Machiavelli, Evolving, and Appreciation

Learning from Machiavelli’s Career One might think that Machiavelli had a great career. His seminal masterpiece, The Prince, broke from the strictures of morality to explore the use of rationality in the proper running of a government. It remains a required reading in many college programs in business, political science, and philosophy. Surely, someone like…

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Purchasing Motivators

What makes customers buy? Obviously, “need” acts as a strong purchasing motivator but “needs” are poor indicators of how purchasing desires are directed. To understand purchasing motivators, we must look beyond basic needs and examine underlying goals. Once they uncover these goals, clever marketers position their brand as able to fulfill the target market’s purchasing…

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Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

It’s said that the three rules of retailing are Location, Location, Location. For branded consumer goods, the location paradigm is driven to higher precision with issues of distribution channels, shelf placement, and end-caps. To extend the parallel to business markets, the three rules are Relationships, Relationships, Relationships. Competitive Advantage In most business markets, personal relationships…

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Information Intermediary Market

Information intermediaries are communication vehicles that transfer concerns between buyers and sellers. Distinct information intermediaries can be identified for the transference of ideas, concepts, desires, and concerns from buyers-to-sellers and from sellers-to-buyers. They are distinguished by their ability to aggregate information into manageable chunks and their ability to aggregate audiences for consuming ideas. Seller-to-Buyer and…

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Pricing Opacity

In consumer markets, prices are transparent. Anyone wanting to know the price of a good or service, competitors and prospective customers alike, can easily call for a price quote or look-up the list price. In contrast, prices are opaque in many business markets. Even in markets where price lists are available, the practice of discounting…

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Information Flows in Consumer vs. Business Markets

Advocates of efficient market theories claim that all relevant information concerning a stock is included in the price. This may be true with respect to financial markets, but other markets require far more information than price in order to function. The success of buyers and sellers in transacting information affects the ability of market participants…

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Size Counts

The US is home to 294 million individuals living in 105 million households and working at 21 million businesses plus a number of government agencies. 70% of the businesses are sole proprietorships leaving under 6 million companies with more than one employee. Simply comparing the potential market size of the entire consumer base versus the…

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Delineating the Differences

Are marketing ideas and practices from consumer markets readily applicable to business markets? Should we expect an expert consumer marketer to also be a high-performing business marketer? Clearly, the goal in consumer and business marketing is shared: to create customers and capture profitable revenues. But does a shared goal imply that the strategies and tactics…

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Datamatic Seeks Beachhead in Meter Data Collection

Datamatic seeks a beachhead in Commercial and Industrial (C&I) interval meter data collection and processing with CommSTAR, a product focused on matching industry trends. Will this one-product market be receptive to their entry? We investigate the CommSTAR solution (www.datamatic.com) and the resulting prospects for successful market entry in this highly specialized market. Background In the…

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Itron Defends Dominance of MV-90

Itron’s MV-90 meter data collection and processing application has had an unrivaled market presence in North America. Recently, a new entrant has chosen to challenge their dominance. Many factors indicate that Itron can defend their dominant market share, yet can one product meet all customer demands? We investigate the MV-90 solution (www.itron.com ), its evolution,…

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