From last week...
Numo explained, “FEI had a monopoly on fire and buyers were willing to pay almost any price for what they—correctly—perceived to be a valuable service. With little correlation between price and units sold back then, fire pricing would’ve been considered very inelastic.”
Now, on to part four of this nine-part series. Remember, fire = print.
“Our grandfathers fought over that one,” Org recalled.
“Yes. Fin wanted to raise prices and Prometheus didn’t,” Numo said. “In hindsight, this tension between our grandfathers benefited the company. We made enough money to fuel our growth into successive generations, but our prices weren’t so high that we were targeted for regulation by the Olympian Business Council (OBC). The same can’t be said for other industries—like sculpture carving—that took advantage of their early monopoly status by setting unreasonably high prices.”
“Can we discuss today’s pricing please?” Marka interrupted, like a school marm trying to focus her students.
“Here are some pricing questions we need to consider now,” Numo said. “Do we charge the same prices to consumers and businesses? What if customers buy from an FEI sales rep? Or, what if they buy a service agreement from us? How do we charge for orders coming over the O-Web? Do we price to what the market will bear or our internal cost structure? A good pricing strategy is absolutely essential to any well-thought out marketing plan. FEI’s current pricing model is outdated and must be adjusted.”
“No argument here,” Marka said.
The Third P: Place
“Location, location, location,” Org offered with zest.
“Sort of.” Marka gently corrected her boss. “The place where we do business is changing. Zoot’s runners have the greater Olympus region reasonably well covered. At some point, though, we should consider expanding our sales efforts beyond the four corners of Olympus.”
Join us next week as Marka, Zoot and the gang complete their discussion of the third P: Place.
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- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Very much alive and now officially an industry curmudgeon, strategic growth expert T. J. Tedesco can be reached at tj@tjtedesco.com or 301-404-2244.