Archive for 2007
How to Make Your E-Mail Marketing More Effective
If e-mail marketing is becoming an increasingly more important part of your promotional blend, Jeanne Jennings has produced what amounts to a “Primer” for effective e-mail marketing. Her article series appeared on the ClickZ e-zine in six separate installments (www.clicks.com), and you can access the entire series by entering “Ten Steps for Developing an Effective…
Read MorePrice Discipline in Declining Markets: Coffee Roasters
When industries decline, it is tempting for competitors to make a dash for regaining lost volumes by slashing prices. But, are price wars predestined? Nagel and Holden (2002) argue that in declining industries price volatility is usually high if contribution margins are high and the production costs are mainly fixed and sunk. Are all three…
Read MorePrice Adjustments to New Information: Sony PS3
With experience, professional pricers instinctively learn to laud price increases and denigrate price decreases. Sometimes though, it is a good idea to lower your price. On July 9th, Sony Corp. announced it was decreasing its 60 GB PlayStation 3 by $100 while launching an 80 GB PlayStation 3 at the prior price. This alters the…
Read MoreTop 6 – August 2007
Communicate, Align, Capture Leegin decision should have a larger effect on prices of consumer products characterized as high-value branded goods, complex product, or difficult to experience products. Leegin decision could act as a deterrent to the long term trend of reducing service and costs in distribution, thus shifting the competitive relationships between distributors towards adding…
Read MoreExecutive Conversations: Symantec’s Brian Foster
Microsoft has continues their thrust into the enterprise software market with their recent acquisition and expansion of their security software. As they do so, they enter a crowded space led by industry titans such as Symantec. To get a feel as to how entrenched competitors are reacting to the expansion plans of an otherwise industry…
Read MoreSymantec’s Non-Price Response
Symantec continues to battle Microsoft’s foray into the computer security software market through a public relations campaign, yet they have not responded in matching Microsoft’s price. Why make a public response but privately ignore a potential price response? Because other options are more profitable. A Price Reaction Would Be Harmful We can understand the cost…
Read MoreThe Perils of Using the Internet for Surveys
As one who is involved in trademark infringement litigation surveys, I have discovered the Internet as a means of probing the marketplace to learn if consumers are confused about various products or services. There are a number of ways to find this information. The most often used ways – other than the Internet – are…
Read MoreTop 6 – July 2007
Value First, Cost Second Price is not the competitive equalizer. Value is. Consider how to communicate your value proposition properly. Communicating the value isn’t a once-off thing. Repeat your message and leverage multiple communication vehicles. Internet surveys are inexpensive and quick, but that doesn’t make them all-purpose solutions. Match the market research tool to the…
Read MoreThe Difficulty of Developing Profitable and Unique Sales Promotions
A Universitiy of Houston professor, Betsy Gelb, and two of her doctoral candidate students, Demetra Andrews and Son K. Lam, set off to provide a most intriguing hypotehesis – sales promotions that are easy for consumer to adopt but difficult for competitors to imitate, would be disproportionately profitable. The development and discussion of this hypothesis…
Read MoreSadder But Wiser
We have all learned something the hard way, and those lessons tend to be well learned. Those of us with little gray hair can use these experiences, the way rainmakers do, to persuade the client that we know better to make such mistakes again. Though we might not want to point out a mistake we made…
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