Archive for 2014
Competitive Price Pressures? How to React and Why.
In free markets, competition is the norm, not the exception, and that competition will limit your latitude for pricing. When competitors lower prices or new competition enters at a lower price, many a novice manager’s gut reaction is to lower prices—but the cost of price concessions may be higher than the cost of customer losses. Experience will temper these beginner instincts over time, but there must be easier and less costly ways to identify the proper reaction to competitive price moves… Enter the Strategic Pricing Reaction Matrix.
Read MoreTop 6 – July 2014
“Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.” -Andre…
Read MoreAre Rebates and Customer Loyalty Programs Illegal? A Strategic and Legal Case Study of Intel and Eaton
Rebates, discounts, and other forms of incentives are common parts of customer loyalty programs. Done right, they improve the profitability of the firm and the reduce costs for customers. As such, they are common marketing programs and are often included in marketing and pricing recommendations. Yet recent court rulings indicate that they are sometimes illegal.…
Read MoreThe Next-Best Alternative
Innovation is a great thing: it sparks our creativity, fills needs or streamlines our lives, and fuels our economy. But even the newest-to-the-world products and services face competition. We need to be able to gauge the market outlook for any of our potential offerings, from the most evolutionary to the most revolutionary…
Read MoreMarketing to Type-As: Thank You, Starbucks
How can a marketing campaign cater to individual personality types while adding brand loyalty and increasing customer engagement? Take a look at how Starbucks is managing.
Read MoreTop 6 – June 2014
Consistently profitable decision-making isn’t based on luck. It isn’t based on being or having the smartest person on your team, either. It’s about having a solid and rigorously vetted strategy that fits your firm’s needs and goals, and, critically, communicating that to all members of your team that handle that process. You have to not…
Read MoreGetting Pricing Done with Robert Smith, Eastman Chemical Company
How are leading companies getting pricing done? What kinds of challenges should the pricing function address? Who should be engaged, and with what sorts of tools and techniques? Find out more in this interview with an industry leader.
Read MoreDecoy Pricing Part 2: Profitable Implementation
We’ve explored what decoy pricing is and how to recognize it, now let’s get into how to do it profitably.
Read MoreTop 6 – May 2014
“The brain is wider than the sky.” -Emily Dickinson Psychological pricing is effective. Even the most cautious brains take mental shortcuts to drive efficient decision-making. That said, the Internet allows a large number of careful consumers to compare notes, so be aware of customer scrutiny when you drastically change your pricing or bundling system. You…
Read MoreLinkedIn and Apple’s Psychological Pricing Tactics
How can counterintuitive pricing and bundling help make ear additional profit? Take a look at some successful tactical moves that accomplish just that.
Read More