"Digital technologies are transforming every business but the core principle of value creation endures: take care of the customer. But how? Bertini and Koenigsberg provide managers an insightful roadmap based on careful research and lively examples."
"The Ends Game elevates our current understanding of pricing to the next level. The book is simultaneously rigorous and practical, and belongs on any executive’s shelf."
Harvard Business Review
Inflation-fatigued shoppers are witnessing prices fluctuate across categories with unprecedented scale and frequency — a trend often seen as yet another cunning commercial scheme. Is the extra profit companies see from dynamic pricing worth the risk of alienating customers? If done well, companies shouldn’t be making that trade-off — dynamic pricing should serve the long-term interest of companies and customers alike. This can only happen under two conditions. First, it must represent a better alternative to static prices. Second, companies must view dynamic pricing as an integral part of customer centricity, not something antithetical to it.
MIT Sloan Management Review
Value-based selling efforts often fizzle after an initial push because companies fail to see beyond the numbers when calculating the economic impact of product or service benefits. While quantifying evidence of benefits is at the heart of value-based selling, it’s not enough. Companies can follow a five-step process that builds commitment to joint value creation with their customers and develops a deep mutual understanding of what it can offer and what benefits are meaningful to customers.
Harvard Business Review
More and more companies are relying on pricing algorithms to maximize profits. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning enables real-time price adjustments based on supply and demand, competitors’ activities, delivery schedules, and so forth. But constant price shifts have a downside: They may trigger unfavorable perceptions of a firm’s offerings and its brand. It’s vital, therefore, to understand and manage the signals being sent by the algorithms. The authors offer real-world examples of companies that have succeeded in this endeavor and others that have not. And they recommend four steps to avoid harm: Determine an appropriate use case for algorithmic pricing and explain its benefits to customers; designate an owner to supervise and be accountable for the system; set and monitor guardrails, both to protect against wild surges and to learn how price changes affect all aspects of the organization; and override the algorithms when necessary.
MIT Sloan Management Review
Many companies are on a quest to make shopping as hassle-free as possible — especially online, where shoppers are less patient and have short attention spans. But friction in the online shopping experience doesn’t have to be a nuisance. Slowing down the purchase process to give customers time to consider their buying decisions can actually produce longer-term benefits. It turns out that when friction enables better decisions, customer satisfaction and loyalty both improve. The authors provide an assessment to help companies determine the degree of friction that will play to these advantages.
Harvard Business Review
No matter how creative and ambitious they may be, nonprofits that rely solely on donations and grants to finance their growth often fall short. One way to improve both funding and impact is to add a more “commercial” strategy to the mix-by charging recipients for what the organization would otherwise provide for free. Though that may sound uncharitable, the authors’ research shows that paying nominal fees can give beneficiaries a sense of ownership, boost their engagement, and empower them to demand results. Meanwhile, the revenue from the fees can go back into providing help to even more people. Several nonprofits, including Project Maji, which builds kiosks for clean drinking water in Africa; Gavi, which distributes vaccines; and Worldreader, which provides books to children in low-income countries, have found success with this approach. Using their examples, the authors describe how to set up an effective payment model. Among other things, nonprofits must assess how the needs of beneficiaries vary, educate them about offerings, and share accountability with them. Most important, they must stop defining impact as access to help and take a broader view of results.
MIT Sloan Management Review
Customers ultimately want to pay for meaningful outcomes, not the products and services that presumably deliver them. Today, companies can be increasingly accountable for those outcomes with three kinds of technologically-enhanced revenue models. Adopt one to better align your company’s success with your customers’ satisfaction.