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Occupy Movement and the Existential Purpose of a Firm

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 3, 2011

Why do firms exist? Why should society allow corporations to exist? What moral reason should we, as a society, allow firms to exist? At the most fundamental level, the Occupy movement is asking this question. Shouldn’t we be addressing this?

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Sales vs. Pricing and Strategic Accounts

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 6, 2011

Salespeople abuse discounts. Pricing is the sales destruction department. Well, which group is right and must they keep fighting? In this article, we explore the role of price segmentation in strategic account selling.

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Top 6 – October 2011

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 6, 2011

In America, we teach our kids how markets work at a very early age. It’s called Halloween. Pricing vs. Sales – “Can…

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Killing the Golden Goose

By James T. Berger October 6, 2011

In a marketing blunder that rivals Coca Cola’s (temporary) abandonment of its original formula in favor of the sweeter “New Coke,” Netflix (NFLX), despite its incredible success and customer affection, decided to raise its prices 60 percent. Stock tumbled 19 percent. One million customers instantly abandoned Netflix. Was this incredible greed, stupidity or just plain ignorance?

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The Hidden Marketing Asset

By James T. Berger September 8, 2011

A number of years ago, I was contacted by an attorney who was representing an inventor. It seemed that inventor had created a universal cap for an automotive water heater. This cap could work as a replacement for any water heater.Like most inventors, this one happened to be mentally long on technical expertise and mentally short on the realities of the marketplace. Also, like many investors he was working on a shoe-string.

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Groupon – Show Me the Money.

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 8, 2011

Groupon has shown the world a new way to do coupon promotions, but is it any better than traditional couponing? In this article, provide an academically proven and industry best-practice approach for evaluating coupon promotions, be it Groupon or any other type of couponing.

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Top 6 – September 2011

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 8, 2011

“Find the problem that other people have ignored.” Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit Inc. August 18, 2001, WSJ. A good idea needs…

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Top 6 – August 2011

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 11, 2011

Summer Heat Beats Play Ball! If only ticket sellers would! The boys of summer shop ‘til they drop Mother knows best! And…

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Play Ball!

By Curry W. Hilton August 11, 2011

Preventing the Resale of Sporting Event Tickets

StubHub, TicketNetwork, and eBay are marketplaces that allow customers to buy and sell unwanted tickets. For example, a season ticket holder uses StubHub as form of consignment to sell a Dallas Mavericks basketball ticket to a consumer that is available and willing to attend the game. The sellers of tickets in the secondary market are capitalizing on possessing elastic demand characteristics. But what about the team owners?

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Eastman Kodak — Another Corporate Icon Fights to Survive

By James T. Berger August 11, 2011

The 2011 graveyard of dead icons might get another — Eastman Kodak. This 131-year old mainstay of Corporate America is struggling to survive. It recently posted a much higher than anticipated loss and lower revenues. It continues to struggle from selling film to selling digital camera and printers.

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