In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Caroline Cookson, Founder of Cookson Partners and former Global Strategy and Analytics Leader at Brown-Forman. With more than 15 years of experience in finance, brand strategy, and commercial leadership, Caroline has helped shape pricing strategies for world-class spirits brands including Jack Daniel’s, Glendronach, and Gin Mare. Caroline shares how pricing can connect brand positioning, consumer psychology, and retail execution — and why fairness, transparency, and values-led decision-making are becoming the new foundation of effective pricing leadership.

Key Topics:

• How pricing bridges finance, brand identity, and consumer perception
• Working “from shelf price backwards” when retailers control the final price
• Building global frameworks that balance guardrails with local flexibility
• How values-led brands can price confidently and maintain integrity
• Moving beyond cost-plus: creating structure and discipline around discounting
• When smaller businesses should invest in pricing talent, data, and tools
• The ethics of AI pricing and how transparency builds consumer trust

Recommended Resources:

• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Works of Rory Sutherland and Mark Ritson

Connect with Caroline Cookson on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

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Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Pooja Gerera, VP Insights and Strategy — formerly VP of Sales and Pricing — at Zooplus, Europe’s leading online pet retailer. Over nearly a decade, Pooja has helped scale Zooplus’s pricing function from a small, experimental team into a data-driven commercial engine spanning 20 European markets. She shares her journey from systems engineering and telecom pricing to leading one of Europe’s most advanced retail pricing organizations, building automation, managing elasticity, and balancing autonomy with control through her “freedom within a framework” philosophy.

Key Topics:

• How a background in technology shaped Pooja’s approach to scalable, automated pricing
• Building Zooplus’s pricing team and evolving from manual to machine-learning models
• Segmenting assortments and applying differentiated strategies across 20 European markets
• Managing competing priorities between pricing, promotions, and sales operations
• Leadership lessons: earning trust, aligning cross-functional teams, and empowering autonomy
• Why elasticity and channel-based pricing can transform traffic and price perception
• The future of e-commerce and AI as the next major disruption in retail pricing

Recommended Resources:

• Thought leaders Pooja follows: Fabian Uhrich, Danilo Zatta, and Chris Herbert
• EPP (European Pricing Platform) events and conferences

Connect with Pooja Gerera on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

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Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Barrie Carmel, a pricing, margin, and revenue management consultant with more than 30 years of experience, including senior leadership roles at Bed Bath & Beyond and Michaels. Barrie shares her journey from foodservice into retail pricing leadership and reflects on what it means to balance precision and speed, manage promotions and customer perception, and lead pricing in an era of public scrutiny.

Key Topics:

• Lessons from transitioning between B2B foodservice and large-scale retail
• How to manage complexity when in-store price execution depends on labor
• The decline of coupon culture and the challenge of generational shifts in value perception
• Why framing conversations in customer-centric terms builds credibility and influence internally
• Electronic shelf labels and AI — opportunities, risks, and why data protection is essential
• How litigation and regulation are likely to reshape fairness standards and reference pricing practices

Recommended Resources:

• Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
• Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Connect with Barrie Carmel on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

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Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.