Posts by: Tim J. Smith, PhD

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Leading with Price Will Kill Your Advertising, Branded Offers, and Ultimately Your Company

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 6, 2010

Nowhere in marketing today do emotions run hotter than when it comes to the role of (low) prices highlighted in advertising. Only it’s a bad idea to lead with price in advertising.

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Top 6 – November 2010

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 6, 2010

“There are three potentially successful generic strategic approaches to outperforming other firms in an industry: 1 Overall Cost Leadership; 2. Differentiation; 3…

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Intel Lends Support to Achronix Against Xilinx and Altera in the FPGA Industry. Excess Competition or the Rule of 3?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 6, 2010

In October of 2010, Intel Corp. took an unexpected move by granting Achronix Semiconductor Corp. access to its most advanced foundry to produce field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips.  Xilinx Inc. and Altera Corp. currently dominate the FPGA industry.  How serious of a threat is Intel’s move to the historic industry cohorts?  More specifically, will this move harm industry profits as competition heats up?  And, how should executives and investors react?

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Rethinking Cost and Price

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 6, 2010

Most of us accept that if we go to a convenience store to buy groceries late at night, the price of many of the items will be more than if we bought them at a major grocery chain during regular hours. Yet when it comes to operating our businesses, many of us are not convinced that cost has no bearing on price.

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Top 6 – October 2010

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 1, 2010

“Strategy is about defining what you won’t do more than what you will do” Michael Porter Prospect: Who is in the market,…

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Groupon: Goldmine, Tar Pit, or Niche Solution

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 1, 2010

Since its launch in 2008, Groupon has generated a storm interest. Positively featured in numerous news articles, news broadcasts, and even a few academic postings, but not every business working with Groupon reports satisfaction. Some are complaining of high expenses that brought few new customers.

So which is Groupon: goldmine, tar pit, or some niche in between?

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Top 6 – September 2010

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 1, 2010

Where is the creative destruction when you need it? Acknowledge the faults. Identify the goal. Define the path. Create buy-in. Execute. Job…

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Creating a pricing function to adopt value based pricing and stop margin leakage

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 1, 2010

Imagine, your executive just read an article that said she can expect at least a 1% improvement in her bottom line profit if she introduces a pricing initiative. Now, she wants to know what steps you will follow to create a new pricing function with the goals of implementing value based pricing and stopping margin leakage. What resources do you need to be successful and where do you focus first?

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P&G Shifts Pricing Strategy to Meet Post-Recession Market

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 1, 2010

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Proctor & Gamble Co.’s new CEO, Robert McDonald, is “slashing prices” and warns of an impending price war in the branded consumer packaged good (CPG) industry.  Yet, Mr. McDonald states, “In my mind there’s not a price war going on.”  Is the Wall Street Journal guilty of hyperbole or is Mr. McDonald blithe to the profit destruction of price cuts?

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Introducing the Internet/Telephone Hybrid Survey

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 3, 2010

Jim Berger’s latest (9th) intellectual property survey article (July, 2010 Intellectual Property Today) focuses on a newly developed hybrid telephone/Internet survey technique.…

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About The Author

timjsmith
Tim J. Smith, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Wiglaf Pricing, an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Economics at DePaul University, and the author of Pricing Done Right (Wiley 2016) and Pricing Strategy (Cengage 2012). At Wiglaf Pricing, Tim leads client engagements. Smith’s popular business book, Pricing Done Right: The Pricing Framework Proven Successful by the World’s Most Profitable Companies, was noted by Dennis Stone, CEO of Overhead Door Corp, as "Essential reading… While many books cover the concepts of pricing, Pricing Done Right goes the additional step of applying the concepts in the real world." Tim’s textbook, Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts, & Establishing Price Structures, has been described by independent reviewers as “the most comprehensive pricing strategy book” on the market. As well as serving as the Academic Advisor to the Professional Pricing Society’s Certified Pricing Professional program, Tim is a member of the American Marketing Association and American Physical Society. He holds a BS in Physics and Chemistry from Southern Methodist University, a BA in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University, a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and an MBA with high honors in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Chicago GSB.