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Somewhere between blunt and precise lies communication. Go too far in either direction and you lose them. When sales people manage information…
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The year 2012 is ending with a number of key happenings that are changing the face of strategic marketing. Jim’s take on At&T, H-P, McDonalds, and Hostess
More Thales SA and Panasonic Corp. have recently begun marketing Wi-Fi-enabled iPad in-flight entertainment systems alongside traditional wired and seatback entertainment systems. Does handing out iPads to passengers and going Wi-Fi make sense for other airlines or is this a frivolous luxury for the elite that commoners will never see? A modeling of the Exchange Value can determine.
More The ever-so-dreaded prisoner’s dilemma outcome achieved in most pricing wars can be avoided in some instances by applying games of coexistence. In particular, the Hawk-Dove game offers a unique result that fosters mutual benefit and healthy market competition. The value contributed by the Hawk-Dove model involves understanding the cost of waging a price war, the potential strategy-dependent profit realized, and the managerial security expressed.
More “Sellers don’t control their product, quality, marketing, customers, competitors, or pricing. What they do control is, what they know, and how and when to apply what they know.“ Read a controversial approach to sales and price quoting from Spider Lockhart and ask yourself: when should prices be transparent and when should they stay opaque?
More “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all…
More As Mark Hurd, co-president of Oracle re-emerges on the public stage, we see him once again focusing on the sales force. Within Oracle’s sales force, he has changed job descriptions, reporting structures, compensation plans, staff size, and corporate routines in a stated effort to improve revenue and profits. But what principles guide his sales-force design? Is he a sales-force master architect or a tinkerer that will destroy Oracle’s revenue?
More After engaging in a brief conversation on “promotional pricing” with a business operations executive at a global manufacturer in consumer goods industry, I was inspired to address some misconceptions discussed and provide further insight on how firms in the B2B space implement profit-enhancing promotional pricing tactics. First of all, promotional pricing should be viewed as a means to price segment according to consumers’ willingness to pay, not as a pure promotional strategy. Case in point, consider Remington Arm’s Promotion of Nitro-Steel Load.
More J.C. Penney’s retail makeover spearheaded by CEO Ron Johnson is remarkably similar to another dramatic — and highly successful — initiative taken in another era. Consider the 1957 challenge and change.
More Declining profit margins are forcing companies to find new ways to improve profitability. Most companies have been through the cost cutting and strategic procurement processes and are now looking for the next level to pull. Strategic pricing is starting to become more popular as more senior executive have begun to leverage the power of pricing.
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