We mentioned in a previous post that Microsoft is in the grips of a pricing dilemma. Changing paradigms have weakened Microsoft’s dominant position in operating systems and office productivity programs. Businesses and affluent consumers no longer upgrade regularly. What they … Read More
customer segmentation
Microsoft’s Pricing Dilemma
Microsoft is between a rock and hard place. The Redmond software giant made an enviable $17.6B in profit last year (see MSFT for more details) but the stock is down from its bubbly peak and has been stagnant for almost … Read More
What if you create value and no one perceives it?
If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If your offering has value that customers don’t perceive, can you charge for it? Price is limited by perceived differential value. So if … Read More
The real end of the line for airline fees
Back in August, I wrote a post titled “What Other Fees Can Airlines Charge?” Well, as several alert readers pointed out, The Onion has the ultimate answer. When it comes to airlines’ pricing power, the good news is that the … Read More
6 Tips for Selling in a Downturn
Geoffrey James over at BNet was just at the Selling Power 2.0 conference and picked up 6 tips for selling in a downturn. What caught my eye was #3: “Don’t lower prices. Find new and innovative ways to lower the … Read More
Sometimes it’s about deciding who your customers aren’t
On a recent Apple earnings call, CEO Steve Jobs took a question from an analyst wondering why Apple did not introduce a lower priced laptop. Jobs’ response (thanks to CNet):What we want to do is deliver an increasing level of … Read More
How do you know your contract terms are unreasonable?
Tim Cummins, president of International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, recently wrote a post on his Commitment Matters blog about how courts had thrown out contracts related to software and cell phone contracts. While the court rulings, should they … Read More
You Don’t Have a Supply Problem, You Have a Pricing Problem
This is one of my favorite maxims for companies that say they can’t keep up with business. (Granted, it’s a great problem to have.) Seth Godin phrases it slightly differently, writing “scarcity is a choice” in a great post on … Read More
An Innovative Way to Sell $50 T-Shirts
Here’s an interesting pricing model for t-shirts. 200nipples (yes, even the name is, umm, remarkable) sells limited edition runs of 100 tshirts. The first shirt costs $1, the second $2, all the way up to $100. This has the nice … Read More
The Psychology of Price Increases
In last week’s post How to Raise Prices, I referenced two interesting articles on techniques for raising prices, and also suggested using unbundling to differentiate between customers who want maximum value and customers who want minimum price. Today, let’s look … Read More