Free Webinar
Unwrapping RGM's Secrets to Drive Better Decisions
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How Buynomics “unwraps” RGM myths to drive better decisions: A practical year-end session with Ingo Reinhardt on the assumptions, shortcuts, and oversimplifications that quietly shape pricing outcomes.
RGM Myths and Realities
Ingo Reinhardt, Co-founder and Managing Director at Buynomics, closes the year with a candid look at the stories pricing teams tell themselves and why those stories often break when they meet real demand behavior. Instead of repeating the usual “pricing tips,” this session focuses on the myths that show up in decks, trainings, and even leadership narratives, then stress-tests them with simple economics, real examples, and the kinds of edge cases that create expensive surprises.
Across the webinar, Ingo explains why costs never fully disappear from pricing decisions, why “value to the customer” cannot be reduced to one shopper, why price elasticity is rarely a stable single input, and why survey-based willingness-to-pay can mislead when shoppers face real shelves and real substitutes. The through-line is clear: many pricing mistakes do not come from bad intent, but from models that simplify away the exact dynamics that matter most.
Watch the session to explore how common RGM myths form, how they distort decisions, and how to build a more realistic foundation for pricing, PPA, and portfolio moves.
What You'll Learn
- How “pricing myths” form inside RGM teams and why they persist.
Ingo shows how widely used narratives can be directionally true but still misleading when they become decision rules. You will learn how to spot these myths early, before they make their way into forecasts, business cases, or governance routines. [03:52] - Why the famous “1% price increase drives the biggest profit impact” chart can create false confidence.
The session unpacks the hidden assumption behind this classic slide (no demand response) and explains why it often overstates pricing impact in real categories. You will leave with a clearer way to interpret pricing leverage without ignoring demand reaction. [05:23] - How costs actually influence optimal pricing and pass-through.
This section walks through why costs do matter in pricing, how cost pass-through changes depending on the shape of the demand function, and why volatile inputs make “simple rules” unreliable. [12:09] - Why “value to the customer” is a distribution, not a single buyer.
Instead of treating “the customer” as one representative shopper, Ingo explains why real categories include many willingness-to-pay levels and preference patterns. This matters for value-based pricing, segmentation, and portfolio design. [16:00] - Why price elasticity is rarely a single stable number you can reuse for years.
You will learn why elasticities vary across price points, why they shift when multiple items move together, and why competitor dynamics change outcomes. [22:25] - Why survey-based willingness-to-pay often looks sharper than real sales behavior.
Ingo compares survey response curves with observed sales patterns and explains why “buy vs not buy” framing exaggerates price thresholds compared to real shelf choices. [24:21]
Meet the Speaker
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Ingo ReinhardtCo-founder and Managing Director at Buynomics |
Before Buynomics, Ingo was a Senior Director with Simon-Kucher & Partners, a global leader in pricing. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Cologne and Master's degrees in Management and Mathematics. Ingo was a PostDoc at the University of Oxford and published in the Strategic Management Journal.
Session Highlights
Why this session focuses on myths, not generic pricing advice [03:52]
Ingo outlines the goal: address commonly repeated beliefs that feel correct, but become risky when teams treat them like universal laws.
The “pricing drives profit most” chart and the assumption it hides [05:23]
A breakdown of the classic comparison slide and why the implied “no demand reaction” assumption matters in practice.
Costs do matter: what profit optimization implies when costs move [12:09]
A practical walkthrough showing how cost changes affect the profit-optimal price and why demand shape matters.
Why “value to the customer” cannot mean a single customer [16:00]
An explanation of willingness-to-pay distributions and why simplifying to one “average shopper” distorts decisions.
When segmentation becomes a story forced onto the data [17:10]
Why clean segment charts often hide the real underlying behavior pattern.
The reality check on perfect price differentiation [19:04]
Why theoretical gains require extremely accurate willingness-to-pay prediction and what happens when accuracy falls short.
Why elasticity is not one number, even in simple models [22:25]
A clear explanation of why elasticities vary by price point and portfolio moves.
Survey thresholds vs shelf reality [24:21]
Why survey-based price thresholds overstate real-world impact.
Avoiding new myths in the era of generative AI [29:00]
A warning against replacing old pricing myths with new technology-driven ones.
Q&A
How can FMCG teams apply willingness to pay beyond PPA?
Ingo explains that willingness to pay reflects preferences for product attributes such as size, format, and experience. These preferences can be addressed through pricing, proposition design, or portfolio coverage, not only PPA. PPA is powerful because it allows brands to serve multiple preference levels simultaneously. [30:28]
How do you balance the benefits of price differentiation with operational complexity?
The trade-off must be made explicit. Market-side upside should be weighed against internal complexity costs such as execution burden and governance friction. Differentiation should be a decision, not a default. [33:16]
How can AI insights be integrated into traditional RGM decision-making?
AI can improve insight quality, enforce strategic guardrails, and help translate strategy into consistent execution. The key is using it to clarify trade-offs and improve discipline, not to remove ownership of decisions. [34:22]
In B2B, with limited transparency, is there a robust way to evaluate price increases?
B2B pricing is harder due to lower visibility, but technology can still improve consistency and extract more value from existing data. Ingo notes this topic would benefit from a dedicated deep dive beyond this session. [36:34]