Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!

What drives engagement and loyalty for your brand? Many companies think they know the answer to this because they’ve relied on some form of traditional conjoint analysis, which can be very helpful in determining which combination of attributes are most preferred by rational target audiences. It’s an extraordinarily appropriate approach for situations where a strong…

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Don’t Fall Into the “Commodity” Trap

A few years ago one of my students asked me to help him market his company’s products. The product line was a broad group of fabricated copper wires.  The problem the company faced was its perception that it was marketing a commodity product that could not compete with larger competitors who had a price advantage. …

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Price Discrimination by the FAA

Bring up the topic of price discrimination, and you are sure to find at least someone state that it isn’t fair, perhaps even illegal.  Yet, the world around abounds with examples, state sanctioned as well.  Recently, the Transportation Secretary proposed a plan that would allow price discrimination by the FAA. New rules proposed by Treasury…

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Top 6 – February 2008

A Rose is a Rose by Any Other Name. Embrace Your Inner Thorn. Don’t confuse table stakes with key differentiators. While both are necessary to play, one will help you win Commoditization is a choice. So is differentiation. Choose with which you wish to compete. Congestion pricing is fair for consumers, but expect the nominally…

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