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Free Trade, Protectionism and Marketing

By James T. Berger May 9, 2016

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.

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Hearsay When Proof is Illegal: A Legal and Ethical Pricing Challenge in Business Markets

By Tim J. Smith, PhD April 4, 2016

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.

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Why is Gas Priced by Fractions of a Cent?

By Kyle T. Westra April 4, 2016

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.

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McDonald’s Feasts on All-Day Breakfast, But Causes Indigestion for Some Franchisees

By James T. Berger April 4, 2016

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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Are Drug Companies Ripping Us Off?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD March 4, 2016

Pharmaceutical formularies, like other medical solutions, are best priced according to the value they deliver relative to the alternative treatment for the target disease. If the new solution provides more value, it should have a proportionately higher price. If it provides less value, it should have a proportionately lower price. This is the concept behind value-based price: price to reflect the prices of alternatives adjusted for their differential value for the target customer.

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Designing a Product Roadmap-II

By Anirban Sengupta March 4, 2016

It is not expected that all the dates mentioned in the product roadmaps are hard deadlines. An audience is cognizant of the fact that sometimes product launches can get delayed due to unforeseen reasons. Yet consistently not sticking to the roadmap may lead the audience to question a firm’s credibility. A great idea would be to backdate the roadmap, to some extent, to demonstrate the compliance so far and then to open up the future.

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Maintaining Pricing Excellence During Currency Depreciation

By Kyle T. Westra March 4, 2016

It is preferable to maintain or carefully increase prices in a clear, methodical way, only decreasing cost slowly and with much consideration. Careful analysis is required to take into account different SKUs, product lines, geographies, and customer segments, adjusting prices in the way that fits best each unique category.

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Trends in Automobiles and Auto Show Practices Seen at the Chicago Auto Show

By David Dalka March 4, 2016

I have noticed one car company breaking the rules of engagement at the Chicago Auto Show the past two years. Kia Motors America, Inc. has public relations people on hand like every car company at the show. They also had product mangement exectutives like Vice President, Product Planning Orth Hedrick and Manager, Long Range Strategy Steve Kosowski onsite. They stayed onsite for both press days – interacting with people and taking product feedback.

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Are You an ‘Imposter?’ If So, the Workplace Needs You

By James T. Berger March 4, 2016

Chance defines the “imposter phenomenon” as “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness” and adds that those who experience, for the most part, are “people who have achieved something; people who are demonstrably anything but frauds.”

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Professional Service Pricing: Beyond the Hourly Rate and into the Deliverable

By Tim J. Smith, PhD February 4, 2016

In deliverable based pricing, prices are tied to deliverables, not effort. In order for that to work in favor of the service provider, that provider has to know, plan, and execute what it takes to achieve the defined deliverable with the client. (Laggard service providers may be afraid of deliverable based pricing precisely because of their project management skill-set deficit – but it is something they can learn.)

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