With summer here, theme parks and other youth-oriented businesses have 3 months to make hay. (Technically, hay gets made in the fall, but it’s a small discrepancy.) CNN reports that Cedar Point amusement parks has dropped admission prices and many … Read More
Blog
Everyone Wants Comfort, but Will They Pay for It?
The Middle Seat travel column by Scott McCartney at the Wall Street Journal has been discussing Boeing’s plans to outfit their new 787 in either 8 or 9-across coach seating. Naturally, the 8-across seating gives each passenger more room, while … Read More
HealthSouth Latest to Feel Pricing Pinch
If there are any CFOs out there who don’t care about pricing, HealthSouth is another example of a major company whose results are very sensitive to pricing. Yes, they need to fix substantial operational issues, but they can probably figure … Read More
Follow-up on Dell Pricing
Following our earlier post on the impact of pricing pressure on Dell, an alert reader sent in this comparison yesterday: Dell Inspiron E1405:14.1″ screen (1280×800)Core Duo 1.831 GB RAM (can’t get 512)80 GB HDTotal cost: $1540 MacBook:13.3″ screen (1280×800)Core Duo … Read More
An Intriguing Idea from… the Post Office?
An alert reader sent me this timely article from the Washington Post on the “forever stamp.” The idea is that the stamp is always worth whatever the first class postage rate costs. Apparently, that’s now 39 cents, which is bad … Read More
Dude, Your Dell Is Going to Be Cheap!
Traders punished Dell stock this week after the Texas computer giant announced that a tough pricing environment would impact earnings. Dell does need to restablish its reputation in the consumer and small business markets, where its once sterling reputation for … Read More
Just returned from PPS conference
The Professional Pricing Society Spring Conference in San Francisco was last week. About 450 pricing people were there. I’ve never been to a Star Trek convention, but I’d guess they’re similar in their aggregation of people who care passionately about … Read More
Why Pricing Has to Align with the Rest of the Company
Seth Godin recently posted an piece on his blog called Razors and blades, about trouble with an HP printer. Like razors, printers are a money-losing business. The profit comes from the blades and the cartridges that people keep coming back … Read More
2 Articles on Drug Pricing
Forbes has a couple of interesting pieces on drug pricing. A Primer on Drug Pricing discusses the inherent inefficiencies of an industry driven by huge R&D costs but low marginal costs. The basic point is that the price that maximizes … Read More
Price Confusion as a Skimming Strategy
Slate posted an article recently that suggests that cellular carriers offer confusing plans to make extra money off people who aren’t willing to dig around for bargains, rebates, and better plans. There is a good deal of merit in the … Read More