Archive for 2016
Will Bid for the Presidency Destroy the Trump Brand?
Politico writes: “But as Trump the candidate has ascended, hitting the top of the polls and staying there thanks to a series of controversial statements and a groundswell of Republican populist support, the opposite has happened to Trump the brand.”
Read MoreProfit-Based Incentives: Doable and Valuable through Alignment of Goals
While deal points are a powerful tool, implementing them requires careful thought. List prices, sales kickers, commission rates, and various approximations through product groupings have to be determined to create a workable plan. And, once a workable plan is defined, sales managers may determine that sales territory realignment is furthermore in order.
Read MoreWhy Relationship Marketing Has Never Worked for the New Car Purchase
That structural problem is the “deep divide” between manufacturers and dealers. While manufacturers spend millions of dollars on image advertising to promote the brands, the dealers care little about the long-term brand value and instead put their emphasis on the transaction.
Read MoreTrends Observed at the 2016 International Home and Housewares Show
One of the most interesting booth visits I had was with Starfrit. Founder Jacques Gatien started selling kitchen gadgets at trade fairs in 1965. Over the past several decades, they’ve created many new categories. They showed me The Rock, a frying pan with a unique non-stick surface using what they call RockTec. It comes with a generous 10-year warranty.
Read MoreCreative Destruction Strikes Again
To embrace creative destruction is a choice. We can either lament that we fell on the destruction side of market forces, or we can throw ourselves into the creative side of market forces. When market forces destroy your industry, embrace it as the opportunity to create a new path — don’t wait for some third party to have pity on you and fix it for you. Fix it yourself.
Read MoreMiddlemen In the New Economy
Marina Krakovsky argues in a compelling new book that conventional wisdom was wrong. The Middleman Economy argues that, while transaction costs have decreased for everyone, they have decreased at an even faster rate for professional middlemen, leading to have an even larger role in today’s economy.
Read MoreFree Trade, Protectionism and Marketing
Keeping less-productive Americans in their factory jobs means the U.S. government has to impose tariffs or quotas on the more efficiently produced foreign products. This will force the prices of those off shore goods to go up in order to match what it costs to produce them less efficiently in America. So the consumer has to pay, out of his/her own pocket, what it cost to keep a less productive American worker employed.
Read MoreHearsay When Proof is Illegal: A Legal and Ethical Pricing Challenge in Business Markets
Agreed, the signal may not be exact when using publically available information to benchmark competitive prices. It may not be exactly precise even when found from market research. But it will generally suffice for most pricing questions. In many cases, it must suffice.
Read MoreWhy is Gas Priced by Fractions of a Cent?
The fact that consumers buy gas on a continuum rather than in discrete gallons (unless you’re a wizard with the gas nozzle handle) likely makes it easier for both sides to live with the current arrangement. The pump price and volume numbers go along until the tank is full or you release the handle, and there perhaps isn’t much analytical thought put into the final ratio that appears.
Read MoreMcDonald’s Feasts on All-Day Breakfast, But Causes Indigestion for Some Franchisees
According to Bloomberg Business, the all-day breakfast has created some meaningful initial problems for franchisees. Soon after the all-day breakfast policy was initiated, Bloomberg Business pointed out “Four Reasons McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast is a Headache for Franchisees.”
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