The Pricing Guys

S3E11 - Interview with CJ Gustafson

Disney doesn't sell rides. They sell an ecosystem designed to keep you spending as long as possible. Michael sat down with CJ Gustafson of Mostly Metrics to unpack the surprisingly sophisticated pricing strategy behind the Disney experience. From loss leader ticket pricing and frictionless wristband payments to dynamic lightning lane offers and segmented Florida resident discounts. Sharp observations, real-world parallels to SaaS, and a lot of lessons hiding inside a family vacation.

S3E10 - The Kevin Mitchell Interview

In this special episode of The Pricing Guys, Avy and Michael welcome Kevin Mitchell, President of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS), for a candid conversation about the past, present, and future of pricing. Kevin traces the roots of PPS back to his father Eric Mitchell, who did pricing work for Ford, Xerox, and Intel before launching the society out of a newsletter Kevin used to print and mail as a kid. Nearly 20 years after rejoining the family business, Kevin now leads the world's largest community of pricing professionals and has a front-row seat to how the discipline is evolving. The conversation covers the classic 1% pricing rule and why most executives still underestimate it, how BOGO promotions in consumer goods erode long-term price integrity, and where AI fits into the pricing toolkit today. Kevin shares memorable examples of algorithmic pricing spiraling out of control and makes a strong case for keeping humans in the loop on decisions that matter. He also draws an unexpected parallel between the music industry and pricing strategy, and closes with a straightforward challenge to anyone looking to grow as a pricing leader: get out of the silo, learn the language of every department, and be a generalist with specialist knowledge. A thoughtful and energizing episode for anyone in pricing, revenue management, or commercial strategy.

S3E9 - The Big Slice

What can a New York City dollar slice teach you about pricing strategy? Quite a bit, it turns out. In this episode, Michael and Avy use pizza as a lens to explore real-world pricing dynamics: the volume game behind the dollar slice, how atmosphere and customer segments justify price gaps, and why brands have to commit to a single pricing identity. They also make the case that Dave Portnoy's One Bite Reviews are missing a critical data point. If you think about price, value, and what customers are really paying for, this episode will give you a few new ways to think about it. Plus, a future episode rating pizza on a price-adjusted scale may be coming.

S3E8 - Heinz Proved It. Can You?

What does ketchup have to do with brand value? More than you'd think. Michael and Avy dig into one of the most underrated questions in pricing: when you strip away the logo, the mascot, and the packaging redesign, what is your brand actually worth? The Heinz story out of Turkey is the jumping off point, but this episode goes much deeper into why so many companies are spending millions to justify their existence instead of their value. In this episode, Michael and Avy get into how Heinz drove a 23% sales increase without a price hike or a new product, why brands confuse logo refreshes and flavor adds with actual value creation, the slotting fee trap that CPG companies keep falling into and why the payback math almost never works, what base velocity actually tells you about whether your marketing spend did anything, why the brand is the product and not the color of your label, and how Coca-Cola quietly gets this right while everyone else chases shiny objects. Also, keep your eyes open for the new RML website dropping in early May. Drop your thoughts in the comments. What brands do you think have done the best job justifying their premium? Subscribe for Season 3, new episodes dropping regularly. #PricingStrategy [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/pricingstrategy] #BrandValue [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/brandvalue] #CPGPricing [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/cpgpricing] #ThePricingGuys [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/thepricingguys] #PricingPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/pricingpodcast] #MarketingROI [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/marketingroi] #FMCG [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/fmcg] #BrandEquity [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/brandequity] #RevenueStrategy [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/revenuestrategy] #PricingTrends [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/pricingtrends] ‪@heinz‬ [https://www.youtube.com/@heinz]

S3E7 - Is Your Grocery App Spying On Your Wallet?

Is your grocery app charging you more than your neighbor? Welcome to surveillance pricing. Avy Punwasee and Michael Stanisz break down the pricing practice that's got Ontario Premier Doug Ford talking and consumers quietly fuming. Surveillance pricing (aka AI-powered price discrimination) is already happening on grocery apps, and the debate over whether to ban it is heating up. But here's the thing: dynamic pricing has existed in airlines, hotels, and B2B for years. So why does seeing different banana prices on Instacart feel different? In this episode, Avy and Michael get into what surveillance pricing actually is and why it sounds scarier than it might be, Doug Ford's free market take on whether government should even get involved, why airlines have done this forever and nobody bats an eye, the grocery app paradox of whether you're paying more for the bananas or just the convenience, how AI shopping agents are about to flip the dynamic on sellers, B2B's dirty secret that discretionary discounts are just surveillance pricing with a friendlier name, and where Michael and Avy actually land on free market vs. regulation. Learn more - revenueml.com