Archives posted in: Pricing
Come into most executives’ offices and say “I have a great promotional idea: Let’s let customers pay what they want. It will be great!” and your career there is all but over. Yet, experiments recently demonstrated that it was great, and more specifically, it was great for profits. How can this be?
More For many companies, 2008 has been a challenging year. The new realities of our current market and economy have impacted many sectors, and even more expect to feel the effects in 2009. This makes it even more important than ever to plan smarter, more effective ways to market to industrial and technical buyers in the year ahead. Based on research into market trends, here are strategic recommendations to achieve marketing success in 2009. All of these recommendations have something in common: better decision making when it comes to marketing choices.
More Templeton would go into the customer’s negotiating room with a metaphorical gun on the table. Customers would force him to place the gun against his head and ask him to drop prices or pull the trigger. Templeton didn’t know if the gun was loaded or not. For four years, Templeton managed this challenge, and the bullet never fired. Templeton’s method of managing this struggle over prices reveals a key to pricing in opaque business markets.
(True story account.)
More Price signaling is always a touchy subject. Managed right, it can improve profits and avoid any negative legal or ethical implications. Managed poorly, it can either be a missed opportunity to correct poor pricing practices or create a legal nightmare. Fortunately, there are both business case studies and legal precedence to guide executives and chairpersons through this challenge. If we read the signals right, Tyson Food is attempting to communicate in a legal and ethical manner, but there appears to be a failure to listen by Pilgrim’s Pride.
More Pilgrim’s Pride rose from humble beginnings as a feed store to become the world’s leading chicken supplier. Yet, 2008 proved to be a year of stumbles, eventually leading to bankruptcy filings and the ousting of CEO J. Clinton Rivers. Business press cites a rise in the cost of chicken feed and oil and the lack of a concurrent increase in price, however many other companies went through similar fluctuations in input costs without the same disastrous results. So, what went wrong with pricing at Pilgrim’s Pride? To answer this question, we will examine Pilgrim’s Pride pricing at the industry level, market level, and transaction level.
More It is no secret that our global economy is in a downward funk. When will we get our groove back? A debate…
More While Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim, Pilgrim’s Pride Chairman, has sailed his ship into near abyss, A.G. Lafley, CEO of P&G, is guiding his…
More Grey markets caused by parallel importing create challenges for companies. For some, parallel importing improves revenues. For many, it is a challenge…
More The world of turnarounds is one of extremes. At one end of the spectrum are the salvage operations where wrecked businesses are…
More These are exciting times. Prices are in flux. Many companies are raising prices, some easily, others not so much, and still others…
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