Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts and Establishing Price Structures, 1st Edition, Tim J. Smith




Learn how to make pricing decisions that will maximize a firm's profits by creating and capturing customers with PRICING STRATEGY: SETTING PRICE LEVELS, MANAGING PRICE DISCOUNTS AND ESTABLISHING PRICE STRUCTURES. Written by recognized pricing thought leader and principal of a successful pricing firm, Tim J. Smith, this comprehensive book emphasizes the stakeholder's importance in making decisions, while highlighting key trade-offs to consider when choosing between opposing outcomes. In this book's balanced presentation of quantitative instruction and qualitative concepts, learn more about the influences that should guide your decision making.

Review
"The book is the most comprehensive pricing strategy book currently available on the market. It explains conceptual pricing topics that can be readily understood and applied by managers setting and managing price." --Steve Shook, University of Idaho

"The book not only covers the various aspects of strategic pricing, it also provides the necessary quantitative tools to determine the price levels. This book overcomes one of the key weaknesses of its competitor, Nagle and Holden's Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, i.e., not enough tools to arrive at prices." -- Praveen Kopalle, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

About the Author
Well-known in the industry as a thought leader in pricing, Dr. Tim Smith is Managing Principal of Wiglaf Pricing as well as Adjunct Professor of Marketing at DePaul University. Dr. Smith is a researcher, an instructor, and a consultant in pricing strategy. He is a regular presenter at THE Professional Pricing Society conferences, in both the United States and Europe. With hard-hitting, focused messages for executives, he regularly presents actions that lead to dynamic results. At Wiglaf Pricing, Dr. Smith provides strategic pricing support for globally leading firms such as Symantec, as well as a host of entrepreneurial firms and portfolio companies of private capital. Dr. Smith has developed his insights into pricing through past roles, including Chief Marketing Officer of ISB Development, a software subsidiary of Nonolet in Novosibirsk, Russia, and Business Development Manager of SPL WorldGroup, a software product and consulting firm. Dr. Smith began his career as a research scientist in quantum mechanics before his interest in strategy prompted him to pursue an MBA. His focus on pricing is a natural culmination of his deep love of math and his market orientation. Dr. Smith holds an MBA with High Honors in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Chicago GSB, a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago, a BS in Chemistry and Physics, and BA in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University. In addition to this text, he has authored another book on systematically growing revenue in business.

I first purchased this book about a year ago as I was beginning to re-engage in a B2B industry I had previously spent 20+ years in. Strategy is always an interesting topic, and inquisitive by nature I have always been intrigued by why firms, mine and others took the pricing actions that they did, so I bought the "textbook". Although as a textbook it is complete with exercises at the end of each chapter (and answer sets which are not available -ug), it is written at a level and with a style which makes it easily readable.

The understanding of pricing strategies gained from reading this book, along with following the author Tim Smith through his work at his consulting company Wiglaf Pricing and their [...] has allowed me to reexamine my industry with renewed insight, and identify a path forward which is more explainable, well reasoned and sucessfully sustainable.

I consider Pricing Strategy to be a must read for anyone serious about understanding the pricing side of a business. I highly recommend Pricing Strategy without reservation.

While I am somewhat biased as an associate of Tim Smith but this presentation is the best I have ever seen on the subject of strategic pricing. I have been teaching marketing as an adjunct professor in Chicago for 28 years and pricing is an integral part of my teaching curricula. This book takes the art and science of pricing and setting prices to an entire new level. It offers excellent perspective in pricing and theory and practice and offers the most complete presentation of pricing that I have ever seen.

Pros: The book covers just about every pricing topic that a reader could want...any many that a reader will never need. It also goes into the math behind the various strategies, but in a way that does not make it required reading to incorporate the strategies. In short, it is a great primer on pricing strategy and will allow the reader to go as deep as they want.

Cons: I thought the book should go into a bit more detail on how to price in a competitive market. It's not that it did not cover this topic, it is more of the fact that this topic is probably more impactful than any of the other topics in the book in practice.

Product Details :

  • Hardcover: 344 pages
  • Publisher: Cengage Learning; 1 edition (January 18, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0538480882
  • ISBN-13: 978-0538480888
  • Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 7.9 x 10 inches


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