Sacramento Business Professionals Networking Lunch
Featuring alumnus Assistant Professor Mike Palazzolo MBA 09
“The Evolution of Customer-Driven Pricing”
Date, Time and Location:
Thursday, September 21, 2017
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Ten22, Old Sacramento
About the Presentation:
Join Graduate School of Management alumnus and Assistant Professor Mike Palazzolo MBA 09 for a discussion of how companies are using technology to connect with customers, develop dynamic pricing and upgrade bidding, and optimize future pricing policy. Palazzolo is the first GSM graduate to rejoin our community as a tenure-track faculty member.
“Designing an Upgrade Bidding Program”
The old pricing paradigm—in which firms set prices that are accepted or rejected by consumers—is quickly becoming obsolete for many goods and services. Technological advances have dramatically improved firms’ ability to process data and transact with customers. The result: pricing strategies have taken on new prominence in many settings, including dynamic pricing (transportation, sporting events), auctions (eBay) and “name your price” mechanisms (Priceline, eBay). Recently, airlines have combined these approaches in creative ways, allowing customers to bid on an upgrade to a better seat close to the departure date.
Palazzolo will walk us through the development process of an “upgrade bidding” pricing mechanism for an entertainment venue, starting with a look at the expected (by economic theory) pros and cons for customers and the firm. He will then explore how a firm might design an experiment to determine how customers respond to this pricing mechanism in practice, so that it can optimize its pricing policy for the future.