A strong commitment to environmental sustainability in product design and manufacturing can yield significant opportunities to grow your business, to innovate, and to build brand equity. In fact, if you don't manage your business with respect to environmental and social sustainability, your business may not be sustained! [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Anyone who has taken Marketing 101 knows the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. But what you may not know is that some companies - including these four - are turning these Ps over completely to customers. (Graphic: David Armano.) [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Can you make money by giving away your product? Absolutely—and companies like Adobe (PDF Reader) and Macromedia (Shockwave Player) have proven it. With Web 2.0, consumers have gotten a lot of things at no cost due to various monetization practices—and that's good. But should you give away your product? That's another question entirely. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

The complaints against advertising are seemingly endless, limited only by the creativity of its critics. But advertising is fundamentally benevolent, the author says. Advertising is a communication technique that attempts to influence the behavior of others—no more nor less so than the techniques used by parents, journalists, teachers, and politicians. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

As one of the 4 Ps of marketing, pricing is the most direct way of communicating value to customers. It has the most direct impact on bottom-line performance. At the same time, price as a marketing instrument is tricky. Here's the basics of pricing from both a strategic and tactical angle. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Most marketers have heard by now of the kerfuffle about an internal memo, leaked through a popular Starbucks fan blogsite, penned by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. The blogosphere is abuzz with the come-to-Jesus nature of Schultz's revelation that Starbucks may have lost its mystique. So what's next for the brand? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

This week: Do you compensate a sales team on gross sales or gross profit for services? See if you agree with our experts. Coming up: Hate meetings? How can you make them productive? Add your two pesos. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Practicing these eight simple strategies will help reduce your quarterly revenues, delay deals, and consume resources foolishly. But making a few changes may move you from being a "victim of momentum" to achieving your numbers predictably. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

There are many challenges in leading a winning sales team, but research has identified 3 key challenges that sales managers most commonly face. How are you currently approaching these situations? Are you getting the results you are looking for? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Make no mistake about it: When companies run out of ideas, bad things happen to brands. Instead of differentiating their offerings with meaningful value-added features, like healthier and more flavorful products, time-saving recipes and packaging, or even emotive, associative value, marketers end up resorting to price cuts and special promotions. Instead of taking a long-term view of customer value and growth in sales, earnings and new product development, their focus shifts to a short-term desire to grow market share with discounting and deal-making. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

B2B marketers who are recognizing the limitations of today's email-marketing and Web-analytics applications for generating qualified sales leads are switching to lead-generation solutions to ensure a continuous stream of qualified leads. Keep these five points in mind to ensure that you make a purchase that meets the needs of your company. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Do you remember a time when most restaurant meals were the sit down, full-service, dessert-included variety? Even if all you wanted was a cup of soup or a simple salad, you were offered the blue plate special with everything at one price. Then the culinary folks came up with small plates, a la carte items, tastings, pairing menus, buffets and the like.... Similarly, high-tech companies have stopped serving everything one way with a side of structured licensing? Where once companies had to select / install / customize/upgrade, now we're allowed to use smaller-scale online services that do one thing really well, without integration and without customization. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Web 2.0 has changed what product definitions look like, and how things that are sold as 'free' can make money. So while the 4 Ps are a good start as buckets, let's update them for today's era and discuss what you need to be doing to keep your mix both relevant and impactful. Here's one take on what's happening…and some ideas on what you need to do to win your market. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Every day, we are reminded that providing value to customers is a surefire route to success. True enough. But do you know what that really means? The concept of customer value has been around for over 20 years, and many books and articles have been written about it. Yet its growth in popularity has also been accompanied by frequent misunderstandings and spotty application. Here we revisit the customer value concept, review a common misunderstanding about customer value, and present a comprehensive definition that both synthesizes existing research and serves as a model for delivering higher levels of value to your customers. Let's start with a misunderstanding. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

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Marketing is a risky business. Despite all the efforts at market and product research, customers are hard to read, and they don't always respond to offers the way marketers expect them to. It's probably no coincidence that CMOs have the shortest average job tenure among all C-level executives, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. Risky business, indeed. But it doesn't have to be that way. By borrowing risk analysis techniques from the investment and risk management world, it is possible for marketers to gain control. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

The Web analytics space is hot, customers are engaged, consultants busy, vendors optimistic. There's no question this is a healthy "industry." But intense competition among the top vendors has somewhat killed product innovation. Unfortunately, that's happening at a time when the next generation of the Internet—what some call Web 2.0—needs a totally different kind of Web analytics. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

It is essential for companies to develop better pricing strategies for a larger and more complex worldwide marketplace. Our research shows that there is less than a 50% chance that new products will hit their volume and profit goals. Though there are numerous reasons for these failures, ineffective pricing strategies are one of the most overlooked aspects of new product development and marketing campaigns. There are three common pricing traps that can derail new consumer or business-to-business product marketing success. Avoiding these traps is critical for firms to drive new earnings and growth. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

When you're setting the price for physical goods, particularly commodity goods, you may not have a great deal of flexibility. But if you are selling something less tangible—like a service, a subscription, a seminar or downloadable report or book—the range of prices you can charge is very broad, and often surprising. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

As any experienced marketer knows, developing strategy is one thing—managing the process to embed that strategy in the organization is quite another. All too frequently, companies make substantial investments in more effective pricing strategies and then fail to reap the expected return on that investment because they didn't sufficiently invest in implementation. The truth is that implementing effective pricing strategy involves changing the expectations and behaviors of all of the actors involved in the sales process. Successful implementation requires targeting specific undesirable behaviors and devising a detailed plan to change them. There are three main ways to affect these behavioral changes. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

One of the most difficult pricing challenges facing marketers is how to maintain consistent, value-based street prices in highly competitive markets where every deal is seemingly at risk. For many of us, the temptation to maintain flexible pricing policies in order to negotiate customer-specific deals is too much to resist. Like a dieter trying to lose weight, these marketers try to "cheat" by treating themselves to a one-time price discount to close a particular deal. However, just like the dieter who must face the reality of the scale at the end of the week, price cheaters must face the reality of their bottom line. Unfortunately, that reality, all too often, is increased price erosion and decreasing margins. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Rapid commoditization of products and services is exasperating even the most skilled professionals. The solution provider is struggling to differentiate its unique products and services. Simultaneously, customers are putting the squeeze on margins and driving unique value to the lowest common denominator—price. How is this happening? Why is the trend increasing at an alarming rate? And how can you hold your price and get paid for the value you deliver? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

With an improving economy, managers have grown increasingly aggressive in their efforts to raise prices. Unfortunately for many companies, rosy profit projections have been replaced by a frustrating inability to realize long-sought-after price increases. Are you among the managers stung by this fate? If so, here are three questions that should lead to an informed understanding of the problem and where you should focus your energy and resources. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

The devil really is in the details. You've heard that old saw before, but when it comes to strategic pricing, the devil is also sneaking around your strategy. As a result, someone in your organization is making mistakes today that you'll need to correct. Over and over again, companies make fundamental blunders in their pricing strategy. A common reason for this is that managers carry rules and techniques from one environment into another. What may work in one situation becomes merely myth in another. Are you buying into any of the following myths? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Yes, the current business environment supports the ability to raise prices. And that's where the challenge emerges: many of the price increase announcements are being poorly executed. Mistake number one: The majority of announcements cite higher costs as the reason for increasing prices. The problem with this approach is that it sets the stage for future price sensitivity and demands for price concessions. So what's the right way to increase prices? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Pricing

Softrax Corp.'s enterprise software automates a company's entire revenue cycle. With the advantages of automation not always apparent to potential customers, Softrax based its marketing strategy on educating the market, while competitors relied mostly on advertising. Webcasts featuring government and industry experts—with only an indirect connection to Softrax apparent—formed the core of the new strategy, and within four years helped double revenues.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Pricing

The manufacturing sector is more traditional than most. Many of its customers aren't high tech—some don't even have Internet access. Fabcon, a Minnesota builder of precast wall panels, struggled with marrying its desire for high-tech operational efficiency and its need to service customers in the method that they preferred.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Pricing

Earthlink, one of the country's smaller Internet service providers, serves just over 5 million customers. To differentiate itself, it has decided to provide superior customer service. An early adopter of chat technology, it has sought to actively offer efficient online customer service via chat—both shifting customer support away from the less-efficient phone channel and increasing customer satisfaction while dramatically reducing expenses.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Pricing

The nonprofit Oregon Sports Authority (OSA) was striving to bring new sporting events, teams, and tourist dollars to the state. It also wanted to become the official sports resource for state residents. An overhaul of its promotions and more compelling communication of its brand were the ambitious goals that the four-employee nonprofit set for itself--and achieved, with a little help from a capable member base, which included the likes of Nike.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Pricing

If you're a little intimidated by the prospect of Paid Search Advertising, seriously, join the crowd. Here it is though -- a guiding light through the complex waters of Paid Search Advertising. We assembled a 30-page template to make learning and implementing a successful paid search advertising campaign for your firm as easy as possible. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Pricing

A thorough competitive analysis is a critical component of a solid marketing plan. It is an exercise that will provide you with valuable insights to guide the development of your business strategy. This 20-page template will make the project quick and easy, and you can end up with a leg up on your compeition. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Pricing

Sooner or later, you're going to raise your prices. An intimidating prospect? Sure, but Drew McLellan says you can implement a price hike without alienating your customers. Just apply a little forethought and finesse. McLellan says businesses commonly raise prices across the board. When you... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Pricing

Marketers often entice customers to buy a product by offering a free gift with the purchase. They might, for example, offer a free half gallon of milk with the purchase of Oreos or a pair of tickets to Disneyland with the purchase of an airline... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Pricing

In a post at his Living Light Bulbs blog, Ryan Karpeles talks about the wrong way to make a buck. And he offers a prime example: Dollar Rent a Car, which recently introduced a $2 "topping off" charge to any vehicle returned with a full tank... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Pricing

Many marketers believe customers are attracted to discounted prices. Yet this assumption may be wrong. While a lowered price might make people more inclined to buy your product, they may also be less satisfied with their purchase. Researchers at Stanford, INSEAD and MIT found that consumers who... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Pricing

It would be logical for consumers to use a coupon to save money rather than pay full price for a purchase. The notion just makes sense. Yet redemption rates for coupons are really quite low! Why? Is it simply that consumers don't have the time to clip... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Pricing