PRIORITIZING THE FACTORS INFLUENCING PRICING STRATEGIES FORMULATION IN BANKING SERVICE CONSULTING FIRMS USING MCCARTHY MODEL

Abstract

The purpose of this research is the identification and ranking of the most important pricing
factors and strategies and the final end is the identification of the relationships amongst the
pricing strategies and the influencing factors. Regarding this research’s theoretical model,
these ten factors consist of price elasticity, pricing purposes, the discounts for the
intermediaries, the intermediaries’ profit margin, the legal environment, the geographical
environment, competition, the costs, the demand, and the price of the other similar services.
For this research, ten strategies were selected out of the marketing literature and on the other
side, 60 factors which had been formerly verified by the experts were identified as the factors
affecting the setting of pricing strategies. Thus, out of the whole 111 banking service
consulting firms existent in the city of Tehran, 86 firms were selected randomly as the
sample. The needed information was collected using questionnaires. At last, differentiating
pricing, geographical pricing, and relationship pricing were identified to be the mostly used
pricing methods by the banking service consulting firms. ,and certain tariffs, the image and
reputation of the brand, the time period needed to supply the service, the distribution market
and the selling place, and also differentiating in various areas were identified as the most
important factors affecting the setting of pricing strategies.