The marketing manager must ensure that pricing objectives are aligned with the organization's objectives. Flexibility must be factored into the pricing. Some products or services have very little pricing flexibility due to factors such as scarcity of resources needed to produce the product or service or due to high levels of competition that push prices to a stable, low level. In the case of the author's company, the price depends on the size of the client, what they can bring to the contract and the level of service required. In terms of competition, the author's company charges more for the end result, but the costs to customers also include a much higher level of customer service than the competition. The product life cycle is an important element when setting pricing because the desire is to ensure that a certain amount of revenue is received over the life cycle. To do this, the price must stabilize over the life cycle. This requires a good understanding of the supply and demand for a product at any given point in its life