More whining about pricing on your website – Be Evil

Posted on April 4, 2008 by Dave J.

Three things B2B websites need: Video, reviews, and pricing. I’ve made a point of discussing these in the last year or so.

And I often come up with whiny excuses about why B2B won’t do them.

When it comes to pricing, whiny excuse number one is: Channel conflict.

Oh, I know, I’ll just institute a minimum advertised price policy with my dealers. Just slip it into their contract renewal and wham…marketing nirvana for the almighty principal.

Of course, only if you don’t mind coughing up $750,000 and tangling with lawsuits … Settlement ends five-year investigation into Herman Miller’s pricing policies:

“Under the company’s suggested retail price policy, retailers could advertise the Aeron for no less than $949. If they broke that rule, they could be denied shipments for up to a year or be cut off completely.

The consent decree signed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York bars Herman Miller from coercing or communicating with dealers violating the policy.

Herman Miller still can punish errant shop owners, Schurman said. It just cannot talk with the problem retailer.”

Hmm. So you can have such a policy, but it can’t be in a contract. And you can’t warn the dealer, you can only fire them. Weird, but apparently that’s the way to do it

Or to reference the latest Wired Magazine: Be Evil!

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  • David Daniels

    As a former product manager I can recall vividly getting busted by my channel partners when we posted pricing on our web site. The pressure was strong and our response was swift (taking it down). What were we thinking? We were responding to our market who was asking us to post pricing. Unfortunately this old school thinking continues to be propagated.

  • David Daniels

    As a former product manager I can recall vividly getting busted by my channel partners when we posted pricing on our web site. The pressure was strong and our response was swift (taking it down). What were we thinking? We were responding to our market who was asking us to post pricing. Unfortunately this old school thinking continues to be propagated.

  • Dale Underwood

    Restricting pricing in the channel is a definite no-no, especially in the Govt space, but why can’t the manufacturer provide basic List pricing so potential customers can budget? I don’t see any harm in that.

  • Dale Underwood

    Restricting pricing in the channel is a definite no-no, especially in the Govt space, but why can’t the manufacturer provide basic List pricing so potential customers can budget? I don’t see any harm in that.

  • Murray Abramovitch

    In my humble opinion, unless you are selling direct, pricing is generally not a plus on websites. One exception would be using prices for comparison purposes and even here you have to exercise caution. If, for example, you have a utility to help customers conduct project pricing analyses, it must be made clear that prices shown are approximate (generally high) and in no way reflect any quotation. And they don’t include a variety of costs and any taxes. A minimum advertised price policy requiring stores not to advertise below a certain price would, even before the Herman Miller case, have been ill-advised from a legal perspective and, in any case, kind of stupid from a marketing one. Whatever happened to setting a high MSRP and letting stores make their own decisions to either milk the product or put in place promotional pricing?

  • Murray Abramovitch

    In my humble opinion, unless you are selling direct, pricing is generally not a plus on websites. One exception would be using prices for comparison purposes and even here you have to exercise caution. If, for example, you have a utility to help customers conduct project pricing analyses, it must be made clear that prices shown are approximate (generally high) and in no way reflect any quotation. And they don’t include a variety of costs and any taxes. A minimum advertised price policy requiring stores not to advertise below a certain price would, even before the Herman Miller case, have been ill-advised from a legal perspective and, in any case, kind of stupid from a marketing one. Whatever happened to setting a high MSRP and letting stores make their own decisions to either milk the product or put in place promotional pricing?

  • Troy Bingham

    We have found that a budgetary estimate works as a good compromise.

  • Troy Bingham

    We have found that a budgetary estimate works as a good compromise.