{"id":243,"date":"2007-12-17T19:44:01","date_gmt":"2007-12-17T19:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wensmedia.com\/\/salesarchive\/permalink\/2007\/12\/17\/144401.html"},"modified":"2007-12-17T19:44:01","modified_gmt":"2007-12-17T19:44:01","slug":"hypocritical-pricing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/hypocritical-pricing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypocritical Pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center\" align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20pt; font-family: Tahoma\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Would you agree that being customer-focused, or placing customers&rsquo; needs first in your marketing strategy, is essential to building a sustainable business?<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Would you also agree that the airline industry probably has one of the least customer-friendly reputations in all of <st1:place w:st=\"on\">North America<\/st1:place>?<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>If you agree somewhat to these two statements, would it seem reasonable that a customer-focused organization would adopt the airline industry&rsquo;s supply and demand pricing model?<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>These two models are incongruent with each other.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The airline industry uses a supply and demand pricing model, gouging customers when they are busy, and selling at a loss when they are not.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Customers know that fuel and crew costs do not go up with passenger demand and they resent being gouged when they need the airline most, like during Spring Break.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Ironically, this same pricing model is also responsible for one of the most financially troubled industries in <st1:place w:st=\"on\">North America<\/st1:place> today&hellip;four out of six major airlines are in bankruptcy protection!!&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><span>&nbsp;<\/span>I have yet to hear a convincing argument that supply and demand pricing and customer-friendly marketing are compatible models.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Advertisers do not receive more value, more audience, better service, more brand awareness or more sales because we are nearing sold-out positions, just as they do not receive less value, audience, margins or service when you can shoot a cannon through your log. <br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Marketers who default to supply and demand gouging or discounting do so for one of two reasons:<span style=\"color: red\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>1.) They do not care about, or have confidence in, the value they deliver,<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>OR<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>2.) They have not trained their sales people to sell their product for what <span>&nbsp; <\/span>it&rsquo;s<span>&nbsp; <\/span>worth in slower demand seasons resulting in the need to make up for that weakness in high<span style=\"color: red\"> <\/span>demand seasons.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Oh, I almost forgot one other reason for hypocritical pricing&hellip;.follower<span style=\"color: red\"> <\/span>syndrome&#8230; &ldquo;We have to sell cheap in slow times because our competitors do&rdquo;, is not an excuse that leaders use.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Selling is simply an exchange of value. The seller delivers value and receives value (money) in exchange for that value. It is not &lsquo;selling&rsquo; if the seller does not realize value too.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma\"><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>If you have made a conscious decision to engage in customer-focused selling, then you must build your rate grids around value&hellip;..value to your customers, and value to your stations, 12 months of the year. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Would you agree that being customer-focused, or placing customers&rsquo; needs first in your marketing strategy, is essential to building a sustainable business? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Would you also agree that the airline industry probably has one of the least customer-friendly reputations in all of North America? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you agree somewhat to these two statements, would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}