Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World's Most Influential Business Thinker

Chapter 20The Only Way to Set a Price

In the last chapter we began to look at Drucker’s thoughts on pricing. In many cases these were clearly at odds with what many corporations, organizations, and small businesses do, or even what is taught in our business schools about pricing and marketing today. He thought that these differences were important enough to begin this discussion by calling them “deadly sins.” Even before that, way back in 1955, he wrote: “Pricing is really the darkest Africa of management.”¹ Now that we know why he so strongly opposed some of the commonly accepted practices, we are in a better position to look at some of his other ideas about pricing.

The Myth of the Irrational Customer

I was all of 10 years old when I was warned ...