Ford to End Mercury

via online.wsj.com

The pace of change has quickened during the recession. This will reduce the friction caused by marketing support (ad money and dealer marketing) required for weak and dying brands.

This consolidation may lead to more models per company. This might occur to differentiate a firms model lineup against its competitors.

Marketers may find more niches to target against. Single firm car manufactures can more readily make positioning moves to serve the unmet needs of unique markets.

Posted via web from admore's posterous

Creating a Startup?

If you are thinking of creating a web-based startup, it is suggested that you review the following podcasts.
The first is from Jason Calacanis ( @Jason on Twitter) via thisweekin.com
The second is from Jason Fried ( @jasonfried on Twitter) and David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH on Twitter) via the Signal Vs. Noise blog.
Note: There is some language that may not suitable for all audiences.

• 
  TWiST #49.5 Interview with Nathan Lasche
  
• 
  [Podcast] Episode #13: Addressing criticism of 37signals (Part 1 of 2)
  

Both episodes, at first glance, appear to be on topics not related to startups and entrepreneurship. Each episode has excellent insights on both.

Book Review: The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed

 

Suggested Readership:

• Business students (Learn about pricing)
• Business people (Learn how to maximize profits)
• Marketers (Learn new pricing methods to reach more customers
• Anyone selling a product or service (See above)

Notes:

This is not a book filled with complicated equations. The text is written in everyday English.

The book is sprinkled with figures that bring data together in an easy to understand way. Chapters One through Seven each conclude with “Key Takeaways.”

Personal tweets from the book.

The notes below were posted to Twitter as I read the book.

• "... Know your product attributes and then stand up for and capture the value of your products and services." #t1pw (p. 23)
• "Understanding how customers benefit from a product is integral to better pricing." #t1pw (p. 23)
• "... most brand-name products have the opportunity to sell to more customers by providing a range of options." #t1pw (p. 70)
• "... the BLS has determined that 94% of airline tickets are discounted coach, 4% are full-fare and 2% are first class." #t1pw (p. 71)
• "It is estimated that snack-size packages are about 20% more profitable compared to larger sizes." #t1pw (p. 76)
• "... bundling a product with others can yield significant growth in value and thus profits." #t1pw (p. 80)
• "Events that don't offer multiple prices are cutting off consumers." #t1pw (p. 82)
• "Rebates are attractive to sellers because approximately 50% of eligible customers don't follow through to get their cash back." #t1pw p. 90
• "At Burger King, bundled meals represnt 51% of total sales." #t1pw (p. 99)
• "Reserve discounts to attract price-sensitive buyers who need an extra incentive to purchase."#t1pw (p. 173)
• "Employees need to be proactively encouraged to collect and report competitor information."#t1pw (p. 180)
• "... it is important to keep up on pricing issues because variables that affect price constantly change." #t1pw (p. 183)
• "If a company doesn't have a culture of profit in place, it is missing significant opportunties." #t1pw(p. 184)
• "The best metric of better pricing initiatives is simply measuring if total profits are increasing."#t1pw (p. 195)

The how to increase profits takeaway from The 1% Windfall: One size does not fit all. Different customers require different options and solutions.

 

Note: A review copy of The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed was sent to me by a publicist.

Page numbers listed above may not correspond to the final book. An uncorrected proof was sent to me for review.

There are several spelling errors in the tweets above. These were left in to conform to the origin of the tweets.