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Previous events

Simon-Kucher hosts a series of forums, conferences and workshops each year, designed to help you learn how to drive profitable growth through pricing. Read about some of the highlights from previous events in our series.

The Virtual Pricing Forum 2021: Adapting to Changing Environments

Back in webinar format for a second year we covered topics such as the demand revolution, the importance of commercial creativity and the customer journey.

 

Simon-Kucher Experts discussed the need to find new solutions to serve your customers and future customers as the purchase environment changes the way we sell and monitor KPIs.

The Virtual Pricing Forum 2020: Monetisation Through Uncertain Times

Our first virtual forum saw a record number of attendees.

 

Our Experts hosted a number of insightful sessions on various TopLine topics and our incredible panellists shared their perspectives from across sectors on their 2021 outlook.

 

Attendees thought it was an "Excellent event. Unbelievably smooth running and very slick."  

PF2019

The Pricing Forum 2019: Topline Innovation - The Opportunity for Growth

For the first time ever, the 2019 Simon-Kucher & Partners Pricing Forum expanded to two days, welcoming a record 220 senior delegates to a packed event. The event boasted over a dozen external speakers from cutting-edge industry leaders including DAZN, Big Bus Tours, Livingbridge, the Financial Times and many more. Through various presentations, panel debates, case study sessions and roundtable discussions, the 23rd and 24th May 2019 was an opportunity to learn how to grow through the Topline. 


Opening with Mark Billige’s plenary speech, ‘The Economics of Topline Driven Growth’, the Pricing Forum focused on how to use the price lever to increase profitability across industries. Mark led the way by explaining how pricing, marketing, sales and digital strategies allow us to subvert traditional economics to achieve growth and customer satisfaction. 


Our Strategy & Leadership plenary panel featured James Brown alongside Alexis Prenn, CEO of Receipt Bank and Stephen Haworth, CEO of EVO Group. Together they discussed the importance of C-suite involvement in pricing decision-making, from the first days of starting a business to navigating the landscape of large and mature organisations. 


Delegates then broke into designated streams where they engaged with industry experts from the world of sports, finance, media, technology, travel and tourism, as they shared their challenges when it came to delivering a sustainable and forward-looking pricing strategy by identifying opportunities and avoiding pitfalls in both traditional and emerging markets. 


A particular highlight of the day was our keynote speaker, the Rt. Hon. Kenneth Clarke, who regaled the audience with his take on the causes and effects of Brexit, the UK’s current political turmoil and the wider global environment. He emphasised the importance of compromise and consistency, as well as exploring how to build the bridges needed for the UK to progress to the next phase of its relationship with Europe and the wider world. Mr. Clarke concluded by discussing a range of topics including the implications of fake news, the impact of a Johnson premiership and why certain industry leaders promoted Brexit. 


Day One concluded with an interactive discussion between our Global Head of Digitalisation, Marc Huijbregts, as well as Silicon Valley experts, Madhavan Ramanujam, Eddie Hartman and Dimitris Hiotis. Together they shared their experiences working with unicorns and how using the wealth of data available to these businesses is the key to building strong and sustained growth.


Day Two opened with Xi Bing Ang and Rory Sweeney taking delegates through the Foundations of Pricing, providing a comprehensive overview of how to manage and develop pricing strategies that pay off for the company and the customer. Covering both the theory and practical aspects of Simon-Kucher’s unique insights, delegates were given a crash-course in how these could be applied across industries. 


Our roundtable discussions gave attendees the opportunity to intimately use the insights from the rest of the event as well as their own experience to learn more about the opportunities in their own and other markets. Attendees were able to exchange their ideas and learn about other’s pricing journeys in this crucial aspect of business regarding a range of topics including everything from packaging and bundling, to AI and dynamic pricing. 

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With the chance to learn from leading industry figures and exchange knowledge and ideas with their peers and our experts, our Pricing Forum delegates learned the tools and strategies for growing profits and adding value in a rapidly changing world.

The Simon-Kucher team demonstrated why they're the world's number 1 in this field, demonstrated a lot of knowledge! "

Gallery of images from The Pricing Forum 2019. Photos © Simon-Kucher & Partners

The Pricing Forum 2018: A packed day of presentations, interactive debates and more

PF2018

Superbly organised, with outstanding speakers, and relevant and thought provoking content"

Over 180 senior executives from a range of companies and industries joined experts from Simon-Kucher & Partners in Central London on Thursday 17th May for The Pricing Forum 2018. “Superbly organised, with outstanding speakers, and relevant and thought provoking content”, the day was devoted to an in depth exploration of Topline Growth in the Digital Age.

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Mark Billige, Board Member and Managing Partner UK at Simon-Kucher, kicked off the forum with his plenary session. Starting with the question “how does topline growth have to change in the digital age”, he concluded by emphasising the importance of digital as a business-model topic and not a technology topic.

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This was followed by a panel discussion with value creation experts, Maria Orlowski, Hg Capital, and Lewis Bantin, ECI Partners. Coming from Private Equity, they provided an investor perspective on accelerating growth. The debate focussed on topline interventions and the quick wins for value creation, incorporating industry examples and implementation advice. Additionally, they tackled a range of questions submitted from the audience, discussing the most long-lasting pricing mistakes in their experience, the benefits of a cost versus revenue based value creation model, and their number one tip for managing growth when entering a new business.

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Moving away from the world of Private Equity, James Brown, Partner at Simon-Kucher, explored the pricing trends and challenges being seen globally. In discussion with Dr. Georg Tacke, CEO, Simon-Kucher and Kevin Mitchell, President, The Professional Pricing Society, he continued with the digital theme before moving on to look at the evolution of pricing models, market disruption and the push for personalisation.

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The personalisation baton was picked up by Dimitris Hiotis, Global Head of Leisure, Travel and Transportation at Simon-Kucher, in his plenary session on the do’s and don’ts of dynamic pricing. With almost 60% of participants’ companies only able to change their prices monthly or annually (according to our live survey), this proved a popular topic for attendees. Rounding up the Simon-Kucher plenary sessions, Dr. Christoph Bauer, Partner, explored what makes a digital champion and how to navigate the “reach-rich” paradox to achieve both digital maturity and monetisation simultaneously.

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A range of industry experts from Addison Lee, Campus London, Deliveroo, eve Sleep, Zuora and more participated in lively panel sessions during the day, discussing their experiences and advice across the topics of pricing for growth, the dangers of digital price wars and behavioural economics in sales. Additionally, senior members of the Simon-Kucher team presented practitioner sessions, drawing on company expertise, case studies and knowledge for a more indepth look at digitalisation and monetisation topics.

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Tim Harford, The Financial Times’ Undercover Economist, took to the stage for the final keynote session to discuss the art of adapting. Focussing on the problems that we face as we go through life and business, Tim emphasised the importance of learning from mistakes, bringing in a variety of examples from the world of contemporary dance through to social psychology.

Gallery of images from The Pricing Forum 2018. Photos © Simon-Kucher & Partners

The Pricing Forum 2017: Monetisation in a Digital World

PF2017

Following great successes in previous years, The Pricing Forum 2017 came back bigger and better, hosted by Simon-Kucher & Partners on Thursday 18th May in Central London. Over 120 senior executives from a range of sectors joined experts from Simon-Kucher, representatives from industry leading brands and representatives from the Private Equity / Venture Capital community as they presented, debated and challenged their digitalisation strategies and initiatives.

 

This year’s Pricing Forum focused on Monetisation in a digital world. How should you adapt your revenue model given digital trends, what opportunity is there from pricing with large data and how does the sales force need to adapt? Mark Billige, Managing Partner UK at Simon-Kucher, kicked off the day with a keynote speech with the same topic title. One of the key themes for the attendees to take away was that Digitalisation is not an IT topic. “Digitalisation needs to be a revenue topic; technology is an enabler but you need a monetisation strategy if you are going to be rewarded for your efforts in this space”.

 

This was followed by a panel discussion with industry experts, Murray Hennessey, Chairman at Abcam Plc, Receipt Bank & TGIF UK; Douglas McCallum, Chairman at Photobox & Trainline and Chris Stibbs, Chief Executive Officer at The Economist. The debate covered various digital pricing strategies and drew on sector specific practices for observations, trends and implementation advice.  There were a rich variety of questions submitted from our audience covering themes such as “How have you thought about new revenue channels in moving to digital?”, “Do you have separate digital teams or is digital fully integrated?” and “How do you ensure that staff are adequately re-skilled?”.

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A deeper exploration of digitalisation topics continued through the day with a host of practitioner and panel debate sessions where senior members of the Simon-Kucher team presented findings across a wide range of topics, drawing from company expertise and knowledge. Further industry experts from Addison Lee, DOW-Jones (Wall Street Journal), Paddy Power Betfair, Reed and more participated with Simon-Kucher in energetic debates. Dimitris Hiotis, Partner at Simon-Kucher, hosted a Big Data panel debate on “Is there ever too much data - How is data dominating our world” and Dr. Peter Colman, Partner at Simon-Kucher, hosted a Sales Excellence panel debate on “Adapting your sales force for a digital world”.

One of our conference partners, Zuora, had a strong presence at the Forum with John Phillips, General Manager Europe giving his insights into digital subscription trends, stats and application alongside a Zuora stand which promoted their services and products.

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The format did explore other pricing topics too with James Brown, Partner at Simon-Kucher, leading a pricing perspective session on Brexit. With a Q&A session from Alex Payne, Big Bus; Gary Wallace, Gatwick Airport and James Whitehorn, KFC. The presentation followed pre-Brexit, current trends and what to expect in the next few years by exploring the impacts on our panel’s own companies, their strategies and expectations for the future. Questions from the audience included “Who owns the Brexit problem in your business?”, “How do you plan to communicate to your customers about Brexit?” and “Has Brexit had any positive impact on your business?”

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Dimitris Hiotis, Partner at Simon-Kucher also hosted an interactive session on “Behavioural pricing” including on-the-spot experiments delving into the science behind choices made when purchasing and how the customer views prices. Popular questions focused on retaining customers after promotion and the introduction of new offers and these were explored in real time through an exciting app, with support from delegates, and presenters alike… “Simple, but engaging format which really added to the presentation” – conference delegate.

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The final keynote session came from Ben Snowman, Head of O2 Home at O2. From his speech on The future of mobile is digital, Ben explored the digital era in relation to the technological evolution, and focused on how O2 is working to make digital a reality through product development and smart technology for its customers.

Impression from The Pricing Forum 2017. Photos © Simon-Kucher & Partners

Insights from The Pricing Forum 2016: The UK's #1 pricing event

PF2016

“A most interesting, thought provoking and insightful day”

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That was the feedback from The Pricing Forum 2016, hosted by Simon-Kucher & Partners on Thursday 19th May in Central London. Over 130 senior executives from a range of industries joined experts from Simon-Kucher as well as decision makers from global brands as they presented their recipes for success.

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The forum offered a day dedicated to discussing the role that price plays in combatting the challenges that businesses face today and driving profitable growth. Mark Billige, Managing Partner UK at Simon-Kucher, kicked off the day presenting the findings of our latest book, Monetising Innovation: How smart companies design the product around the price. This was followed by a keynote session from Paul Williamson, former Director of Ticketing for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Rugby World Cup 2015. Discussing the pricing journey taken at these events, Paul demonstrated how pricing can be used as an effective marketing tool in this context.

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A range of industry experts from Addison Lee, ECI Partners, The Guardian, O2 and more participated in lively panel sessions during the day, discussing their pricing experiences and advice across a range of topics. Additionally, Oliver Topley, Head of Consumer Strategy and Propositions at Three UK, and Kevin Dearing, Head of Pricing at Royal Bank of Scotland, presented more in depth case studies of their respective pricing approaches before taking part in a Q&A session.

Other highlights of the day included James Brown, Partner at Simon-Kucher, examining Pricing 2016: The outlook for the coming year, as well as a presentation by Dimitris Hiotis, Partner at Simon-Kucher on The Science and Psychology of Pricing. This interactive sessions tested the audience on their knowledge of pricing before giving some insight into what works, what doesn’t and some of useful tips for quick results. Over 110 individuals participated in this and other interactive elements throughout the day using Sli.do, an easy to use web-based voting and question platform. Feedback on the technology was overwhelmingly positive; “I thought the interaction – via slido – was great and fabulous to get real time feedback on questions and surveys” was the response from one delegate.

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The forum wrapped up with a final keynote session from Michael Brunt, Chief Marketing Officer at The Economist. Discussing Making money out of content: The story of The Economist, Michael demonstrated the potential of a strong brand to thrive even within a challenging business environment through a dedicated and effective business and pricing strategy.

Gallery of images from The Pricing Forum 2016. Photos © Simon-Kucher & Partners

Highlights from The Pricing Forum 2015

PE_PF2015

It was a great forum and some great topics covered. Really interesting to see how the pricing world is evolving!!

Over 200 senior executives spanning a range of industries joined Simon-Kucher on Wednesday 20th May for The Pricing Forum 2015, helping to make this our biggest event yet.

 

Mark Billige, Managing Partner UK at Simon-Kucher, opened the day with his discussion of Pricing Power: How to get it, how to keep it and how to use it. Simon-Kucher Chairman, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hermann Simon, followed with Pricing and the CEO, sharing experiences gathered throughout his career as a pricing specialist.

 

From our experience to the market viewpoint…
This year, we introduced a new format, conducting interactive panel discussions with industry practitioners. 18 industry experts from a range of B2B and B2C companies joined us to discuss their pricing experiences, covering topics including price strategy and differentiation, sales force behaviour and customer management.

 

After lunch delegates reconvened for Simon-Kucher Partner Dr. Enrico Trevisan’s take on behavioural economics and the applications for business strategy. The Practitioner Sessions followed, providing a series of hands-on workshops to demonstrate many of the tools and techniques available to assist with pricing.

 

James Brown, Partner and Dr. Andreas von der Gathen, Executive Vice President at Simon-Kucher rounded-off the day with a highly topical look at the world of supermarket price wars. Their presentation on The rise of the discounters: What the German experience tells us about the future of UK grocery retail built on over 50 years of German trading history to discuss the outlook for UK supermarkets and suppliers today.

Some impressions of the The Pricing Forum 2015. Photos © Simon-Kucher & Partners

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Pricing and product innovation across Private Equity and Digital and Online industries

Over 50 attendees joined Simon-Kucher & Partners at the Royal Academy of Arts on Tuesday 21st October 2014 for our half-day forums on Pricing for Private Equity Portfolio Companies, and Digital Monetisation 3.0.

 

Having worked with over 30 portfolio companies in the last few years, The Pricing Forum: Private Equity 2014 provided an opportunity for Simon-Kucher’s experts to share their knowledge and experience on pricing as a tool for profit growth in portfolio companies. A clear framework for effective pricing implementation was laid out through the morning. James Brown kicked off the forum with a high-level discussion of Pricing Programmes: What is required, what can you expect?, followed by Dr. Peter Colman, on Managing price changes: Increasing prices (and making them stick). “Price execution isn’t glamorous but can be highly profitable” was the conclusion from Mark Billige as he examined the gritty details in Price execution: Pragmatic approach to profit maximisation.

 

The afternoon brought together senior executives from across the telecommunications, digital media and online industries for a look at the latest market developments and approaches in digital monetisation. With product innovation continuing apace in these industries, increased value for consumers and changes in consumer behaviour have resulted in a strong need for better monetisation strategies.

 

Mark Billige emphasised the importance of this need in Digital monetisation: Why effective pricing is the critical challenge for digital business leaders. Tamsyn Attiwell, VP Global Services at Zuora, developed this theme, examining the shift in consumer behaviour away from traditional business models towards a subscription economy. Martin Deutschenbaur’s discussion of The dangers of toxic pricing structures highlighted the importance of developing new pricing models and Cecilia Mourain wrapped up the day with an in-depth look at Practical monetisation tactics for digital players.

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