The price tag you attach to a product or service is a major factor in its success on the market – and it isn’t a case of “the lower, the better.” Consumers use price as an indicator of quality and prestige along with determining if the cost fits into their budget. So how do you find a price for your product that sends the right message and maximizes profits without pricing too many of your customers out of the market? You ask!
A consumer pricing survey is a critical part of your research whether you’re bringing a new product to the market, testing an idea for viability, or investigating why a product’s sales aren’t reaching your expectations. To help you get started, our market research specialists have developed an easy and strategic pricing survey template.
What Is Your Goal in a Pricing Survey?
Before you dive into creating your survey, you need to set your focus in the right direction. What’s the goal of your pricing survey?
To be general, a pricing survey is meant to identify the ideal price range for your product according to consumers’ opinions. It doesn’t take your costs into account – that’s another part of your research process. It’s all about understanding consumers’ perceptions of your product’s value and how that translates to an ideal price range.
Your exact goal can vary depending on how you’re using your pricing survey. You might conduct a price survey as part of your product viability testing to find out if consumers would be willing to pay a price that will cover your costs. Most commonly, pricing surveys are done as part of the go-to-market process to determine what price to set for your launch. In some cases, pricing surveys can also help you determine if you’ve underpriced or overpriced a product that’s already on the market.
How to Use Our Free Pricing Survey Template
Below, we’ve put together an easy-to-use template to get you started in designing your pricing survey. Keep in mind, though, that this is a jumpstart – not an end-to-end solution.
Our template includes a variety of pricing survey questions that are designed to give you detailed data about the ideal price range for your product. You may prefer to add to these questions or remove some of them depending on the approach you want to take.
You’ll notice that in addition to price survey questions and examples, we’ve included a set of categorization questions. This helps you ensure that you’re surveying consumers who fit into your target audience. With an advanced survey platform
, you can also use these questions to analyze your results in more depth and find out what pricing one type of consumer prefers over others. You might find that a certain price is best if you want to appeal to people over 65 while a different price is more appealing for those aged 40-65, for example. The goal is to have the data available so you can optimize your pricing and accurately predict how different segments of the market will respond.
Free Price Survey Template
Start with an introductory message that lets respondents know what the survey is about:
Welcome, and thank you for participating in our survey! We’ll be telling you about a new product and asking for your opinion based on the descriptions and details provided. Please do your best to carefully consider the product description carefully and answer the questions honestly.
Product Description
In this section, you’ll describe the product or service you’re researching. For the most accurate data, be as specific as possible about the features your product will include, the materials it involves, its benefits and limitations, and so on.
Pricing Questions
There are numerous pricing models you can use in a pricing survey, including the willingness to pay model, the van Westendorp model, and the expected cost model. Our survey template below includes examples of each of these.
Open-ended questions, such as the questions below with an open text box for the respondent’s answer, work well for products that already have comparable competitors on the market because consumers have a frame of reference for pricing. If your product is highly unique so consumers don’t have a frame of reference, you can use a multiple-choice form of these questions instead.
These questions will ask for your opinion. There are no right or wrong answers. Please answer as honestly as possible.
- Based on the description provided, how interested would you be in purchasing this product if it were within your budget, on a scale of 1-5?
- What price would you be willing to pay for the product we described (willingness to pay model)?
- What price would you expect to pay for the product we described (expected cost model)?
Van Westendorp Model
The van Westendorp model relies on all of the following pricing questions, so be sure to ask all of them.
- At what price would you feel that the product described was so expensive that you wouldn’t consider buying it?
- At what price would you feel that the product described was starting to get expensive, but not so expensive that you wouldn’t consider it?
- At what price would you feel that the product described was so inexpensive that you would expect it to be low-quality?
- At what price would you feel that the product described was a great bargain for the cost?
- Do you believe this product should be more or less expensive than [competing product]? Why?
In addition to these questions, you can use a strategy called choice-based conjoint analysis or CBC analysis. For this type of analysis, you provide two hypothetical lists of product features and a price for each and ask consumers which one they would choose. This allows you to gauge how valuable certain features are to customers. For example:
Product A is a word processing software that offers:
- Live sharing capabilities
- 200+ built-in fonts
- Internal spellcheck
- $5 per month price
Product B is a word processing software that offers:
- Live sharing capabilities
- 200+ built-in fonts
- Internal tables and charts
- Internal spellcheck
- $7 per month price
Choice-based conjoint analysis does take more planning and more complex analysis than other pricing models. However, an advanced survey tool like GroupSolver can manage the data analysis for you. CBC allows you to more accurately pinpoint how much value your audience is placing on different features of your product. It also replicates a real-world buying choice, giving you a better view of how a consumer would make their selection.
Data Collection Questions
What is your age?
- Under 18
- 18-25
- 26-30
- 31-35
- 36-40
- 41-45
- 46-50
- 51-55
- 56-60
- 61 or older
With what gender do you identify?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- Other {text box}
- Prefer not to disclose
What is your race?
- White
- Hispanic/Latinx
- Black
- Asian or Pacific Islander
- Native American
- Other
- Prefer not to disclose
What is your household income?
- Less than $25,000
- $25,000 to $34,999
- $35,000 to $49,999
- $50,000 to $74,999
- $75,000 to $99,999
- $100,000 to $149,999
- $150,000 or more
- Prefer not to disclose
In what state do you live?
In what city or metro area do you live?
Two Essential Elements of a Great Pricing Survey
As you start building your pricing survey, remember that there are two critical elements that will make your survey successful: effective, strategic pricing research questions and an advanced survey platform. The price survey template above will get you part of the way there, and GroupSolver can provide valuable support for the technical implementation and analysis. Our AI-driven survey tool takes in and analyzes open-ended responses in real-time, in addition to taking care of complex data analysis like analyzing CBC questions, so you get authentic, complete answers from your audience and practical insights to drive your pricing. To start on the path toward optimal profits, schedule a GroupSolver demo
today.
