Apple launched, then quickly pulled, a promotion called “Mac Mini Test Drive” which allowed users to try a Mac Mini for 30 days and return it for a full refund if unsatisfied (see news.com article). There was no official explanation … Read More
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Hurricane Creates Pricing Trouble, Opportunity
In the wake of Katrina’s devestation, so many people have so much more critical things on their minds than pricing that it almost seems frivolous to talk about pricing. At the same time, businesses must function when possible and a … Read More
Pricing for Small Biz vs Global 2000
In a comment on an earlier post about small business pricing, Chris Hopf asked: How different should the approach to effective and profitable pricing be, between Fortune 500 corporations and Small Businesses? What can Small Businesses learn about pricing strategy … Read More
Price Obfuscation Is Not a Pricing Strategy
But it can be part of one. There were a couple of interesting article in the New York Times (free registration required) this weekend on B2C pricing for phone service and extended warranties. Almost everyone has seen the surcharges with … Read More
BEA Retreats on Dual-Core Pricing
For those of you who aren’t tired of hearing about software pricing, BEA announced on Tuesday that dual-core chips will count as a single CPU for licensing purposes. The company will continue to charge a 25% premium for chips with … Read More
Inc. Magazine Talks Pricing
Back in June, Inc. asked “Is It Time to Raise Prices?“, which discussed the differences between cost-plus and value-based pricing, as well as economic value and perceived value. Pricing is often an afterthought for small businesses, who tend to use … Read More
Console Makers Avoid Price War?
Microsoft made news last week by announcing that its new Xbox 360 game console will come in two versions. A $299 base model will play games, while a $399 model will include a hard drive, wireless controllers, and a headset. … Read More
Symantec/Veritas Pricing Integration to Take a Year
I’ve been meaning to post a link to this ZDNet article on the post-merger pricing integration headache going on at Symantec since it came out two weeks ago, but somehow haven’t found the time. Anyway, the company has admitted that … Read More
A Cinema Pricing Followup
An alert reader sent in a link to this article in the NYTimes (free registration required), called Liked the Movie, Loved the Megaplex. The article discusses how some theater chains are trying to differentiate themselves by offering fancier food (and … Read More
Airlines Start One-to-One Pricing
A reader sent in a link to this NYTimes article on airlines beaming personalized travel deals to desktop applications. Southwest’s application is called Ding, and it sends personalized travel deals to hundreds of thousands of users every day. Currently, it … Read More