andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Hillstrom’s Pricing

Hillstrom’s Pricing: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Optimizing Customer Behavior via Prices

by Kevin Hillstrom

This fascinating booklet is about how the mix of price levels a retailer offers in its selection of merchandise affects customer behavior. In his 30-year career in retail, Kevin Hillstrom worked for Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, and Land’s End as well as 225 clients in his consulting practice.

The author examines sales data by price range, merchandise category, channel, and customer life cycle (new customers vs. repeat customers) over a span of five years. Most pages include a spreadsheet or graph showing data from a hypothetical company with declining sales, along with commentary on how the author analyzes the numbers to figure out what’s going on. The target audience for the booklet appears to be catalog and ecommerce retailers. Continue reading “Hillstrom’s Pricing” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

B2B Institute’s B2B Trends

2030 B2B Trends: Contrarian Ideas for The Next Decade

by Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, The B2B Institute

The B2B Institute published a 43-page PDF on what they foresee as the three major trends in business-to-business marketing: (1) a greater emphasis on building long-term brand equity; (2) greater consistency in creative execution; and (3) a shift from hyper-targeting to broader reach within categories. Some of the ideas presented in this paper will sound familiar to anyone who has read the work of Ehrenberg-Bass Institute or the work of Les Binet and Peter Field. Continue reading “B2B Institute’s B2B Trends” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Effectiveness in Context: A Manual for Brand Building

Effectiveness in Context: A Manual for Brand Building

by Les Binet and Peter Field

Binet and Field have analyzed 18 years of data (1998-2016) from the London-based Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s IPA Databank, “the confidential data submitted alongside entries to the biennial IPA Effectiveness Awards competition.” This book presents their findings on what works best—in general and in various contexts.

Topics include market penetration, brand-building vs. sales activation, emotional vs. rational consideration, share of voice, pricing, and innovation.  Continue reading “Effectiveness in Context: A Manual for Brand Building” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The One Percent Windfall

the-1-percent-windfall

The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow

by Rafi Mohammed

Rafi Mohammed is an economist who consults on pricing strategy. The 1% windfall refers to the large impact on operating profits resulting from small adjustments to price. “A study by McKinsey & Company of the Global 1200 found that if they increased their prices by just 1%, and demand remained constant, on average each company’s operating profits would increase by 11%.” The book is about creating a portfolio of pricing options to appeal to as many customers as possible, thus maximizing profit. Continue reading “The One Percent Windfall” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value

priceless-poundstone

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)

by William Poundstone

Traditional economics assumes people engage in rational transactions. Not surprisingly, people make irrational decisions all the time.  In Priceless, William Poundstone draws from research in psychophysics (the study of sensory perceptions) and behavioral economics to explore the subject of pricing. Concepts such as anchoring, priming, and prospect theory (adaptation, loss aversion, certainty effect) are explained. Continue reading “Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Winning the Profit Game – Smarter Pricing, Smarter Branding

winning-the-profit-game

Winning the Profit Game – Smarter Pricing, Smarter Branding

by Robert G. Docters, Michael R. Reopel, Jeanne-Mey Sun and Stephen M. Tanny

Winning the Profit Game reveals the key to success: pricing which is integrated with brand management, cost management, and product development. Whatever the goal, such as market penetration, customer retention, or increasing margins, “the strategy should be reflected in the price.” Continue reading “Winning the Profit Game – Smarter Pricing, Smarter Branding” →