Dynamic Pricing Doesn’t Have to Alienate Your Customers
Inflation-fatigued shoppers are witnessing prices fluctuate across categories with unprecedented scale and frequency — a trend often seen as yet another cunning commercial scheme. Is the extra profit companies see from dynamic pricing worth the risk of alienating customers? If done well, companies shouldn’t be making that trade-off — dynamic pricing.
Content: Article | Authors: Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing
How CMOs Can Lead Transformations in an Era of Change
Companies are responding to a number of headwinds by transforming their marketing organizations to achieve measurable improvement in performance and efficiency and to ensure future sustainable growth. Chief marketing officers (CMO) are pursuing long-term changes instead of short-term fixes by focusing on structure, talent, and operating models—in that order—as they reshape their organizations.
Content: Article | Authors: Joe Simon, Lachelle Trout, Raakhi Agrawal, Shelby Senzer, Siwei He | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Marketing / Sales
The Psychology of Persuasion: Understanding Customer Behavior in Marketing
Customer behavior and the study of why people make the purchase decisions that they do can be a complicated landscape to navigate in marketing.
The psychological tool of persuasion and the use of established persuasion techniques can help cut through the nuance of customer behavior to influence purchase decisions. That influence shapes customer behavior by helping them form useful mental shortcuts during the buying process.
Content: Article | Author: Sam Bowman | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales
The Unified Theory of Pricing
BCG has developed a unified pricing theory, manifested in a tool they call the Strategic Pricing Hexagon, by bringing all the disparate pricing ideas, and the drivers and forces behind them, into one master structure. This article shows how the Strategic Pricing Hexagon allows leaders to look beyond the numbers and develop a pricing strategy that can change the entire trajectory of their business and … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Arnab Sinha, Jean-Manuel Izaret | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing
Hyper-Personalization for Customer Engagement with Artificial Intelligence
Personalization based on customer attributes and behavior is a familiar concept among marketers, and artificial intelligence is making it increasingly effective. AI-based hyper-personalization employs both sophisticated methods and far more data than previous methods and is far more precise as a result. Thomas H. Davenport discusses the role of AI in personalization as well as the growing backlash against personalization fueled by data privacy concerns. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Management and Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales
Unlock the Power of Money Words: How Founders Can Write Copy That Converts
The words we use — or don’t use — impact decisions and, in turn, money. Money words are the execution arm of persuasion. If we can agree that the words we choose are persuasive levers — and our job is to pull those levers intentionally and strategically — then allow me to share with you two money words and one lose-money word. They are the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Joanna Wiebe | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Advertising, Marketing / Sales
Marketing appeals to consumers’ hearts, minds and past experiences — not necessarily in that order
Among advertising sequences, there’s a gold standard to build brand appeal in consumers’ minds.
Content: Article | Authors: Albert Valenti, Gokhan Yildirim, Koen Pauwels, Marc Vanhuele, Shuba Srinivasan | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Advertising, Marketing / Sales
Author Talks: Peter Fader and Michael Ross share their playbook for customer centricity
When is the last time you took stock of your customer base? Two marketing and data experts say it’s due for a systematic review.
Content: Article | Authors: Anita Balchandani, Michael Ross, Peter Fader | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales
Stop Losing Sales to Customer Indecision
For decades, salespeople have been taught that there is only one possible reason for lost sales: that salespeople have failed to defeat the customer’s status quo. Perhaps the customer doesn’t fully appreciate the problem that their solution is designed to solve. Or maybe they don’t yet see enough daylight between their company’s solution and that of the competition. So, salespeople break out their arsenal of … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Matthew Dixon, Ted McKenna | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Marketing / Sales
How Corporate Thought Leadership Drives Business Success
What makes an organisation an opinion leader and how it affects business revenue.
Content: Article | Author: Pawel Korzynski | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Marketing / Sales
Don’t Cut Your Brand-Marketing Budget. Rethink It.
Brand marketing is an easy target when CMOs face pressure to shrink budgets in times of uncertainty. CMOs often struggle to resist such cuts because most companies lack an unequivocal answer to this long-lingering question: Can brand-marketing spending be dialed down as needed to shore up financials, or is it an essential, always-on investment that must be safeguarded to avoid devastating long-term impacts on the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Alex Almeida, Chris Murphy, David Ratajczak, Emily Kruger, Leonardo Fascione, Mario Simon | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Brand, Marketing / Sales
The Four-Letter Code To Selling Just About Anything
When Raymond Loewy arrived in Manhattan, U.S. companies did not yet worship at the altars of style and elegance. That era’s capitalists were monotheistic: Efficiency was their only god. American factories—with their electricity, assembly lines, and scientifically calibrated workflow—produced an unprecedented supply of cheap goods by the 1920s, and it became clear that factories could make more than consumers naturally wanted. To sell more stuff, … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales
3 Lessons from Hyperinflationary Periods
Inflation is painful, for firms, customers, employees, and society. But careful study of periods of “hyperinflation” point to ways that firms can adapt. In particular, companies need to think about how to change prices regularly and cheaply — because constant price changes can ultimately be very, very expensive. And they should consider how to communicate those price changes to customers. Providing clarity and predictability can … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Daniel Levy, Mark E. Bergen, Rose Semenov, Thomas Bergen | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Marketing / Sales, Pricing
Auto-Renew Snags New Subscribers — But It’s Not a Good Way to Keep Them
Companies seeking loyal consumers shouldn’t take advantage of their tendency to stick with unwanted subscriptions.
Content: Article | Authors: Avner Strulov-Shlain, Deborah Lynn Blumberg, Klaus Miller, Navdeep Sahni | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing
Designing Omni-Channel Retailing to Align Financial Performance with Strategy
Sunil Chopra describes how looking at combinations of product and channel through the lens of return on invested capital (ROIC) allows retailers to design omni-channel portfolios that align their products, service offerings, and pricing. By using each channel to improve invested capital turns or broaden profit margin, these portfolios increase the company’s value.
Content: Article | Author: Sunil Chopra | Source: Management and Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Industry Specific, Management, Marketing / Sales, Operations
Five Serious Content Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid
Done well, content marketing helps businesses build brand awareness, increase visibility, and generate more leads—ultimately driving sales and growth. Yet, many businesses struggle with their content marketing.
Content: Article | Author: Swati Saini | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales
Pull, Don’t Push: How Catalysts Overcome Barriers and Drive Product Adoption
Trying to change someone’s mind often feels like a fruitless pursuit, almost as if it requires waving some sort of magic wand or casting an enchanting spell.
Trying to change someone’s mind often feels like a fruitless pursuit, almost as if it requires waving some sort of magic wand or casting an enchanting spell. On a smaller scale, you might think of a particularly sticky … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Jonah Berger | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing / Sales
Do Your Marketing Metrics Show You the Full Picture?
To provide a full view of marketing’s impact, the authors suggest creating a marketing road map that illustrates: the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing campaigns, the role of marketing programs in driving sales and satisfaction, the value of the brand and capabilities, and the impact of marketing-related activities in other functions.
Content: Article | Authors: Christine Moorman, Paul Magill | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Marketing / Sales
Perceptual Maps and Competition: How to Understand and Improve Your Position in the Market
Perceptual maps are the only way to understand what your position is in the market and how the market views you vs. your competitors. In fact, if you don’t have a perceptual map, in essence you’re flying blind.
Content: Article | Author: Allen Weiss | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales
Why Free-to-Play Apps Can Ignore the Old Rules About Cutting Prices
In a digital marketplace, mixing “freemiums” and promotions can actually be a money maker.
Content: Article | Authors: Harikesh Nair, Jonathan Levav, Julian Runge, Sachin Waikar | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing