How to Pull It Off: Raising Prices When Others Have Given Their Customer the Power to Set Prices
As supplies of everything from key components to temporary services grow scarcer, an unusually large number of companies are trying to manage excess demand. In the past, there was a simple solution to such problems: raise the price. Today, managers…
When You’ve Lost the Power to Set Prices
We’re all still watching our wallets. The economy, if no longer in free fall, remains weak, and consumers and corporate buyers alike are closely evaluating every purchase they make. Competition comes from everywhere now, and in the race-to-the-bottom-line era of…
Managing Price Competition
No weapon in a marketer’s arsenal can boost sales more quickly than price, so it’s easy to become seduced by discounting and fail to recognize the long-term consequences. Here, we look at the experience of a large building products manufacturer,…
Value Pricing in the Chemical Industry
The chemical industry in Europe is working hard on the improvement of their profitability base. But while innovation and complexity management are heavily discussed by the industry’s top managers, the most powerful lever to increase profitability is being ignored by…
How to Manage an Aggressive Competitor
While the economy struggles, managers are pressured to continue growing their businesses, and some will be tempted to use price competition to spur growth. More thoughtful managers may well recognize that it is advisable to initiate price competition only in…