pricing

How To Charge Higher Prices And Thrive

Harvey’s Hardware is a legend in my town of Needham, Mass. In business since 1953, Harvey’s sells what most people consider to be commodity items--nuts, bolts, lawnmowers, and shovels. And yet, Harvey’s revenue per square foot is almost four times higher than the typical hardware store. Here's how they do it--and how your company can, too. READ»

Live Music Needs A Tuneup To Entice The Audiences Of Tomorrow

Music sales may be slowing, but the concert business is thriving. That may not be the case for long, though, with its dinosaur-aged touring acts, high prices, and lack of zeal in promoting fresh blood. Here's how the live-music industry can thrive and attract new and larger audiences. READ»

Three Self-Delusions That Influence Your Decisions And Productivity

Your brain is constantly trying to betray you, but that's just normal. We ask the author of "You Are Not So Smart" for advice on what to look out for inside our skulls.READ»

iFive: Twitter Not for Sale, Schoolboy Credit Fraud, EU Raids ebook Publishers, China eBook Piracy, Russian Rocket Woes

iFive is here to help jump-start your Thursday with a quick glance at the early innovation news:READ»

Disruptive Pricing Goes a Long Way

I have been reviewing an innovative health-care company, Best Doctors. Today I want to go over how this $100M global provider prices itself successfully.READ»

Walmart Gets Its Groupon but Does Not Let Shoppers Dictate Deals

Walmart's execs know a money-making scheme when they see one, and they've zeroed in on Groupon's consumer money-saving coupon model as a good thing. So they're launching their own version. Kind of.READ»

Hulu CEO Is "Not Averse" to an Even Pricier Ad-Free Subscription

Hulu's CEO said in a chat yesterday that he's not averse to looking at ad-free models for his service, above and beyond Hulu Plus--but watching Hulu without ads will come at a price. A steeper price, that is.READ»

Chinese Working Conditions Raised ... Along With the Price of Gadgets?

The worker's environment in Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has been a sticky issue for Apple's PR department, but it's also highlighted one big fact: If Western firms stick with Chinese sources, gadgets will get more ...READ»

Zappos Loses $1.6 Million in Six-Hour Pricing Screw-Up

Eeep. 6pm.com, a Zappos sister site that focuses on bargains, accidentally priced all items no higher than $50--leading to a loss of $1.6 million in six hours.READ»

Amazon Slaps Penguin Across the Beak Over E-Book Pricing

You know when you meet a cute kitten, all fluffy, innocent and sweet...and when you stroke it it sinks four sharp teeth into your thumb? The sheer surprise of that is about the same as what Amazon's just done to Penguin books over ...READ»

Wall Street Journal to Hit iPad Screens, but It'll Cost You

A bastion of old-media newspaper publishing cozying up to the big bad digital publishing-business-overturning newbie Apple? Well, kinda: The Wall Street Journal has revealed its iPad subscription plans and profiled Apple's board of ...READ»

Apple's iPad Disrupting the Network TV Business Model? I'd Buy That for a Dollar!

The iTunes pricing debate is be getting hotter, as the iPad's launch date approaches, with news that networks are wary of Apple's lower price plans. The TV industry's following the music and publishing biz here...will things be ...READ»

Amazon Revealed: It Hates You, and It Hates Publishers

There's one clear conclusion falling out of the ridiculous Amazon versus Macmillan books debacle that played out this weekend: Amazon really doesn't care about you, in fact it kinda hates you--pretty much whoever you are. If you're ...READ»

Music Licensing Goes Pan-European, With Perfect Timing for Apple

Apple may just have gained an amazingly powerful tool for the future of its iTunes music business: A new deal could allow pan-european licensing of digitally downloaded music. It's perfect timing for the iTablet too, don't you ...READ»

About 20% of U.S. Consumers Would Buy Apple's Tablet, at a Good Price

Among the fragments of facts, speculation and random dreaming about Apple's tablet PC, here's one hard statistic for once: A survey of over 3,300 U.S. consumers has shown nearly 20% of them would buy one. Its success looks ...READ»

IBM Fighting Google on Business Email

IBM's trying a simple tactic to outwit Google's business software plans by selling its professional package for a third less in price. For fewer dollars you also get a less capable service, but IBM's confident that many customers will ...READ»

Three Lessons in "Rational" Prices Raising Ethical Questions

1. Mets Play Hardball More than any other major-league baseball team, the New York Mets have tinkered with variable ticket prices that fluctuate in tandem with "platinum" game times (say, summer weekends) and ...READ»

• Why Your Gut Is More Ethical Than Your Brain

Five Days to New iPhone: Rumor Round-Up

As we get closer to the new iPhone, the rumors get hotter (even hotter than our last round-up). Here are the more interesting stories, one of which is a doozy. Chinese iPhone in July, Along with the Rest of the World? A ...READ»

Will a High Price and Netbook-Limiting Specs Hurt Windows 7?

Here's a nasty, juicy rumor to mull-over on your holiday weekend: Microsoft will be pricing Windows 7 higher than Vista, making it the costliest OS the company has ever released, on average. Mix in news of the limiting specs that ...READ»

The End of the Hard Drive? Flash Memory Price Dropping

The hard drive's reign as king of desktop data storage may be ending, at least according to Samsung. Those spinning platters will be overtaken by solid-state technology within two years for one simple reason: price.Hard drive ...READ»

• The Solid State Revolution