Archive for 2019
The Purpose of Business and Pricing
Milton Friedman must be turning over in his grave. 49 years after penning an op-ed in the New York Times on the primacy of shareholder value in driving business decisions, the Business Roundtable has declared the idea moribund. Signed by 181 CEOs of large corporations, the Business Roundtable recently declared that companies should consider a…
Read MoreTarget and Walmart Score Some Points Against Amazon
Anyone who follows the retail industry is aware of the relentless ascent of Amazon, a tech giant that has completely transformed the way that millions of people worldwide purchase products. Perhaps Amazon’s most famous innovation is Amazon Prime, a subscription service that includes free two-day delivery on millions of items for sale on their online…
Read MoreWhat I (Re)Learned from Writing a Book
My book, The New Invisible Hand: Five Revolutions in the Digital Economy, has been out for six weeks, and I’ve been floored with the positive response from colleagues, connections, clients…and even some competitors! It is rewarding to have an Amazon Bestseller and see the topics resonating with so many people. I want to take a…
Read More“The Great Hack” – A Chilling View of Market Research Gone Wild
The other day my daughter told me to watch the documentary The Great Hack on Netflix. As a student and teacher of marketing research, this 113-minute film was one of the most chilling and disquieting films I’ve ever seen. The movie tells the story of Cambridge Analytica’s highly successful efforts to slice, dice, and otherwise…
Read MoreStrategic Movements: September 2019
J.M. Smucker Co Passed Input Savings onto Price Cuts. Profits? They fell of course. Q2 2019 found that net sales (revenue) decreased 6%, and profits suffered more. From a pricing perspective, this is completely to be expected. Why would an executive do something proven to harm profits? CEO Mark Smucker spoke about the dramatic decrease…
Read MoreOrganizing for Pricing Excellence
What organizational factors make for pricing excellence in a company? Moorman and Day discussed the academic research on the development of excellence in marketing organizations. We find truths in their work that translate well to the specific field of pricing, one of the four elements of the marketing mix. One could describe pricing excellence as…
Read MoreThe Relationship of Price and Demand
For this article, I am going to discuss how we model the relationship between price and demand. Most people have an intuitive understanding that when the price of a good increases, the demand will decrease. Conversely, when the price of a good decreases, the demand will increase. The change in demand according to a change…
Read MoreBeing Threatened by Bill Gates
The following is an excerpt from my new Amazon bestseller, The New Invisible Hand: Five Revolutions in the Digital Economy. This story from the earlier days of digital disruption helps to set the scene: technological forces of change transform entire industries, and it is incumbent upon executives to take advantage of their new opportunities. **…
Read MoreTribal Marketing – A Step Beyond Segmentation
“Tribalism,” that loaded word that has become a part of today’s political environment, has also entered the brand marketing world. The “tribes” idea, a powerful concept for leaders and marketers, addresses the way people develop an intense loyalty around a brand and form a rigid bond with that brand. It is step beyond market segmentation…
Read MorePricing Transformations Are Political Culture Changes. Manage with Care
A major driver behind undertaking a pricing transformation effort is the acknowledgement that price negotiations both take too long and also lead to discounts and rebates that are too big. Executives are looking for a way to bring these negotiation decisions under control in the hopes of reducing price erosion and improving profit capture. Pricing…
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