A vicious price war for large, flat screen televisions has bit into Circuit City’s bottom line. The electronics retailer posted a loss for the past 3 months, sending shares skidding. As usual, the price war for fancy TV’s has removed … Read More
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Good Review of Rounding
Why end prices with .99 instead of rounding them to the nearest whole number? And does this represent a 1 penny discount or a 99 cent price increase? Customers view certain ranges of prices as the same, often with arbitrary … Read More
Bringing Airline Pricing to Sports
That may not sound like progress to some people, but an alert reader sent in this article on a company called StratBridge, which helps professional sports teams optimize ticket prices. Unlike the massive yield management systems in place at the … Read More
Drug Pricing Changes Possible
It’s been a tough stretch for Big Pharma, which is getting a pricing beating from cheaper generic alternatives. Merck is offering big discounts on AIDS drug Efavirenz in Thailand, as Thailand considers producing generic versions of the patented medicine via … Read More
Why Be Simple when You Can Be Microsoft?
Last week, Microsoft launched its much hyped iPod competitor, dubbed Zune. The Zune is another mp3 player, with the ability to share songs with other nearby Zunes. Pricing for the Zune itself is straightforward, and basically at parity to the … Read More
Farecast to Offer Pricing Guarantees on Airfares
Back in August, we noted an interesting website called Farecast, which makes predictions about whether airfares will move up, down, or stay the same. This could let buyers lock in low rates if fares are about to increase, or wait … Read More
Do Rational People Buy Overpriced Things?
Jeff Heuer has a great blog called Micromotives– The Science & Art of Decision Making. A recent post ponders “Would it ever be rational to buy something you know to be overpriced?” Jeff writes that “Research on hedge fund trading … Read More
Dangerous Pricing Advice
Forbes magazine has some suggestions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses avoid Three Mistakes When Pricing Your Products. The article notes correctly that “Most small companies get pricing wrong.” The three mistakes to avoid: Pricing for the Short-Term Ignoring the … Read More
Airlines Try Again for Price Increase
With passenger loads up, major US airlines are again trying to push through a small fare increase. We noted a failed attempt at a price increase back in August, when oil prices were higher, but important business traffic was probably … Read More