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Groupon’s Third Act

By Kyle T. Westra December 3, 2015

Both Williams and Mason are frank about past mistakes. They grew too quickly. They didn’t respond appropriately to criticism. Accounting was a mess. The business model required too much labor in place of operational efficiency and scalable systems. But both are optimistic about the core problem that the company is trying to solve: e-commerce for small and local businesses.

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Ensure Your Digital Marketing Strategy Supports the Business Goals

By Lee Flynn December 3, 2015

Your business plan should be the driver for every action you take, including developing your digital marketing strategy. From setting your ad budget to identifying where your target market hangs out, reading your business plan is like consulting a digital marketing compass that reliably points north.

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An Overly Simplistic Approach to Pricing Strategy

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 5, 2015

Pricing strategy is not executed by simply raising prices. If that’s all it took, then every fool would do pricing strategy, and every business owner would have a clear pricing plan.

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Semiconductor Socket Wars – III

By Anirban Sengupta November 5, 2015

The war for the new world is not just different because of the absence of a defender – it could be even more complex since the sockets itself may not be pre-defined.

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Customer Centric Pricing

By Kyle T. Westra November 5, 2015

Without a strong understanding of these customers, as well as the effort to continuously reevaluate this understanding, companies will see their share slip away to better positioned competition. Pricing requires just as much strategy as product; the right product at the wrong price is no longer the right product.

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Big Show Idea Vlog

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 6, 2015

Join Tim J. Smith PhD in a new video blogging series covering what’s affecting pricing, the economy and you. In this month’s vlogs, gain insight on everything from Imaginary Pricing to liquor sales in Africa.

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The Pricing Function: Simple Questions with Complex Answers

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 6, 2015

Companies that are just beginning to build a pricing team should initially focus on defining the first year’s problems the team must address. Is it a price execution, discounting, setting, or strategy challenge, which most needs to be addressed? In some cases, the performance metric should be something correlated to profits, revenue, and share.

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Brands Valuations Go Topsy-Turvy Over Last 10 Years

By James T. Berger October 6, 2015

Disputing the economic turbulence over the last decade, the BrandZ ratings show that most brand categories increased in value. Leaders were fast food and technology. Seven categories doubled their values—fast food, technology, beer, apparel, telecom, soft drink and retail.

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Airlines and Innovation

By Kyle T. Westra October 6, 2015

Whereas airlines are a particularly visible example of an industry struggling with price structures and value offerings, every company in every industry should pay close attention to their customers and what their customers value. Airlines are a particularly visible example of an industry struggling to think creatively about how best to capture the right price for the value provided.

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Semiconductor Socket Wars – II

By Anirban Sengupta October 6, 2015

If a customer doesn’t need to make design changes to change the chip in a socket they are likely to continuously engage with multiple competing suppliers – not just to get the best price but also to secure supply. In fact in some cases customers are reluctant to design in proprietary chips, as they believe that having a single supplier for a product is very risky!

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