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An effectivus view on seven pricing strategies
A friend and client was kind enough to point out a deficiency in my web site the other day.
“What about pricing, Chris? I can’t find anything about it on your site.”
Sigh.
All of us wise students of marketing know that Price is just one of the 4P’s (or 7P’s, or 47peas in a pod), and that it is the offering that our customers buy into. We know that the whole product is so much more than just the price, but we also have to set a price. At some point, we have to pin our colours to the mast and give a price; no vagueness, not a variable, but a definitive number. That is tough.
I thought I had better refer to one of the “great men” of modern management theory: Michael Porter. I duly looked up “price” in the index of Competitive Strategy and found a section entitled “Correct Pricing”. Only a “great man” could simplify the topic to the binary opinion that there is “correct” and “incorrect” pricing. Pah!
Your average management books (and maybe the less than average ones too) cover pricing with a number of different strategies. It is telling that you find it covered in Economics, Marketing, Strategy, Finance. Each approach tells us something about your Product Management and Marketing team.
So, for the first, and probably last time, here is the Effectivus guide to pricing strategies…
By Chris | February 25, 2010
Why the benefits of innovation are not necessarily enough to overcome the barriers to adoption
Ever get the feeling that you are working in a mental asylum? Of course, I’m not talking about any of my client companies. They are all completely sane and sensible. I’ll skip over the fact that the defining experience of working in one of their offices is being pelted with Nerf gun pellets at regular intervals.
Ten years ago I had the interesting experience of moving from what had been a start-up to a big corporate. Not only was Kodak huge, it had a lot of history, it was based on the other side of the continent and it was an old time manufacturing company that was going down the tube but had yet to face up to the fact. You can still see it struggling with this in recent advertisements in American Cinematographer: “Film No Compromise”. Wake up and smell the coffee Kodak, film was dead 10 years ago.
One of the wackier things I discovered there (and it was a year packed full of wacky stuff) was George Eastman’s devotion to the International Fixed Calendar. In 1926, George wrote about “The Importance of Calendar Reform to the Business World”. In this short article, he explains how the variations in the length of the calendar month cause all sorts of problems with the proper management of a modern business. I’m sure you are aware of this and have frequently stumbled over the 11% difference between the length of March and February or the shocking 17% difference in the number of working days in those months. And, that’s not even mentioning the vexations of a “wandering Easter”.
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By Chris | February 23, 2010
A review of Malcolm Gladwell’s book
I can find almost any topic interesting if presented well. In fact, I love being given a glimpse into the normally hidden world of a new specialty. Not only do you learn about stuff you would never normally encounter, but you invariably get a view of the alien culture of those who inhabit this strange new realm. As I learn about a new topic my mind is constantly searching for analogies between it and topics I understand or experiences I have, and then, “POW!” I get a revealing insight into something completely different. I wish this inquisitive habit mean that I was a Polymath or a Renaissance Man, but sadly I’m more of a butterfly generalists, flitting from one subject to another.
As I write this, I have my media player in random mode and am delighted by it switching from Stéphane Grappelli to Indigo Girls.
I do have a deep respect for those who combine my interest with real knowledge and Malcolm Gladwell never fails to impress. In “Open Secrets” in his collection of essays, he touches on Enron, Al Qaeda, Nazi Propaganda, Prostate Cancer, and the Cold War, all in search of a clear differentiation between “Puzzles” and “Mysteries”.
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By Chris | February 20, 2010
A review of Bill Buxton’s book
By Chris | January 25, 2010
The first ‘most stupid’ product award of 2010 goes to…
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