Why Can’t I Have the Brownie Instead of the Muffin with My Box Lunch Special?
I maintain a relatively regular lunch rotation that features essentially the same main item at each eating establishment. Today, I was delivered a shock to my comfortable culinary routine: I was told that I could not substitute a brownie for the muffin that comes with the chicken salad sandwich box meal at, what I will [...]
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Product Quality Can Attract A Captive Audience
This weekend, my alma mater, Stanford University, played football at Wake Forest. I was fortunate enough to make the trip although Stanford was not fortunate enough to win. I was also not fortunate enough to eat lunch before attending the game, paying $9.50 for the privilege of enjoying a small pepperoni pizza and an ice-loaded [...]
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Twitter’s “Tragedy of the Commons”
The “tragedy of the commons” (Garrett Hardin, 1968) is a concept in economics that describes how a group of self-interested individuals can destroy a shared (and free) resource. Hardin’s classic is example is a group of herders who destroy a pasture as each herder maximizes his/her number of grazing cows to make the most use [...]
Disney increases theme park prices despite drop in revenues
Disney has increased prices at Walt Disney World despite experiencing a drop in revenues last quarter. In its earnings reported July 30, the company had this to say about operating income: “Lower operating income at the Walt Disney World Resort was primarily due to decreased guest spending and lower corporate alliance income recognition, partially offset [...]
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First Solar faces pricing challenges
First Solar (FSLR) talked about its pricing challenges in last Wednesday’s conference call with analysts. The company is having trouble sorting through the various factors slowing demand for their thin film solar panels: for example, lack of credit and financing or competitor pricing. I suspect that First Solar’s sales teams need to do more aggressive [...]
Mass customization in media gains more advertising value
Bloomberg reports “Loyal ‘Simpsons’ Fans Fetch Higher Ad Rates on Web.” Premiun programming on the Web has gained pricing power due to the scarcity of popular, targeted advertising inventory. In the future, I would look for the industry to find ways of increasing ad inventory and creating more tools for mass audiences to create and [...]
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Webinar: Mind Tricks: How the Brain Reacts to Price-Based Offerings
This free webinar from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Executive Education, looks interesting. I hope to post a review soon after attending: _________________ Title: Mind Tricks: How the Brain Reacts to Price-Based Offerings Host: Professor Baba Shiv Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Time: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Pacific Daylight Time) Registration: www.stanfordinnovation.com In [...]
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