The books and papers this guide leans on, and what to take from each.
The Strategy and Tactics of PricingThomas Nagle and Georg Müller, sixth edition, 2017The standard text. Take the break-even sales analysis and the chapter on price fences; the rest is for when pricing becomes someone’s full-time job.
The Price AdvantageWalter Baker, Michael Marn and Craig Zawada, second edition, 2010From the McKinsey team behind the 1% figure. Read it for where margin leaks between list price and what a customer actually pays.
The Art of PricingRafi Mohammed, 2005A practical case for offering several versions at several prices instead of one price for everyone. The best short argument for chapter 7.
MisbehavingRichard Thaler, 2015Thaler’s own account of the fairness surveys in chapter 5, and why a price that’s right on paper can still feel wrong.
Confessions of the Pricing ManHermann Simon, 2015Decades of pricing work told as stories. Useful for its insistence that price is a strategy, not a spreadsheet cell.
Smart PricingJagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang, 2010Pricing models beyond the list price, from pay-what-you-want to subscriptions. Good for widening the menu before you raise the price.
And the papers to read first: Anderson and Simester (2010) on customer antagonism, Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler (1986) on fairness, and Evangelidis (2024) on shrinkflation. Full references are in Appendix C.