Reduce Price to Improve Revenues and Margins
CHOICE 1 OBJECTIVE: ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
CHOICE 2 ISOLATE SEGMENTS: TARGETED COMPETITOR SEGMENT
CHOICE 3 COMPONENT: OFFER A TRADE-IN ALLOWANCE
| No. | SIC | Year | Notes |
| 1 | 3571 | 1989 | IBM began offering tens of thousands of dollars to Wang customers and other minicomputer owners who promise to switch to IBM AS/400 minis. |
| 2 | 3571 | 1994 | Cabletron offers discounts of up to 30% to SynOptics customers, provided they turn in their SynOptics equipment. |
| 3 | 3571 | 1995 | To lure customers of 3Com and Chipcom, Cabletron is planning to announce today a trade-up program, offering to apply a discount of as much as 40% of the price of 3Com or Chipcom equipment toward the purchase of a Cabletron replacement. |
| 4 | 4812 | 2000 | Globalstar Telecommunications is seeking to boost demand for satellite-based phone services by slashing purchase prices for their telephones and announcing cuts in certain calling charges. Their hand held phones, currently about $1500, will take a price cut of about 25%. Globalstar is working with U.S. and Canadian government officials to line up additional orders. Also, various incentives either have been or are about to be announced that will offer rebates to Iridium customers who agree to sign up with Globalstar. |
| 5 | 4813 | 1992 | AT&T mails out a $20 check to potential customers. If they endorse the check and cash it, they switch to AT&T automatically. |
| 6 | 5122 | 2001 | Pricing is a big issue when it comes to the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry. Caremark RX recently lost one of its mail-order prescription drug clients (Oxford Health Plans) as it canceled its contract. Caremark's rival, Merck, offered $87 million for Oxford to switch. |
| 7 | 6211 | 1987 | Quick & Reilly sends Schwab customers four $25 Credit Vouchers, each good for an extra $25 commission saving on any trade with them. May use the Credit Vouchers any time within six months. Has lower prices than Schwab on most trades even before the dedu |
| 8 | 7372 | 1988 | After Lotus announcement, Borland announced a brief promotion to sell Quattro for $99.95 (2/3 the normal discount price) to anyone who mails in a cover from a Lotus 1-2-3 manual. |
| 9 | 7372 | 1991 | In 1989, Borland began pushing competitive upgrades–discounts for people who switch from a competitor's product. |
| 10 | 7372 | 1994 | Borland was first big software supplier to offer competitive "upgrades" at discount prices. If you owned a competitor's spreadsheet, you could buy Borland's latest version at 1/20 of the list price. Became an industry standard. |
| 11 | 7372 | 2005 | SAP began tempting PeopleSoft customers last year with a 75% discount for switching over. |
| 12 | 7375 | 2002 | Microsoft is launching a new advertising campaign to persuade America Online customers to switch to their Internet service, Microsoft Network. MSN will offer $50 rebates and a month's free service with a 12-month contract for those who change from AOL. |
| 13 | 7375 | 2005 | SBC Communications, which kicked off a boom in discounting among its competitors, upped the ante by offering free Internet for three months to cable broadband subscribers who switched from competitors. |
| 14 | 7841 | 2005 | Blockbuster has struck against Netflix by announcing that it will give members of its competitor's service two free months of movies and free DVD if they switch over. |
<< Return to Choice 3