Search results

Looks at the differential method of pricing which arrives at a price by adding appropriate amounts to specific bases. Proposes that to realize the full benefits of such an approach price‐setters must have both intelligence and imagination as well as being aware of their industry's practices and traditions.

Examines the concept of marketing myopia, its different explanations and types. Organizes the four types of marketing myopia into a classification scheme, suggesting a new perspective which can produce innovative marketing strategies. Recommends five steps towards becoming an innovative firm: a generic firm/industry view, other‐industry monitoring, benchmarking, recruitment of marketers, and a flexible approach to problems.

How can a low price brand be promoted in such a way that it gains sales from its competitors and not from another, more expensive brand made by the same manufacturer? A firm has taken over a company operating in the same field as its own. The managing director wishes to know if he should include the new company under his own corporate umbrella, or continue to sell its products as if they came from a separate manufacturer. A brand is sold in a range of flavours. Should each one be advertised separately, or should the range be advertised as a whole, or should one flavour be used to spearhead the advertising for the whole range? A bank wishes to know if the addition of another service will gain it sufficient additional customers to warrant the cost of the service. Should a range of products in related fields be sold under the same name or under different brand names? A fashion product is sold in a range of different designs. Each additional design costs a certain amount to produce and market. The manufacturer wishes to select the optimum number and combination of designs for his range.

Principally concerned with the manner in which different types of personnel in the organisational structure approach purchasing decisions. States that the fact that industrial purchasing decisions are seldom made in a coldly logical fashion is becoming increasingly accepted. Examines some reasons why there is a considerable amount of stability in the relationships existing between industrial goods suppliers and their customers. Concludes it may take some time to build up a close relationship between supplier and customer – giving a supplier time to take defensive action if it is thought necessary.

Examines the process of change in marketing channels and its cyclical nature. Looks at the contradictory problems of the needs of small retailers and efficient distribution, suggesting possible answers. Explores the implications of the rise of franchising for channels and the economy as a whole. Provides some current options for manufacturers to secure their marketing channels.

The entrepreneur, in one form or another, has been around a long time in both economic theory and empirical studies of entry. Argues that these traditions have exhibited an over‐concern with the entrepreneur′s function at the expense of the supply of entrepreneurs, an area which has received only sporadic attention in the literature. It is this supply aspect which is critical to economic development and economists should now devote more attention to it.

Assesses the extent to which environmental turbulence is affecting the pricing behavior of industrial marketers. Introduces a conceptual model, based on a review of the available literature, in which pricing behavior is the result of changing dynamics in the external environment of firms. Assumes that price itself includes multiple dimensions which combine to form an overall strategy. Describes the results of a survey of a cross‐section of firms in South Africa. Draws a number of implications for theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to organize the semantics jungle of marketing strategy approaches, terms and concepts into a logically coherent framework using the history of marketing thought to inform current marketing research and practice.

The paper takes the form of an intensive literature review tracing the three streams of marketing strategy terms and concepts from their roots in the literatures of early marketing management, managerial economics and corporate management to the present.

Along with marketing ideas, strategy concepts from managerial economics and from corporate management were absorbed directly into the corpus of strategic marketing thought. These three streams of research have converged into the current state of marketing strategy – an eclectic mixture of both complementary and conflicting strategic approaches, terms and concepts. By systematically following the evolutionary development of major contributions to strategic marketing thought and by redefining terms and refining concepts the various approaches to strategy can be integrated into a comprehensive conceptual framework for organizing and choosing among individual marketing strategies.

The framework offers conceptual and practical value. It provides a researcher with a consistent set of terms and concepts to build upon. The framework also provides a strategic toolkit for the marketing manager, based upon organizational and environmental conditions, to choose from among the feasible alternatives the most effective marketing strategy to achieve management's goal(s).

The modern concept of labor hoarding emerged in early 1960s, and soon became a standard part of mainstream economists’ explanation of the working of labor markets. The concept represents the convergence of three important elements: an empirical finding that labor productivity was procyclical; a framing of this finding as a “puzzle” or anomaly for the basic neoclassical theory of the firm, and a proposed resolution of the puzzle based on optimizing behavior of the firm in the presence of costs of hiring, firing, and training workers. This paper recounts the history of each of these elements, and how they were woven together into the labor hoarding concept. Each history involves people associated with various research traditions and motivated by an array of questions, many of which were unrelated to the questions that the modern labor hoarding concept was ultimately created to address.

In this chapter, we follow the growth of the pricing discipline, especially through the ideas of one of the earliest of pricing's pioneers: Dan Nimer. The Nimer influence on pricing has been foundational, sewing seeds for the growth and development of various pricing fields and subfields – pricing objectives and pricing strategy, value-based pricing, costing and pricing, financial analysis of pricing, and price sensitivity. The ideas we present in this chapter originated largely with Nimer, many in his own voice. We interweave them with the ideas of other contributors to the pricing discipline to show the development of the field. Dan taught many foundational pricing concepts; they are captured in seminars and articles kept through the years. Founding pioneer to pricing, Nimer's influence will remain long into the new century as pricing enters a new phase as a strategic capability of the firm.