Posts by: Tim J. Smith, PhD

Top 6 – October 2013

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 2, 2013

“I know he’s a good general, but is he lucky?” Napoleon Bonaparte Failures happen. The question is will you learn the right…

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Redbox Experiments with Price Promotions. Shareholders Recoil from Outerwall.

By Tim J. Smith, PhD October 2, 2013

Outerwall Inc. the owner of the Redbox downgraded their performance guidance tipping off a 13% decline in market capitalization. Did investors overreact? And what caused the poor performance in the first place?

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Top 6 – September 2013

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 9, 2013

“You can’t ‘manage’ a crowd – or a community – through transactional exchanges or economic incentives. You need something stronger: shared purpose.”…

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Who Should Control Pricing? Sales, Marketing, or Finance?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 9, 2013

Who should oversee pricing decisions? Marketing? Sales? Finance? Research by Homburg, Jensen, and Hahn showed it was none of them, all of them, and it depends.

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Top 6 – August 2013

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 2, 2013

Which of the following is most critical for a successful entrepreneur to have? An Idea Money Employees Customers Which one? Customers, you…

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Kimberly-Clark and Weber Grills vs. Ailawadi and Farris: Stupid or Smart Pricing?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 2, 2013

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) is “desheeting” its products to improve profitability. Weber Stephen Products LLC avoids price promotions and markdowns on their grills, and yet maintains a dominant market position. These are two rather disjointed activities but they both appear to fall afoul of the suggestions given in a recent Wall Street Journal article by Professor Ailawadi of Tuck and Professor Farris of Darden. Are Ailawad and Farris wrong, are the companies wrong, or can both pairs be right?

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Business Markets, Response Modes, and Price Performance

By Tim J. Smith, PhD July 9, 2013

Having a long list of prospective buyers may be comforting for a salesperson, but a highly applied sales methodology for business markets suggests salespeople should only pursue prospects that fall within two out of four response modes. What are these response modes? How do they affect price performance? And why should salespeople only pursue two of them?

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Top 6 – July 2013

By Tim J. Smith, PhD July 9, 2013

Celebrate, Lament, Ignore. You choose how you respond to stimuli and situations. If your prospects are bad, create new ones. Don’t sell…

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Top 6 – June 2013

By Tim J. Smith, PhD June 1, 2013

To graduates: Michael Dell (Dell), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Mike Lazaridis (RIM), and John Mackey (Whole Foods) all dropped out…

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Economic Price Optimization Part 5: Useful, Not Perfect

By Tim J. Smith, PhD May 30, 2013

Since childhood, we have heard about economics. Now that we are adults with jobs, it seems like using an economics for pricing would be wise. But, as grown-ups, we also know that things are never as simple as they appeared when we were kids.

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About The Author

timjsmith
Tim J. Smith, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Wiglaf Pricing, an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Economics at DePaul University, and the author of Pricing Done Right (Wiley 2016) and Pricing Strategy (Cengage 2012). At Wiglaf Pricing, Tim leads client engagements. Smith’s popular business book, Pricing Done Right: The Pricing Framework Proven Successful by the World’s Most Profitable Companies, was noted by Dennis Stone, CEO of Overhead Door Corp, as "Essential reading… While many books cover the concepts of pricing, Pricing Done Right goes the additional step of applying the concepts in the real world." Tim’s textbook, Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts, & Establishing Price Structures, has been described by independent reviewers as “the most comprehensive pricing strategy book” on the market. As well as serving as the Academic Advisor to the Professional Pricing Society’s Certified Pricing Professional program, Tim is a member of the American Marketing Association and American Physical Society. He holds a BS in Physics and Chemistry from Southern Methodist University, a BA in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University, a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and an MBA with high honors in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Chicago GSB.