OPTIMAL PRICING STRATEGY IN MARKETING-RESEARCH CONSULTING

This paper studies the optimal pricing scheme for a monopolistic marke ting research consultant who sells high-cost proprietary marketing inf ormation to her oligopolistic clients in the manufacturing industry. I n designing an optimal pricing strategy, the consultant needs to fully consider the behavior of her clients, the behavior of the existing an d potential competitors to her clients and the behavior of her clients ' customers. We show how the environment uncertainty, the capability o f clients' internal research department, and the number of potential c lients can affect the optimal pricing scheme.