If you’re promotions make you feel like this, it’s time to rethink what you’re doing. Scott Adams is a genius, although our corporate world certainly gives him plenty of material.
Blog
No Relation Between Price and Quality?
Seth Godin posted this a couple of days ago: In industries under siege from external change (and I count music, books, airlines, pharmaceuticals, IT, telecommunications, etc) you’ll find that the extra fees extracted by the legacy companies DO NOT go … Read More
Best Buy to End Rebates
Bowing to customer complaints, Best Buy says it will eliminate mail-in rebates within two years. Rebates allows the company to offer low prices, but require customers to mail in rebate forms, receipts, and pieces of the product packaging. Naturally, not … Read More
Value-based Pricing in Direct Marketing
A direct mail company, On-Card Inc. is offering pay-per-response direct mail. Buyers bid what they think a response would be worth, and On-Card runs the campaign (buyers must also pay postage). This is more like online advertising than traditional pay-per-piece … Read More
Blockbuster Settles Late Fee Suits
Blockbuster paid $630,000 and offered refunds to some customers to settle suits in 47 states over its “No Late Fees” program, which actually charges late fees. The New Jersey suit is still pending. For those just tuning in, the suits … Read More
Pricing Guaranteed to Make Millions Mad
I’ve referred to Microsoft pricing a number of times in my newsletter. They practice great segmentation, they create new markets by lowering price points, and of course, they get in trouble through aggressive discounting and bundling practices. One issue they’re … Read More
Learning from Buffett
In Berkshire Hathaways 2004 Annual Report, Warren Buffett talks about how to make money in the highly commoditized insurance business. In short, you underwrite business you think will be profitable, not business that is simply available. You do this by … Read More
Pitfalls of Best Pricing — Keeping Track
Best price guarantees are a great way to make customers feel good, and they can even contribute to higher prices in some markets, but you have to keep track of them. Nowhere is this more important than in dealings with … Read More
Outlawing Gender-Based Pricing
A recently married Ontario legislature has decided that price gaps between men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, dry cleaning, and hair styles are a human rights violation. Lorenzo Berardinetti has proposed a bill that would levy fines for those who offer … Read More
The 1% Discount Plan
How do you encourage loyalty among even the most price-sensitive customers? Loyalty programs are a big component of both consumer and business-to-business pricing strategies. (In B2B, they’re usually called rebates, promotional allowances, co-op advertising, or the like, but they’re essentially … Read More