From Brand Positioning to Shelf Price: How to Build Consumer-Centric Pricing Strategies with Caroline Cookson

Aaron: Hello and welcome to Pricing Heroes, a podcast sponsored by Competera. This is a series of interviews with the best-in-class retail pricing experts driving bottom-line metrics for major retail brands and the industry as a whole. Today’s guest is Caroline Cookson. Caroline is the Founder of Cookson Partners, a consultancy dedicated to helping ambitious, values-led businesses unlock sustainable growth through pricing.

Caroline: Thank you very much for having me. Aaron: Thank you for joining. I’m very excited to have you because I think you are the first person we’ve had on the podcast who has spent so many years on the brand side. We typically have people from the retail side, so I’m looking forward to the unique perspective you have to offer.

Caroline: Cool. Thank you very much. Aaron: How about we begin with your bio? Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and how you found your way into pricing?

Caroline: Yeah. So, as you mentioned, I started out with a career in finance - initially through accountancy at KPMG - and then moved into industry once I qualified. There I spent the majority of my career at Brown-Forman working on spirits brands: Jack Daniel’s is the biggest one, and Woodford Reserve. And then all the way through to the smaller, emerging brands that you mentioned as well.

In my time at Brown-Forman, I worked in a variety of roles - starting out in finance, working in commercial finance. I then moved into general management, where I ran a cluster of medium-sized European countries for the business, and then finally moved on to a global strategy and analytics role, working very closely with the global marketing teams on the small and fast-growing brands within the business. Throughout my career, I touched on pricing in a lot of different ways - from implementing price increases with distributors and retailers to modeling the financial impact of pricing, and then assessing global pricing strategies based on brand positioning.

So, when I left, I decided that I wanted to move into pricing consultancy because it was an area I found very interesting. I could also take that experience from all of those different roles, pull it together, and help companies with their pricing. Aaron: What exactly was it about pricing that you found so interesting? I mean, working across finance and marketing - the scope is so broad and there are so many directions you could go - but obviously pricing was particularly interesting to you.

What exactly was it about that? Caroline: It’s the way that it hits on all the different elements, right? Pricing isn’t just one thing; it’s a bit of marketing, it’s a bit of finance, it’s execution, and it’s also consumer psychology. So it’s a topic that is always tricky and interesting - a great challenge - and that’s why I was drawn to it.

It’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing as part of my role, and it felt like the natural next step. Aaron: Amazing. So, at Brown-Forman you held leadership roles spanning finance and commercial planning, and both of these areas sit very close to pricing inside the organization. From your perspective, how did those experiences shape the way that you approach pricing decisions?

Caroline: It’s given me a really holistic view of pricing. I’ve had the experience of approaching it from different perspectives, so now when I look at pricing I start with the consumer perspective: What’s our market positioning? How do they view the brand? What does the pricing say about the brand?

All the way through to: How do I actually get a price increase through with our customers - what’s the reality and what’s their reaction going to be? It’s given me that bridge between the positioning and the practical reality. Pricing isn’t just a spreadsheet decision; it’s a brand decision, and it’s a customer decision. Aaron: That makes a lot of sense.

Many of the pricing professionals we have on the podcast didn’t plan to go into pricing - they began on another track and then found their way into the pricing profession. Many provide a similar perspective: this holistic view of the business becomes a strength when approaching pricing, especially for those who’ve worked within the commercial side of the business and merchandising as well. For people who are beginning their career or looking to transition into pricing, what would you recommend for career development?

Should they explore other areas of the business first before entering pricing, or is it best to jump right in and then work horizontally with peers to understand objectives and how they perceive pricing? Caroline: I think both ways work. Having that broad experience upfront certainly helped me refine my thinking and process when it comes to pricing. But if you go into pricing early, you’ve got to make sure you’re training yourself in all of those areas and seeing the bigger picture.

Don’t focus on just one part of the equation. Talk to marketing colleagues, look at it from a commercial perspective, and make sure you’re doing all the analytics and numbers - where a lot of the work tends to be focused - while still giving yourself that broader perspective. The better you understand the bigger picture, the better decisions you’ll make, and the more impactful you’ll be across the business. Pricing isn’t a silo; it needs the collaboration of many departments.

The more you understand everyone’s perspective, the better you can influence and get the outcomes you want. Aaron: That’s great advice. Sometimes I wonder why there aren’t more pricing professionals in leadership roles at organizations. For someone with so much cross-functional experience - touching so many functions - how are these people not making decisions at the executive level, for example?

Caroline: Absolutely. It’s that broad perspective that can be very relevant for a lot of different areas of leadership. Aaron: As we mentioned in the intro, you’ve been in pricing-adjacent roles, while most of our guests come specifically from retail. You’re coming from the brand side, working closely with distributors across multiple markets.

What did you learn about how pricing dynamics play out in that relationship, and how much did the final shelf price factor into your strategy? Caroline: It’s always a challenge when you’re the brand owner because you don’t have final control over the end price. That’s up to the retailer’s discretion - and if you’re going via a distributor, it’s up to theirs as well. But I would always start with the shelf price, because that’s what the consumer sees, and that’s where they make the final decision - which is the most important decision: whether they’re going to buy your product.

So I’d start with the shelf price in mind and then work backwards. Because you don’t control that, it becomes about influence and understanding - working closely with distributors and retail partners to help them understand why you want to be positioned where you do, and what their expectations are around margin and profit. You can’t be fully aligned; there will always be surprises. But it’s about working collaboratively and being on the same page as much as possible so consumers see your price the way you want them to.

Aaron: I imagine that for such a large organization like Brown-Forman, working across so many markets, there must be lots of challenges with retail and distribution partners. What were some of those challenges when negotiating pricing across the supply chain and all the way to the end customer? Caroline: From a global perspective, you want your positioning to be clear and consistent across countries, but local market conditions differ. In some places it’s easier to take price increases than in others.

When setting global pricing strategies, first understand your key markets - their perspectives and the granular realities. Second, set clear guardrails without being too prescriptive; you can’t have one price that works globally. Be clear on why you’re setting those guardrails so markets can implement them in ways that make sense locally. Retailers and pricing pressures vary by country, so maintain flexibility while keeping a clear north star.

Aaron: I can’t imagine the difficulty, especially with local taxes and regulations around alcohol. I was just in Stockholm the other week and was shocked to see some of the pricing. Caroline: Especially with alcohol being regulated, it varies so much by country - from very high tax to very low tax, and even specific stores; it changes country by country. Aaron: In developing relationships with retailers and ensuring you’re delivering the most value - for both the end customers and your distributors/retailers - what skills or resources are most important?

Is it soft skills and relationship management, or a heavier focus on data and letting the data speak for itself? How do you approach those relationships? Caroline: You need both. You need soft skills to influence, communicate your perspective, and bring people on the journey so they’re bought in - because the more bought-in people are across the world, the better your price will be implemented.

But you also need the data to back it up. It starts with thorough insight and analytics - understanding the market, extracting key insights, and sharing them. Start with data, then move through influence. Aaron: In your global director role at Brown-Forman, you were balancing brand value in two directions: making the case for major investments while also working with distributors on pricing decisions that shaped market positioning.

How did you navigate that dynamic between brand valuation and pricing strategy? Caroline: It’s a two-way street. There’s the global perspective on where you want your positioning to be - the ideal place for the brand, how it fits with marketing, how consumers see you. Then there’s the local reality.

You need a two-way process - top-level view and detailed understanding - so you can balance toward something that works in the middle, feeding into long-term modeling while staying practical about day-to-day realities of moving price. Aaron: Did you feel downward pressure when securing investments - investors looking at margins - while you tried to protect brand value? For example, most Jack Daniel’s products aren’t considered top-shelf whiskeys (though there are higher-shelf expressions), and the brand is generally accessible.

If prices increase too much, whiskey enthusiasts might choose a different, more accessible option. Was it fluid, or were there more challenges behind the scenes - and how did you manage that? Caroline: It’s always a balance: maintaining margins, hitting financial targets, and growing - while taking price in a way that doesn’t alienate your core base. Be mindful of elasticities and price sensitivity.

Don’t push too high or you’ll lose volume. Keep an eye on margins, but balance them with top-line growth. Context matters - what’s happening in the wider market, what competitors are doing, and where you sit relative to them - so you can make increases in context and understand the impact on the consumer. Aaron: After nearly two decades in a large corporate environment, you founded Cookson Partners to work with ambitious, values-led small and medium-sized enterprises.

What motivated you to make that shift, and how is the pricing conversation different with founders compared to global corporations? Caroline: I wanted to set up my own business and use the skills I learned in a well-resourced corporation - where the analytics and thinking behind decisions are very strong - to help smaller businesses that don’t have that in-house expertise. It’s a nice opportunity to bring that intelligence to a smaller scale. I also wanted to work with values-led businesses because company values are an important element of the pricing equation.

For example, I’ve worked with a company that owns a shop and varies margins based on who they buy from. They’re more generous to solo companies - if there’s one or two people, they’ll give a better margin than to a bigger corporation. Does that always make sense financially? Not necessarily, but supporting smaller businesses is part of their values.

It’s about understanding what you stand for - being successful and profitable - and finding the balance between values and pricing. Aaron: I suppose your background in marketing also helps with values-led pricing, because part of positioning a product at a specific price point is selling the value within the price itself - as part of the service or product being sold. Is that something that comes easily in this space, or does it require a lot of work to define the ideal customer and market - and tie the additional value the company is bringing?

What does that look like when you’re working with these companies? Caroline: It starts with being clear on your values. You can be a values-led company, but that doesn’t mean you need to charge the lowest price. That’s often a tension point: they want to do good, so they feel they can’t charge “too much.

” But if you want to do good in the world, your business has to be successful and profitable. Be clear on your values, then on your positioning, and it all fits together. Sometimes you have to get over that mental hurdle before you can make the best decisions for your business. Aaron: I’m not particularly familiar with the UK market, but in the US there’s tension around “buying local.

” People say they want American-made until they see the price. With Brexit conversations in the UK, people talked about buying more local. Is there more tolerance for that now? Are you seeing this?

Caroline: A good example of values-led pricing that justifies a higher price is Tony’s Chocolonely. You see them a lot in the UK and across Europe. They’re a chocolate brand that prides itself on being fair - they pay a fair wage to cocoa farmers and communicate that through their positioning. Even their chocolate bars are segmented into uneven pieces to reflect how unfair the current cocoa system is.

They live their values and charge more than other chocolate brands - confidently - and they’ve been very successful. It’s great chocolate, which helps, but they’ve clearly shown there’s room for values-led companies to charge a premium if they’re transparent about why it costs more. It won’t work for everyone, but if you find your niche you can be successful. Aaron: I agree it’s important that consumers understand what’s being priced in and the value being offered.

On your website, you note that many businesses chase quick fixes instead of building lasting pricing strategies. What misconceptions do you see most often, and how do you help founders refocus on long-term solutions? Caroline: The first is cost-plus pricing: “It costs me X, I add 20 - 40%, that’s my price.” I try to move people away from that toward market positioning and consumer perspective.

It should start with the buyer - they don’t care about your costs; they care about the value you bring and how you compare to competitors. Another issue is picking a price and sticking with it - being too scared to change. Once you’re clear on your positioning, have the confidence to adjust: increase or decrease as needed. Review regularly to keep up with the market.

Finally, discounting: it’s shiny and can boost volume, but it should be used thoughtfully and in moderation. Have a discounting plan, know why you’re promoting, and watch profit - not just top-line growth. Those are my top three. Aaron: Do you have any notable success stories - perhaps a brand that initially relied on one of those quick-fix approaches that you helped shift toward a longer-term strategy?

Caroline: At Brown-Forman, a big part of setting global pricing strategies was being clear on discounting. It varies by country - one pound off might be great in Belgium, but you may need ten pounds off in the UK. We set a clear global approach to how much we’d promote and where. Different brands should be promoted at different levels; for super-premium whiskeys, you should never promote heavily because you don’t want to dilute the image.

That clarity helps move away from discounting for its own sake. Aaron: You often bring together pricing with other commercial levers to build resilience. When you think about what most influences whether a long-term pricing strategy succeeds or fails, what stands out as most important? Caroline: First, put the consumer at the heart of the decision - start with that perspective.

If your consumer doesn’t understand or believe in your price, you won’t be successful. Second, get internal alignment and confidence in the price. Everyone who works on pricing should be aligned and bought in. Influence internally, take the broader perspective, and make sure the strategy works for the consumer and practically for retailers.

Consistency and alignment are critical. Aaron: When is the right time for small or medium-sized businesses to invest in pricing as a function? Should they scale teams, invest in tools - AI comes up a lot - or focus on frameworks? How do they know when and where to invest to get the greatest ROI?

You don’t want to over-invest in a team you don’t need yet, but you also don’t want to buy tools that are too big to operate. Caroline: When you’re starting out, you need a clear pricing strategy - what your price is and why. That doesn’t require a team, but it sets the benchmark. Investing is tricky when you’re small, but you can get a lot of insight from data.

Maybe it’s not a dedicated pricing person at first, but an analytical person in finance who can do the analytics and understand the pricing and the data. Investing in data is so important - and it’ll become even more important as AI becomes more capable and more tools help with pricing analytics. Know what data’s available, how much it costs, and when you can invest, because that’s what gives you insight. Build functions over time; the role should pay for itself, so I encourage doing it sooner rather than later, acknowledging resource constraints.

It makes you smarter and your product work harder, and it makes you more successful long term. Aaron: It’s always an option to bring in a team to support this effort. You don’t need to hire a full-time pricing person - especially when you’re a small business. You can bring in consultants to help set the strategy, and it does pay for itself.

Caroline: Exactly. Often companies start this work when things are going less well; I’d encourage starting earlier to make the most of it - not just when, say, a listing is being threatened. Ideally you’d be doing this regularly - annually at least - to prevent those situations. Aaron: If you’re turning to pricing to solve a challenge, you’re probably getting started a little too late.

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. Aaron: What’s the most overlooked pricing opportunity for early-stage and scaling companies - something that can unlock hidden profit or resilience if addressed properly? Caroline: Having the courage to premiumize your brand - really understand the value you’re bringing. If you’re introducing something new, have the confidence to say, “This is worth more.

” I love the example of Bold Beans in the UK. They’ve revolutionized a dormant category that traditionally charged under one pound per can. They premiumized with glass jars, great branding, and great-tasting products. The category is growing with them - now they’re competing not just with beans but with protein in general, attracting consumers eating less meat and looking for alternatives.

That means you can charge more because the comparison becomes the price of chicken, not a can of kidney beans. Step back: What problem am I solving? What are the alternatives? Don’t only look at your current market - look broadly and understand the value you’re bringing.

Bold Beans are growing the category and the value; they’re doing incredibly well. It’s a great example of taking a different view, being brave, and grounding it in consumer insight. Aaron: I’m curious - in that situation, did you use the term “premiumizing”? Caroline: Yes, I did.

Aaron: I like that - it’s a great term. How easy is it to do that around price without a complete rebrand? If you want to make that shift, do companies have to invest in a rebrand, or are there other opportunities - like leaning into the right messaging or focusing on specific markets? Caroline: It depends on where your positioning and brand are today.

If your brand already looks good enough to charge a higher price, then great; if not, you may need to rebrand. Broadly, it’s part of a wider marketing perspective: if you’re going to premiumize price, your marketing must back it up - branding and messaging - so the price is justified. If you have a portfolio, you can play with tiers: bring a new expression and trial it at a higher price to test the water. A portfolio gives you flexibility, but you still need that holistic view: what is my brand and product saying, and does my marketing back up the price (and vice versa)?

Aaron: That makes sense. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest innovations or challenges in pricing over the next three to five years, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses? Caroline: As AI gets better, analytics will get better, and we’ll be able to make more advanced pricing decisions. A big question will be the ethics of pricing.

Just because you can do personalized pricing doesn’t mean you should. As we can understand customers better, where do we draw the line? What’s ethical, and what does it say about our business? If you’re values-led, you’ll want pricing to reflect those values and be seen as fair.

We’re already seeing pushback. People are worried and want to feel pricing is fair; price is emotive and can be seen as a moral question. As an industry, we need to be considered: with greater capability, how will we use it, what guardrails will we set, and where will we draw the line? It’s going to be an interesting time ahead.

Aaron: Absolutely. There’s legislation being considered not only in Europe but in the US around AI pricing, price gouging, and surveillance pricing - especially with the implementation of electronic shelf labels. There’s a perception that prices could change not only daily, but hourly or by the minute. Brands need to think - even if they’re not engaging in this - how to position themselves transparently around pricing, getting in front of it long before adopting these technologies.

Caroline: Consumer trust is crucial. You want your customers to trust you. Be considered in your pricing, think about trust when making decisions, and if you are pricing fairly (as most are), be clear about it. That can be an advantage: “This is how we approach it; we’re being as fair as possible.

” With electronic shelf labels, so much is about perception. People don’t want prices changing by the minute, but they’re fine with promotions. It’s about framing: have a headline price and promotions people are comfortable with - not “we increase the price because it’s raining and you need an umbrella.” Be clear about boundaries and your approach to build trust.

Aaron: That makes a lot of sense. People don’t complain about daily happy hours at bars - though it is a price change. Caroline: Exactly. So much is framing and perception.

Aaron: Exactly. Great. Final question: what books, podcasts, or other resources would you recommend to our Pricing Heroes community? Caroline: One of my favorite psychology books is Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.

It’s great for understanding how people make pricing decisions - not necessarily based on logic but on how our brains work and the behavioral insight. From a marketing perspective, Rory Sutherland and Mark Ritson are two big voices who talk a lot about price and positioning. If you want that broader marketing perspective around pricing, I’d recommend both - they’re lively and interesting, and they’ll give you that broader context. Aaron: That’s great.

I love Predictably Irrational - it’s a phenomenal book. Caroline: Me too. Aaron: Caroline, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your insights with us today. Caroline: Thank you so much for having me.