Founder Interview: Caroline Cookson on pricing, psychology, and being “reassuringly expensive”

A Q&A with Caroline Cookson of Cookson Partners on pricing strategy, consumer psychology, and ethical pricing, including practical insights on positioning, price anchoring, tiering, and how to price services confidently.

This is a transcript from a video interview with Caroline.

Q: Tell me a bit about how you got into pricing.

Elle: So tell me a bit about how you got into that… you’ve got a bit of a background in… the big four, right?

Caroline: Yeah, in the big four in accountancy, and then I moved into… the kind of more corporate environment. I spent most of my career working for a spirits company… I started out in finance and then I worked across commercial roles… internationally… strategy… analytics and a bit of marketing… I was there for 17 years… I left at the start of last year… and from there I decided to kind of set up my own business… I decided to go down the pricing strategy route because pricing is something that sits across all of the elements… rooted in numbers… there’s a lot of strategy in it… marketing positioning… and then… the commercial reality of actually what works… and then on top of that, there’s a consumer psychology element into it as well… it pulls it together… and it’s always a tricky topic… most people find quite tricky.

Q: Should pricing sit with marketing?

Elle: Traditionally marketing was the four Ps… and price was one of the four P’s… marketing were in charge of that… I don’t see that happen… what’s your take on that?

Caroline: In a lot of businesses it’s kind of moved away from pricing and become more of a commercial and a finance decision… but it is very important that marketing is a part of that… it starts with marketing. It starts with our positioning… What value do we offer? What do our consumers think about us? …and then bit by bit it moves through to… what’s our price on shelf… It really needs to be something that kinda everyone across the business… have their input on.

Q: When you go into a business, where do you start?

Elle: Do you say, let’s start with marketing and trickle down… or how do you usually tackle it?

Caroline: Starting with the customer, right? …it’s that person who’s making that final decision that is the really important person… understand your customer… your positioning in their mind… how willing they are to spend… how you compare to your competitors… that’s your starting point… rather than… this is my cost, I’m gonna add a margin… that’s not a very good way… because you’re forgetting about the person that you are selling it to and they’re the most important person in all of this.

Q: What consumer psychology tactics matter most in pricing?

Elle: I’m really interested in the consumer psychology side… price anchoring… putting your most expensive first… not necessarily tricking people… just using psychology… what ideas do you have?

Caroline: There’s the anchoring… if you mention a higher number first… after that is all relative. There’s tiering… people are much more likely to go for the second cheapest option than the cheapest option… give them three… they’re more likely to go for the middle one. There’s interesting research in terms of… is it a 99 or a zero zero… 4.99 feels a lot cheaper than five pounds… when you’re offering something that’s premium or luxury, you wanna go for the round price point… I am premium, I do cost more, and that’s okay because you know you’re getting something good in return.

Q: Do you advise on how pricing is displayed too?

Elle: Social proof… “most popular” badges… do you go into that side too?

Caroline: Yes… how to present it… what kind of a price point you’re aiming for… if you’re a service business, you control that… but you’ve gotta know what you’re aiming for… and I think [it’s] important and powerful.

Q: How should service businesses price when it’s “just your time”?

Elle: How would somebody go about pricing their service… when you don’t have those figures to go on?

Caroline: That’s a lot harder… start with… the market perspective… who else is in there… what are they doing and how are you different… as much intel as you can get… is always really good… you can use a day rate… not necessarily the final point… but it can help… in an ideal world, you’d be looking at what value am I bringing… charging them a proportion of that… but… it can be harder to pin down… it’s… all of these different things… trial and error… test and learn… and you end up in a better place.

Q: Do people always want the cheapest option?

Elle: I think people have this misconception that customers are looking for the cheapest option…

Caroline: No. Sometimes you wanna be reassuringly expensive… people also want to know that they’re getting quality… understanding your value… this is what I’m worth… not everyone’s gonna be able to afford you and that’s okay… you’ll end up with the right ones… who can afford you and who are paying for that expertise.

Q: What kinds of clients do you love working with?

Elle: Is there a particular industry or type of client that you like to work with?

Caroline: My background is in… consumer products… when you’re selling to a consumer, you are selling your brand… you’ve gotta have the positioning right… the price right… discounting… staying competitive… getting listings and keeping those listings… I find that quite fun and interesting… I get quite excited about new products… as much as I can help out these new brands… I think that’s really fun too.

Q: Are you always analysing prices in the wild?

Elle: Is it like an occupational hazard?

Caroline: Yeah, all the time… I went to… McDonald’s… and I bought a Big Mac Grinch meal… it really annoyed me because I realized afterwards that they’d upgraded me without showing me the cheaper pricing option… that was the little trick… just show the one price… hide the other one… I’m always… looking at prices… but also looking at the way prices are presented… how do you price ethically… maximise your profit… but… doing that in an ethical way where you are helping people make decisions, but not tricking them into decisions… is gonna be more and more important… whenever I see that not being done, I’m like, ah.

Elle: To call the McDonald’s CEO and have a word about that one.

Caroline: Exactly. Exactly.

Q: What’s a wise “yes” you said this year?

Elle: We’re coming to the end of 2025 and looking into 2026… anything you’ve said yes to that felt like a really wise decision?

Caroline: I started my business during this year… but more specifically… I was invited to do a masterclass very last minute… presenting to a room full of startup people… I hadn’t done that presentation before… there was a moment where I was like… can I do this? …I’m so glad I did… I pulled it together… it went really well… I got so many great contacts… it was scary, but I’m really glad that I… did it.

Q: What motto are you running on right now?

Elle: A mantra or motto or quote…?

Caroline: Feel the fear and do it anyway… it acknowledges that it’s scary… it is scary… but I’m gonna do it anyway… every time I have to do something that’s quite big… feel the fear and then let’s just do it anyway.

Elle: That’s really good advice…

Caroline: It’s about being uncomfortable… feeling that discomfort and knowing that’s normal, but that it’s gonna be worth it when you… do what you need to do anyway.

Q: Where can people find you?

Elle: Where can people find you if they wanna find more about pricing and… growth?

Caroline: You can find me at… cooksonpartners.com… and then my LinkedIn… Caroline Cookson… I’m pretty active on there.

Elle: Thank you so much for being here. Alright, bye bye.

Caroline: Cheers. Thanks so much.

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