Design a Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter survey with the four core price perception questions correctly worded.
Marketing & Sales
Pricing Research Using Van Westendorp and Conjoint Analysis
Learn to run Van Westendorp price sensitivity surveys and conjoint analysis studies that reveal what customers will actually pay and which product features drive that willingness.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Asking customers directly what they would pay produces answers that are polite rather than predictive, yet many pricing decisions still rest on cost-plus rules or simply matching a competitor's list price. This course teaches two established pricing research methods that reveal actual willingness to pay. The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter uses four carefully worded questions to map a range of acceptable prices and locate an optimal price point without ever asking for a number directly. Choice-based conjoint analysis goes further, presenting respondents with competing product profiles so price sensitivity can be measured alongside genuine feature and brand trade-offs. You will design both types of study, build the fractional factorial choice tasks a conjoint study needs, estimate part-worth utilities and convert them into willingness-to-pay values, and segment findings to find where a single price underserves part of the market. The course ends by combining both methods into a pricing recommendation, stress-tested against cost and margin, that can withstand internal challenge before a business case goes to budget owners.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Calculate the point of marginal cheapness, point of marginal expensiveness and optimal price point from survey data.
Design a choice-based conjoint study that isolates price sensitivity from feature and brand preference.
Build product profile cards and choice tasks using a fractional factorial design to limit respondent burden.
Estimate part-worth utilities from conjoint data and convert them into willingness-to-pay values per feature.
Segment pricing research findings by customer type to identify where a single price point underserves the market.
Combine price sensitivity and conjoint findings into a pricing recommendation supported by a sensitivity-tested business case.
Who Should Attend
Product managers setting list price or packaging tiers for a new or repositioned product.
Pricing analysts and revenue managers who need primary research to support price change decisions.
Market researchers commissioned to run pricing studies for product or marketing teams.
Marketing managers building the business case for a price increase or new pricing tier.
Startup founders pricing a product for the first time without established market benchmarks.
Category and insight managers advising retail or consumer goods pricing decisions.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Measuring Price Perception With Van Westendorp
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing the Price Sensitivity Meter Survey
- Word the four Van Westendorp questions correctly to capture too cheap, cheap, expensive and too expensive price points.
- Sequence pricing questions after product concept exposure so respondents evaluate price against a defined offer.
- Screen respondents for category relevance and purchase intent so price answers reflect genuine buyers.
- Avoid anchoring bias by testing question order and price format across a pilot sample before full fieldwork.
Session 2Analysing and Interpreting Price Points
- Plot cumulative response curves for the four price questions to find their intersection points.
- Calculate the point of marginal cheapness and point of marginal expensiveness that bound the acceptable price range.
- Identify the optimal price point where equal proportions of respondents see the price as cheap and expensive.
- Recognise the limitations of Van Westendorp output when a product has no close substitute for respondents to reference.
02Designing a Conjoint Analysis Study
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building Attributes, Levels and Choice Tasks
- Select product attributes and price levels that reflect realistic purchase trade-offs rather than exhaustive feature lists.
- Construct a fractional factorial design that reduces the full attribute combination set to a manageable number of profiles.
- Build choice-based conjoint tasks that present respondents with competing product profiles rather than one at a time.
- Set the number of choice tasks and attributes to balance data quality against respondent fatigue.
Session 2Fielding the Study and Checking Data Quality
- Randomise profile order and attribute position across respondents to control for order effects.
- Insert a holdout task not used in model estimation to test how well the model predicts actual choices.
- Screen for straight-lining and inconsistent responses that indicate low-attention survey completion.
- Confirm sample size and quota structure provide enough responses per segment for reliable utility estimation.
03Estimating Utilities and Willingness to Pay
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Calculating Part-Worth Utilities
- Estimate part-worth utility scores for each attribute level using hierarchical Bayes or logit estimation.
- Rank attribute importance by comparing the utility range each attribute contributes to the overall choice.
- Convert utility differences into a willingness-to-pay value by dividing by the price attribute's utility slope.
- Simulate market share for competing product configurations using the estimated utility model.
Session 2Segmenting Preferences and Validating Results
- Cluster respondents by utility pattern to reveal segments with different price and feature sensitivity.
- Compare segment-level willingness to pay to test whether a single price point underserves part of the market.
- Check model validity against the holdout task to confirm predicted choices match actual holdout selections.
- Cross-check conjoint-derived price sensitivity against the Van Westendorp range for the same respondent sample.
04From Research Findings to a Pricing Decision
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building the Pricing Recommendation
- Combine the Van Westendorp acceptable range and conjoint willingness-to-pay estimates into a recommended price point.
- Design price and package tiers informed by segment-level feature and price trade-offs from the conjoint model.
- Stress-test the recommended price against cost, margin and competitor price position before finalising it.
- Document the research methodology and sample so the pricing recommendation can withstand internal challenge.
Session 2Presenting and Testing the Price Change
- Prepare a business case that links the recommended price to projected volume, revenue and margin outcomes.
- Plan a limited market or A/B price test to validate research findings before a full rollout.
- Anticipate sales and customer service questions about a price change and prepare consistent talking points.
- Set a review point after launch to compare actual purchase behaviour against the research-based prediction.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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