Will someone please tell me what the term “price point” means and how exactly it is different from the word “price.” Merriam-Webster defines price as “ the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing.” It says that it is the amount of money, not the range of money.
This is because prices are not ranges, they are points. When I walk into a convenience store, the owner doesn’t tell me, “your Diet Coke will cost you between $1.45 and $1.75.” The owner tells me that it costs $1.49. I don’t need to ask, “excuse me, what is the price point of this item.” I just need to ask, “what is the price of this item.” The fact that a price is a point and not a range is assumed.
So why do people in tech-related field think they need to talk about the price of an item as the “price point” of the item? Click here for a Google news search for “price point.” Note how many of the articles are tech-related.
Tech people, please stopping using the term “price point” unless you can tell me the difference between the “price” of an item and the “price point of an item.”
Google may return more tech hits for “price point” but that doesn’t mean techies are the guilty parties. Google returns results based on popularity of the site, not the words you search for (although the words are used to filter out results). Anyhow, what I have noticed in business is that marketers and management are the guilty parties for this. They just LOVE using stupid terms like this one. Another one I hate is “matrix”, as in “risk matrix”. By far the most annoying is “price point” though. Sooooo annoying!