Stuart Alexander: strengthening pricing decisions across products and channels

The business

Stuart Alexander & Co. imports, markets and distributes premium global food, beverage and confectionery brands in Australia. Its business combines brand development, sales and marketing, distribution and relationships with customers and brand owners.

For a business of this kind, pricing is both a product decision and a channel decision. A price needs to be considered in the context of competing offers and the market in which the product is sold, rather than viewed in isolation.

The pricing question

Working with CFO David Slatyer as the main client contact, Pricing Insight examined price positioning across a range of products and within channels. Management needed research that would help connect those market positions with the strategies most likely to improve margin.

This distinction matters in a branded distribution business. Knowing a product’s price is not the same as understanding its competitive position, and a portfolio-wide view can obscure differences between individual products and channels.

Research to inform commercial decisions

Pricing Insight undertook research and analysis to help management understand those differences. The work connected three commercial questions:

• Competitive positioning: how were the prices of the products under review positioned against the competition?
• Channel positioning: how did the pricing picture differ within sales channels?
• Margin priorities: what did those findings mean for the strategies management should consider?

The contribution was to connect market evidence with pricing decisions. Rather than treating research as an end in itself, the analysis helped management identify where its pricing strategy should focus.

The contribution

The documented outcome was a clearer management understanding of product and channel price positioning, and evidence to guide margin-improvement priorities. Stuart Alexander’s CFO described the work in the following testimonial:

“The critical research and analysis undertaken by Ron Wood and his team at Pricing Insight enabled Stuart Alexander & Co. Management to better understand the price positioning of a range of products against the competition. This research also enabled an understanding of price positioning within channels and was critical in identifying the strategies necessary to drive the greatest margin impact for the business.”

David Slatyer, CFO, Stuart Alexander & Co. at the time of the engagement, Pricing Insight client testimonial.

The engagement illustrates Pricing Insight’s role in turning competitive pricing research into a practical basis for commercial decisions. It connects an understanding of the market with the choices management makes about pricing and margin.

Discuss your pricing priorities

Pricing Insight helps management teams examine pricing strategy and identify opportunities for margin improvement. Contact Pricing Insight to discuss the pricing questions facing your business.

Explore our revenue, pricing and margin strategy service.

By Ron Wood, Pricing Insight. Photography: Stuart Alexander & Co..