TEACHING PRICING PRINCIPLES AND PRICE POLICIES.

If the section of the Industrial Marketing course devoted to price and price policy is organized in the manner outlined in this paper the student obtains not just a factual description of industrial prices and price policy--but he also obtains the overall perspective of price making in a dynamic economic society. A high level presentation of the influence of relative inelasticity of demand, theoretical economic concepts of value theory, factual material on group and individual price policies (both manufacturers and distributors)and the legal framework within which price policy must evolve, gives the course material, substance and reality. The application of the tools of economic analysis is indispensable as an analytical device for evaluating the social effects of governmental legislation and marketing policy. If we are really training the marketing executives of tomorrow, our course content on price and price policy must be analytical as well as descriptive. It must leave the embryo marketing leader with a realization of the economic, legislative, and social implications and importance of price making in our economy. For in a capitalistic economy the mechanism which controls both the allocation of resources and the allocation of output is the price system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]