Talking to Your Customers About Prices

Position the price as a component of the company's responsible and ethical intentions. For example, Southwest Airlines price fairness in the name of its approach to service: On its website, the airline describes "Transfarency" as a "philosophy in which customers are treated honestly and fairly, and low fares actually stay low — no unexpected bag fees, change fees, or hidden fees."

From a linguistics standpoint, this applies to the rule of relevance:

• Communicating about the company's ethics.
• Connecting price to that message.
• Hoping the customer makes the connection between the two.

Customers often wonder how a price was set or why it has recently changed.

This suggestion applies to the linguistic rule of manner by being very clear. Demystifying how prices are set or changed can help establish a trusting relationship with customers. For example, the furniture company Neptune provides extensive detail of its underlying logic for pricing.

Any of the four linguistic rules for dialogue can be broken if done in a lucid way.

For example:

• To show customers just how affordable its furniture is, Saudi Arabia IKEA replaced monetary values printed on price tags with images of coffee cups, pizzas, bananas, and other relatively inexpensive everyday items.
• The Japanese ice cream brand Akagi recently apologised following a 12-cent price hike on some of its products after 25 years without change.