World (Coursera)

This course examines how digital tools, such as the Internet, smartphones, and 3D printing, are revolutionizing the world of marketing by changing the roles and practices of both firms and consumers. Marketing in a Digital World is one of the most popular courses on Coursera with over 250,000 Learners and is rated by Class Central as one of the Top 50 MOOCs of All Time.

Jun 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Firm Level Economics: Consumer and Producer Behavior (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Firm Level Economics: Consumer and Producer Behavior (Coursera)

All goods and services are subject to scarcity at some level. Scarcity means that society must develop some allocation mechanism – rules to determine who gets what. Over recorded history, these allocation rules were usually command based – the king or the emperor would decide. In contemporary times, most countries have turned to market based allocation systems. In markets, prices act as rationing devices, encouraging or discouraging production and encouraging or discouraging consumption in such a way as to find an equilibrium allocation of resources.

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Introduction to Psychology (Coursera) Coursera
University of Toronto

Introduction to Psychology (Coursera)

This course highlights the most interesting experiments within the field of psychology, discussing the implications of those studies for our understanding of the human mind and human behavior. We will explore the brain and some of the cognitive abilities it supports like memory, learning, attention, perception and consciousness. We will examine human development - both in terms of growing up and growing old - and will discuss the manner in which the behavior of others affect our own thoughts and behavior.

Jun 15th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Strategic Planning and Execution (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Strategic Planning and Execution (Coursera)

Avoid the pitfalls of strategy planning and execution with the tools and skills from this course. You'll learn the pillars of strategy execution--analysis, formulation, and implementation--and how to use the 4A model to effectively approach strategy execution. Finally, a panel of leaders from entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and industry, share their expertise gleaned from years of successful strategy planning and execution.

Jun 15th 2026
4 Weeks
Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace (Coursera) Coursera
University of Maryland, College Park

Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace (Coursera)

Develop insights on navigating the innovation process from idea generation to commercialization. Build knowledge on how to create strategies to bring innovations to market. Develop an innovation portfolio for your venture. We establish a framework for examining the innovation process, and quickly transition into exploring how to successfully bring innovations to market.

Jun 15th 2026
5-12 Weeks