Reduce Price to Improve Revenues and Margins
CHOICE 1 OBJECTIVE: ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
CHOICE 2 SEGMENTS: INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER SEGMENT / OTHER TYPES OF INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER
CHOICE 3 COMPONENT: CHANGE THE LIST PRICE
No. | SIC | Year | Notes |
1 | 0000 | 2008 | Bartering is gaining popularity as a creative way to fight higher costs. The rise of bartering for goods and services means that consumers are now trading for such things as wedding services, tombstones, breast augmentations, and Botox treatments. The cash-free transactions are often facilitated through the Internet and barter exchanges, which are third-party record keepers that coordinated trades between business owners. Depending on the site or barter exchange, consumers choose whether to trade directly or to "bank" their credits and use them at another time. Online bartering Web sites—including U-Exchange, BarterYourServices.com, and Barter Bucks—are seeing significant growth. Craigslist is seeing its barter postings grow. In the past two years, membership in trade-exchange businesses has climbed 10% to 15% annually compared with 5% to 8% growth prior to that. |
2 | 0100 | 1987 | Russia purchased huge amounts of U.S. grain after Washington effectively slashed the price 36% through export "bonuses" or subsidies. |
3 | 1929 | 2007 | The top-selling British rock band Radiohead said its new album will initially be available only as a digital download on the band's Web site. Fans are free to name their own price for a digital-download version of the 10-song album "In Rainbows." |
4 | 2834 | 2002 | Prices for pharmaceuticals are largely determined by governments and the U.S. often sees a rise as European profitability falls. This has created huge disparities in prices; a patient taking Prilosec in the U.S. would pay $3.69 per pill while in France users pay just $1.22. In response to this disparity, pharmaceutical companies are under pressure to reduce prices for those that need it most. There are also efforts to allow the purchase and resale of drugs from foreign markets. |
5 | 2834 | 2009 | To buy equipment for its drug researchers, Pfizer is using reverse auctions in which suppliers submit, via the Internet, the lowest price they are willing to be paid. After years of paying high prices for raw materials for its catalysts and chemical sealants, W.R. Grace is filtering out the ranks of its suppliers and pressing survivors to offer discounts or agree to get paid several days later. |
6 | 3300 | 1985 | Because stainless-steel producers are living hand-to-mouth they are reluctant to sign quarterly supply contracts, and instead are buying relatively small lots of nickel on the spot market. |
7 | 3571 | 1985 | For Zenith, market strength comes from low prices. To win its most recent Air Force contract, valued at about $100 million, Zenith underbid its competitors 21%. |
8 | 3571 | 1989 | IBM has started a price war on mainframes. Survey shows that nearly 1/3 of a large group of IBM customers got a 15-25% discount on their mainframes. Another group, 1/3+ of those surveyed, got discounts higher than 25%. |
9 | 3600 | 1998 | Aer-Dan Precision competes in the wireless industry by having the customer set the price (they match the price demanded). Agreeing to a customer's price secures long-term contracts (5 years) and the company does not have to worry about sales. This allows it to reach maximum efficiency. |
10 | 4724 | 2006 | Sites like Priceline and Hotwire operate with an opaque pricing system, in which the customer does not know the name of the supplier or the schedule before a nonrefundable reservation for airline tickets, hotel rooms or rental cars are made. |
11 | 4813 | 2004 | Lower prices in the telecommunications industry are enticing many consumers to spend more. A proliferation of alternatives and new technologies is forcing phone companies to keep competing on price. The big long-distance carriers have for years used price as a key weapon in the battle of elite contracts with government and big businesses. |
12 | 5734 | 1993 | As price wars were breaking out between Microsoft, Lotus and Borland, profit margins on software collapsed and Egghead suffered. At the same time, though, Software Spectrum Inc. and Corporate Software Inc. each grew by more than 30% in 1992 by giving big discounts to corporate buyers. |
13 | 5900 | 2008 | A bargaining culture is taking root in major stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, and Home Depot, as well as mom-and-pop operations. Most store policies on bargaining are informal, but some major retailers quietly tell their salespeople that negotiating is acceptable. Consumers are finding they can dicker on prices not only on clearance items or big-ticket products, but also on lower-cost goods like cameras, speakers, couches, rugs, and even clothing. Examples include a $4,300 Sony TV down to $3,305 at PC Richard and Sun, and pants on the clearance rack at Polo Ralph Lauren from $75 to $50. These businesses note a cultural shift enabled by wired consumers accustomed to comparing prices and bargaining online. |
14 | 5961 | 1998 | Traditionally, the salesmen in Premier Farnell's 80 sales offices have discounted products, sometimes considerably, to bring them to a commercial level. Now a rational discounting policy has been implemented where the majority of products are shown at a market price, with the opportunity for salesmen to discount by a maximum of 10% if the volumes are sufficient, and the customers are eligible. Large, centrally managed orders are still quoted individually. |
15 | 6531 | 1990 | Many real estate brokers have grown accustomed to shaving a point or so off their commissions to satisfy hard-bargaining buyers. |
16 | 6531 | 2005 | As home prices surge, sellers have more leverage with traditional real estate agents. Often, they can negotiate a small reduction on the typical 6%. |
17 | 7300 | 2009 | Geary Interactive Inc. reduced its hourly fees to $80 from $100 to $135 in response to customers desires for lower rates. However, Geary added a contractual bonus to be paid at the end of a certain time period if its marketing campaigns met or exceeded a client's goals. The move also meant a shift for staff often accustomed to thinking about loner-term goals such as brand development; now, there is a higher sense of urgency. |
18 | 9100 | 2003 | The U.S. Postal Service will offer special discounts to its heaviest users of first-class mail. Capital One Financial will receive discounts up to 6 cents a piece over the next three years. This promotion may open up a new revenue source for the USPS which has been struggling with a sluggish economy and the popularity of e-mail. |
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