Price and value proposition: qualitative research

By Federico Elgueta, Director of WAV Research · Published October 27, 2026 · Updated October 27, 2026

A qualitative price study shows how your audience perceives the value of what you offer: what they compare it with, which attribute justifies paying more, which price reads as a sign of poor quality and what makes something feel expensive. It does not hand you the optimal price; it gives you the reasons behind willingness to pay, so you can set price and argument with judgment.

What does it answer?

• Which reference the price is judged against: another brand, another category, the previous price or a memory.
• Which attribute justifies paying more and which one nobody will pay for.
• When a low price triggers distrust instead of interest.
• Which part of the value proposition is understood and believed, and which part sounds like a promise.
• How people react to plans, versions, bundles or payment options.
• What the offer would need for price to stop being the objection.

How do you work on price in a group?

Asking "how much would you pay?" outright tends to produce unreliable answers: in front of others, people say what sounds reasonable. So we work with comparisons and reactions. Each person first writes down, without talking, what seems cheap, fair and expensive for what they saw, and then the reasons are discussed.

The offer and its alternatives are also shown with their attributes, to hear how people rank them and what makes them change their minds. What matters is not the number each person writes, but the reasoning: what they look at, what they rule out and what gives them the confidence to pay.

What does it not answer?

It does not calculate elasticity or the revenue-maximizing price; that needs a quantitative measurement with a sufficient sample, and a prior qualitative study helps design it with the right references and attributes. With small groups you see the direction and whether each argument repeats across groups, not its size in the market. The difference is covered in qualitative vs quantitative research.

How does WAV design it?

We start from the decision, not from a questionnaire. In the first conversation we agree on what has to be settled when the study ends, and from there we build the groups, the guide and the stimuli.

• Groups by profile. Each segment whose willingness to pay matters gets its own group, for example customers and non-customers, or buyers of the basic version and buyers of the full one.
• 6 to 8 people per group, sessions of 90 to 120 minutes. Enough for contrast, and enough time for everyone to speak.
• Concrete stimuli. The offer with and without a price, its alternatives, plans and versions, and different ways of telling the value argument. Rotate the order across groups so the first option does not color the rest.
• In writing first. With the nominal group technique, each person notes their reaction before hearing the others, so you know what they thought before the group had any influence.
• A 360 room in Santiago. A 360 camera records the whole room and each participant wears their own microphone. The brand can follow the session live.

The session follows a guide in blocks, each with its goal and minutes; there is an example in the focus group discussion guide template.

What do you receive?

A report that explains how the perception of price and value forms in each segment, and which argument holds the price up and which does not. Every finding comes with its literal quote, the profile of the person who said it (for example "Woman, 35-44 · Non-customer") and the exact minute of the session. WR3, our software, separates who is speaking with 90.4% agreement with a human review, measured on 141 moments of a real session (how we measure it), and every quote is checked word for word against the transcript, which is produced on our own computers.

The deliverables come in Spanish and English: the 360 video of each session with English subtitles, the report on the web and as a PDF, a deck for the board and an action tracker with the evidence behind each action. You can browse the format in the sample report, built from a fictional study.

Frequently asked questions