Discount Nation and the sucker price

When was the last time you went to Macy’s or Bed, Bath & Beyond or any furniture store and paid full-price?  Did you actually pay for shipping on any e-commerce purchases during the holiday? At most retailers, regular price is the sucker price. You only pay it out of desperation or ignorance. Walk through any [...]

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Defying gravity: The customer isn’t always right

GAP abandoned its new logo after just one week, caving into a sea of complaints on its Facebook page. Whatever you think of the new logo–I think it’s pretty weak–or the way they handled the launch–in a word, poorly–the notion that customers get to vote on key strategy elements is fraught with danger. As someone [...]

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Prospects, Not Suspects

The notion that a smart sales and marketing strategy distinguishes between suspects–consumers who MIGHT turn out to become profitable customers–and prospects–consumers who are highly likely to turn into valuable clients–is an old idea. Great sales people possess this intuition.  Great marketers use customer insight, robust analytics and customer segmentation to do this more scientifically. If [...]

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