Captive product pricing involves pricing products that must be used with the main product.

• A. Pricing products that must be used with the main product.
• B. Pricing accessories that are optional.
• C. Pricing that ignores the relationship between main product and accessories.
• D. Pricing that focuses on the main product only.

Answer: (A)

Captive product pricing is about pricing items that must be used with the main product. The idea is to attract customers with an appealing price on the main item, while charging for the required accompanying products—like consumables or accessories—that customers have little choice but to buy to use the product. This creates a revenue stream from the ongoing need for those essential items. For example, printers are sold at a reasonable price, but ink cartridges are priced to capture ongoing profits because you need them to print.

The other approaches don’t fit because they treat accessories as optional or ignore the dependency between the main product and what’s used with it, or focus only on the main product. Captive pricing specifically leverages the fact that the secondary items are necessary and have limited substitutes, yielding a durable source of revenue beyond the initial sale.