Archive for 2013
Strategic Marketing for Entrepreneurs
Future entrepreneurs, there are four essential questions that must be asked and answered: (1) Who is your target market? (2) What are the needs of the target market? (3) What is your distinctive competency is satisfying those needs? (4) How do you intend to communicate that distinctive competency?
Read MoreKimberly-Clark and Weber Grills vs. Ailawadi and Farris: Stupid or Smart Pricing?
Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) is “desheeting” its products to improve profitability. Weber Stephen Products LLC avoids price promotions and markdowns on their grills, and yet maintains a dominant market position. These are two rather disjointed activities but they both appear to fall afoul of the suggestions given in a recent Wall Street Journal article by Professor Ailawadi of Tuck and Professor Farris of Darden. Are Ailawad and Farris wrong, are the companies wrong, or can both pairs be right?
Read More“Smart Homes” – An Analysis of Emerging Business Models and Pricing Strategies
Over the last few years, communication service providers as well as cable operators have been pioneering the concept of a “smart home” as a one-stop solution that satisfies their customers’ needs for safety, security, convenience, et cetera. Does this offering have a market?
Read MoreChannel Sales Growth Wisdom From the American Library Association’s 2013 Conference
How do publishers successfully market to librarians? David Dalka explores this issue from direct research and interactions at the 2013 American Library Association Conference.
Read MoreBusiness Markets, Response Modes, and Price Performance
Having a long list of prospective buyers may be comforting for a salesperson, but a highly applied sales methodology for business markets suggests salespeople should only pursue prospects that fall within two out of four response modes. What are these response modes? How do they affect price performance? And why should salespeople only pursue two of them?
Read MoreThe Challenge of Developing Accurate Sales Forecasts
Probably the most important task of a sales manager is the development of meaningful and accurate sales forecasts. Amazingly, many sales managers simply look at historical numbers and don’t even bother to try to predict the future. Why and how should they?
Read MoreTop 6 – July 2013
Celebrate, Lament, Ignore. You choose how you respond to stimuli and situations. If your prospects are bad, create new ones. Don’t sell to prospects that aren’t buying. It takes too long and costs too much. Use marketing communications to “stay in touch” with prospects that are temporarily out of the market but will come back…
Read MoreTop 6 – June 2013
To graduates: Michael Dell (Dell), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Mike Lazaridis (RIM), and John Mackey (Whole Foods) all dropped out to start businesses. Time: the relentless and uncompromising performance metric. The difference between an idea and a profit-making business is the difference between an amoeba and a human being Capability To outperform, you…
Read More‘Shark Tank’ Offers Valuable Insight into Marketing, Entrepreneurship
Many budding entrepreneurs are filled with “ideas.” Of course, ideas are the germ of innovation, but an idea without a plan to make money is useless. I have often told my students, the difference between an idea and a profit-making business is the difference between an amoeba and a human being.
Read MoreEconomic Price Optimization Part 5: Useful, Not Perfect
Since childhood, we have heard about economics. Now that we are adults with jobs, it seems like using an economics for pricing would be wise. But, as grown-ups, we also know that things are never as simple as they appeared when we were kids.
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