“At what price would this be so expensive that you wouldn't consider buying it?”
From Peter van Westendorp · Dutch economist; originator of the Price Sensitivity Meter (ESOMAR, 1976)
Why it works
Van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter never asks the dead-end question 'what would you pay?' Instead it triangulates from four price points — too expensive (won't consider it), too cheap (quality must be bad), getting expensive (would have to think), and a bargain (buy it now). Plot each as a cumulative curve across respondents and the intersections fall out: the range between the 'too cheap' and 'too expensive' lines is the band of acceptable prices, and where the 'too cheap' and 'too expensive' curves cross sits the optimal price point — the price at which the fewest people reject it on either side. The method works because no single person can name 'the right price,' but the population's combined sense of too-much and too-little brackets a range that any one answer would have missed.
When to ask
Before you've set a price, or when you suspect the current one is off. Ask it of people who actually understand the category — the four answers are only meaningful from someone who could plausibly buy.
Good follow-ups
- At what price would this be so cheap you'd question its quality?
- At what price does this start to feel expensive, but you'd still consider it?
- At what price would this be such a good deal you'd buy it immediately?
Watch out for
Reading a single respondent's four numbers as an answer — the curves and their intersections are a sample-level result; below a few hundred responses the lines are too noisy to trust. Equally, asking people who'd never buy in the category: their price perceptions are random and they drag the curves toward nonsense. And the meter tells you a plausible range, not demand — it won't tell you how many will buy at a given price, so don't treat the optimal point as a revenue forecast.
Where to ask
- In-product surveygreat
The native habitat — the Price Sensitivity Meter is a survey instrument by design. Fire all four price questions in sequence so each respondent draws their own range.
- Long-form surveygreat
Travels cleanly in an emailed pricing study; the four open-price questions stand on their own and the curves only mean something at sample size, which a survey delivers.
- User interviewworkable
Useful live to hear the reasoning behind a number, but a single set of four prices is an anecdote — the optimal-price intersections are a property of the whole sample, not one person.
Pairs well with
Stage: Consider · A question popularized by Peter van Westendorp
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Westendorp's_Price_Sensitivity_Meter