澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网

Bundling: Definition as Marketing Strategy and Example

Classic car parked in front of stone mansion.

Jsheets19 / Getty Images

Definition
Bundling is a marketing strategy where companies package multiple products or services together as a single unit, often at a discounted price compared to purchasing each item separately.

What Is Bundling?

Bundling is when companies package several of their products or services togethᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚer as a single combined unit, often for a lower price than they would charge customers to buy each item separately.

Key Takeaways

  • Bundling is a marketing strategy where companies sell several products or services together as a single combined unit.
  • The bundled products and services are usually related, but they can also consist of dissimilar items which appeal to one group of customers.
  • Bundled products are typically offered at discounts to stimulate demand, lifting revenues often at the expense of profit margins.
  • Companies occasionally use pure bundling strategies, rolling several products or services into one item that can only be purchased as a complete package.

Understanding Bundling

Bundling is a marketing strategy that facilitates the convenient purchase of several products or services from one company. These bundled products and services are usu🎃ally related, but they can also consist of dissimilar items which appeal to one group of customers.

Many companies produce and supply multiple products or services. They must decide whether to sell these products or services separately at individual prices or in packages of products, or bundles, at a "bundle price." 

Price bundling plays an increasingly important role in many 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:verticals, such as banking, insurಌance, software, and automotive. In fact, some organizations devise entire marketing strategies based on bundling. Typical examples of bundling include option packages on new automobiles and value meals at restauran𒅌ts.

In a bundle pricing scheme, companies sell the bundle for a lower price than would be charged for items individually. Offering discounts can stimulate demand, enabling companies to perhaps sell products or services they otherwise had difficulty offloading and generate a greater volume in sales. Over time, this approach might even help to cancel out sacrifices in per-item 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:profit margins—sel▨ling an item for less means squeezing less profit from꧃ it.

Important

Not all providers will mention bundling as an option to their customers, 💛so it is important to check whether it is a possibility, particularly as bundled services often save consumers money.

Bundling Example

If you have two insurance policies—home and auto, for instance—purchased through two separate companies, you might be able to bundle both policies together through one company and reduce total monthly payments. Bundling can also be used to switch se✱veral payments into one, making bil🧸l payments more efficient, even if it doesn't save money.

Mixed Bundling vs. Pure Bundling

Bun🐠dling usually 💖consists of giving consumers an option to buy a set of items together as a package at a lower price than what they would pay to buy them all individually, in a process known as mixed bundling. However, there also exists an alternative, rarer form of this strategy called pure bundling.

Pure bundling does not give customers the option to buy items separately. An item that consists of several products or services must be bought as one or not at all. Examples include Microsoft’s Office 365 software and television channel plans. In the case of the latter, cable providers often offer packages, meaning customers ꦍcannot just pick and cho🦹ose which individual channels they want to pay for.

Special Considerations

Unfortunately, many consumꦡers, especially younger people, do not take advantage of bundling, preferring to ♎buy different items à la carte as needs arise.

For example, youngꩲ people getting their first car insurance policy typically go to their parents’ agent and just stick with that coverage for years. Later in life, when they buy their first homes, they will often use a different insurer closer to their new residence. In the majority of cases, taking this approach makes little sense financially.

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Insurance companies have signifi🐎cant motivation to provide more than one insurance policy to each customer. This is because it can be much more expensive to acquire a new customer th🥂an it is to keep an existing one. Thus, insurers have a strong incentive to sell a home or life insurance policy to their car insurance customers or vice versa.

What Is the Purpose of Bundling Products?

The primary purpose of bundling products is to increase overall revenue. A secondary incentive for firms is the ability to move large amounts of product, including goods and services for which consumers don't have high demand. Bundling can be deployed to sell a high volume of low-performing products efficiently.

What Is By-Product Pricing?

By-product pricing is another business strategy. To understand it, consider any manufacturing process that produces by-products. For instance, wheat germ is a by-product of wheat milling and animal carcasses are a by-product of meat processing. Byproduct pricing is when manufacturers set a price on by-products, thereby ensuring they can derive from them some revenue, in addition to profits earned from the primary product.

What Is a Price Lining Strategy?

Price lining occurs when a business prices its goods and services along a spectrum of price points. In doing so, it can market its products at a range of levels of affordability, reaching a wider set of potential consumers.

The Bottom Line

Bundling refers to a common marketing strategy, in which firms sell multiple goods and services in a single package or "bundle." The price for a bundle is then offered at a discount. For firms, this can incentivize higher revenue, though with the tradeoff of less profit margin than if each item were sold individually. Bundling is common in industries like entertainment, insurance, and software, among others.

Article Sources
Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.
  1. Oxford Reference. ""

  2. Monash Business School. "."

Related Articles