Starbucks plans expansion onto supermarket shelves

Starbucks is looking to add more products to supermarket shelves. Finding new ways to grow is critical for Starbucks, which struggled in recent years after a strategy of growing by rapidly opening new stores had run its course. When the economy turned sour and many consumers could no longer afford pricey coffee drinks, Starbucks retrenched, […]

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August 24, 2010 Read the full post →

Why Starbucks doesn’t plan on raising prices

This is a great lesson on coffee pricing: Smuckers, which sells Folgers and Millstone coffees, recently said it was raising its prices because of the higher cost of beans. Starbucks, on the other hand, said it would absorb the higher cost of beans without raising prices. “You see it much more in the grocery store […]

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August 24, 2010 Read the full post →

The problem with “we can beat any price” strategies

One of the most interesting and confusing aspects of business is pricing. I do not have a handle on it and I appreciate anything I can learn about pricing strategies. I have two stories to compare. Each is about “we will beat our competitors’ prices” strategies. Putting a floor on estimates Blogger Jeff Zbar has […]

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August 24, 2010 Read the full post →

Why corporate social responsibility is a myth

Here’s something we shouldn’t forget: Very simply, in cases where private profits and public interests are aligned, the idea of corporate social responsibility is irrelevant: Companies that simply do everything they can to boost profits will end up increasing social welfare. In circumstances in which profits and social welfare are in direct opposition, an appeal […]

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August 23, 2010 Read the full post →

Why car dealers need to get better at relationships

The Internet really has changed how we buy a car. We’re much more savvy about the car and price when we walk onto a lot because of Internet research. Chris Brogan has a interesting story of why he bought a Camaro from Motorphilia, an Internet car dealer. He has a lot of thoughts about what’s […]

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August 23, 2010 Read the full post →

11 tips you need to read before becoming a community manager

Mashable has some great (10) tips for managing communities: Community managers, who come in all shapes and sizes depending on the company and its mission, are often the online face of their companies, and more increasingly, offline as well. They’re the social strategist, community builder, storyteller, marketer, product manager, designer and evangelist rolled all into […]

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August 23, 2010 Read the full post →

The Digital Nomad’s Guide to Using Paper

I was going through my messenger bag looking for inspiration. That’s when I realized I used a lot of paper for someone who’s life and work was online. About the same time, fellow WorkAwesome.com blogger Abhijeet Mukherjee wrote about going paperless. This made me think real hard about how much paper I used and wrote […]

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August 22, 2010 Read the full post →

Patience and manners go a long way on Skype

I almost fell out of my chair when my dad asked me if I had Skype. He wanted to use it for video chatting with me since we don’t see each other a lot. It shouldn’t have surprised me that my parents warmed up to video chat before I did. They have been early adopters […]

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August 22, 2010 Read the full post →

Convert readers with a conversation instead of a form

I found a nice example of how to make your web forms more inviting. Instead of simply presenting a mostly-white page with some boxes and terse labels, some sites create conversations with blanks for you to insert your information. A while ago, I came across a unique registration form built by Jeremy Keith for his […]

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August 21, 2010 Read the full post →

Why you can pay $499 for an iPad and feel good about it

Just in case you don’t know how an anchor affects your prices, you need to read this explanation: “Any time you have to estimate a numerical value, it turns out you’re very susceptible to the power of suggestion,” says William Poundstone, author of the new book Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to […]

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August 20, 2010 Read the full post →

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