PRICE//INTELLIGENCE
5-minute field guide
Pricing without guesswork

Find the price that feels right.

The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter reveals the range customers perceive as credible, fair and acceptable—before you commit to a price.

↗ What is Van Westendorp analysis—and where did it come from?↓ Decode the method
01 / The signal

Ask four sharper questions.

Don’t ask “What would you pay?” Ask people where price begins to change their perception of value.

01

Too cheap

At what price would you question the product’s quality?

02

Great value

At what price would this feel like a genuine bargain?

03

Getting expensive

At what price would it feel expensive—but still worth considering?

04

Too expensive

At what price would you reject it completely?

02 / The map

Four curves. One price landscape.

Plot the cumulative responses. The intersections expose your market’s psychological price boundaries.

Too cheapGreat valueExpensiveToo expensive
100%50%0%£10£25£40£55£70£85
PMC

Floor

Below this, cheapness can damage trust.

IPP

Normal

Equal numbers call it cheap and expensive.

OPP

Balanced

“Too cheap” and “too expensive” resistance meet.

PME

Ceiling

Above this, rejection accelerates.

£22—£67ILLUSTRATIVE ACCEPTABLE RANGE

The answer is a corridor—not a magic number.

You might test £29 for adoption, £49 for balance or £59 for premium positioning. The right choice still depends on margin, strategy and real behaviour.

!“Optimal” does not mean maximum profit. OPP balances two kinds of price resistance; it does not model your costs, conversion or lifetime value.
03 / Use it properly

Treat perception as evidence—not proof.

Van Westendorp works best as the first layer of a short pricing-validation system.

01Define one clear product proposition
02Survey real target customers
03Map the acceptable corridor
04Test specific prices and packages
05Validate with real purchase behaviour

Price is not what people say. It’s what they understand—and ultimately choose.

Use Van Westendorp to narrow the field. Then use purchase-intent testing, landing-page experiments or pre-orders to find the price that actually performs.

The 60-second backstory

What exactly is Van Westendorp analysis?

It is a pricing-research method developed by Dutch economist Peter van Westendorp and introduced in 1976. Instead of asking people to name one ideal price, it asks four questions that reveal when a price feels suspiciously cheap, good value, expensive or completely unacceptable.

Developed byPeter van Westendorp
Introduced1976
Also known asPrice Sensitivity Meter

The responses are plotted as four cumulative curves. Their intersections reveal a psychologically acceptable price range and several useful reference points—not a single guaranteed “perfect” price.

Important: it measures perceived price acceptability, not actual buying behaviour or the price that will maximise profit. Use it to narrow the field, then validate with real customers and real purchasing decisions.