Coding and Theme Analysis

Research Question: Does the Low Prices Influence Customers Perception about Product Quality?

Storyline: The purpose of this interview is to find out whether customers perceive lowly priced products as being of poor quality.

Interview Codes

Code 1#

Pricing Strategy & Spending Power

Code 2#

Cheap Products & Low Value Perception

Code 3#

Success & Market Analysis

The Coding System

These codes were developed after figuring out on the best way the research question could be answered. In other words, the codes were established from the various themes of the research area taking out the most relevant data.

Respondent

Code C#

Gender: Male

Age 48 years

Date: 9^th February 2017

As a company, have you ever been found yourself in a dilemma in terms of whether you should price your products lowly or highly?

       Definitely, at times, we have to grapple on whether to set prices that are a little lower than those of our competitors so as to win customers on our side¹. However, there are also occasions where the cost of operations does not allow us to set such prices and we have to make it at a level similar or above or competitors. This enables us to both sustain the business and at the same time reap some revenue from it². Nonetheless, in this case, our company products may get illuminated as customers have many options to turn to. Turning back to your question, indeed a good section of customers have a perception that products with low prices have subsequently low quality. So this instigates us to be careful not to set very low prices for our products. Otherwise, we will lose both the capacity to sustain ourselves as well as the image of our products and company in general³.

Interview Transcript Sample

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¹Damping Strategy

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²Sustainable Prices

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³Low Quality Perception

Is there a time you felt that your pricing strategy was influencing the customers purchase decisions?

       From our experience, it is quite clear that a companys pricing strategy has a significant influence on a customer perception regarding product or service offering. This opinion aligns well with the research findings by Agwu and Dudu (2014). According to this study, customers have a perception of value which is manifested in prices of a businesss products or services¹. The study went on to note that the price of competitors had a significant effect on the purchase of entities products, and that, the pricing strategy impacts and affects the consumers purchase decisions. This has resonated well with the experiences of our business².

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¹Influential Pricing Strategy

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²Price as Value Determinant

What overrides your pricing decisions? Is it the need to outwit your competitors or to satisfy your customers needs?

       As I sad earlier, our pricing has to take various factors into consideration. For instance, while we must ensure that our prices are competitive such that customers will see the need to turn to us, we also need to consider that the business obtains reasonable returns¹. This implies that the prices are not too high or too low².

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¹Competitive Pricing

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²Happy Medium

References

Agwu, E., Dudu, O. (2014). A review of the Effect of Pricing Strategies on the Purchase of

Consumer Goods. International Journal of Research in Management, Science & Technology (E-ISSN: (2), (2), 2321-3264

Laureate Education (Producer). (2012). Ensuring quality in qualitative research [Video file].

Retrieved from Walden Library Database.

Csordas, T. J., Dole, C., Tran, A., Strickland, M., &Storck, M. G. (2010). Ways of asking, ways

of telling: A methodological comparison of ethnographic and research diagnostic interviews. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 34(1), 2955.

Janesick, V. J. (2003). Stretching” exercises for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). Thousand

 Oaks, CA: Sage.

Merriam, S. B., & Associates. (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion

 and analysis. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.