Posts by: Tim J. Smith, PhD
In this article, we look at how I have often seen pricing improvements measured and why I have some serious reservations with this common metric. I do this in the hopes of generating responses on how you accurately measured the effectiveness of pricing at your company.
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The Federal Aviation Administration is contemplating an $8 increase on domestic round-trip ticketing fees. In response, Delta Air Lines Inc. claims that for every $1 increase in facility charges, passenger demand declines by more than 1%. That would imply a primary demand elasticity of about three. Seems right. So, an $8 facilities charge increase would decrease flight travel by 8%.
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Product managers undoubtedly can be held accountable for the profitability of their portfolio. It is reasonably possible to make portfolio profitability a key performance indicator of a product manager. And it reasonable to make this part of their compensation package, thus holding them not only accountable but impacting their own economic condition based on the quality of the decisions they make.
More Apple and Qualcomm are in a feud. Issue: Qualcomm makes and holds patents over much of the modem chips that handle communications between wireless devices and cellular networks. Actions: Apple sued Qualcomm over market dominance, and Qualcomm responded by withholding software required to configure their next-gen chips.
More There are two basic approaches businesses take to managing commercial policy. For most, the default approach is tactical decision making. For some, they take the leap and add strategic decision-making.
More Sonos Inc. felt the heat of Amazon’s Alexa in the in-home wireless sound movement. What to do? If you can’t beat them, join them. Working with Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple, Sonos is planning to make smart speakers for all of them. Smart move Sonos for the increasing Smart Home.
More Neil Rackham, Reed Holden, Andy Zoltners, Prabha Sinha, and many others have all repeatedly found that good salespeople are methodical. They use an approach towards sales that drive prospects through a process. The process starts with discovery, goes through a learning phase and needs understanding stage, then a proposal that solidifies the tradeoffs, and finally closing.
More Wendy’s achieved another quarter of same store sales growth. Was it their sassy social media campaign that reminds detractors of the existence of refrigerators? Was it their new menu items? Or was it the fast food chain’s competitive pricing? Of the three, I think it was their social media campaign that propelled otherwise strong product and pricing strategy to outperform.
More I have seen three or four multinationals, and four to six local suppliers sell the same core product in the same country, at roughly the same price. Because there is so much competition in these markets, customers ask for discounts and drive suppliers to bid against each other to win their business. It is hard to make a stable supplier business in these situations. How can one win? And, what does value-based pricing have to contribute to these markets?
More What better way to attract customers than with a discount? I’ll tell you what is a better way: Redefine your business into something customers actually want to engage as a first resort, not as a cheap resort.
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