Independent Thinking » Prius

The Price of Milk

Daria Steigman — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:05:38 +0000

Pricing can be tricky.

Aim too low, and people wonder what’s wrong with your product (or think your service is second rate). Price too high, and you might have few or no takers.

I’ll pay a premium for value. Great customer service, beautiful design, and reducing carbon emissions are all value-adds worth paying for.

A gallon of milk is not a premium product. So charging a 33-percent premium ($3.99 in this store versus $2.99 here–and even less at Costco) is just asking me to shop elsewhere.

Why would any business want to do this?

Photo by Muffet (Flickr).

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What Twitter Tells Us about Innovation in America

Daria Steigman — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:53:38 +0000

TIME Magazine has a terrific article about how Twitter is changing us. It’s well-written, and author Steven Johnson looks at Twitter not just as a fad tool for celebrities, but also as a platform that is changing how we are interconnected. A sample:

But watch a live mass-media event with Twitter open on your laptop and you’ll see that the futurists had it wrong. We still have national events, but now when we have them, we’re actually having a genuine, public conversation with a group that extends far beyond our nuclear family and our next-door neighbors.

What’s most interesting to me, however, is how Johnson cites Twitter, TiVo, Wikipedia, America Online, Amazon, and a few other companies and products to make a point about American innovation:

We didn’t build the Prius or the Wii, but if you measure global innovation in terms of actual lifestyle-changing hit products … the U.S. has been lapping the field for the past 20 years.

Johnson then goes on to talk about the difference between building the mousetrap and perfecting it. It’s thought-provoking stuff.

Cadillac Stupidity

Daria Steigman — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:28:46 +0000

Today’s Stupidity Award goes to Jim Coleman Cadillac, which is trying to lure Toyota Prius owners into trading in their energy-efficient hybrids for new cars that average 15-20 mpg. The supposed hook? “$1,000 over Kelley Blue Book fair value.”

Anyone who thinks that Prius and Cadillac buyers are interchangeable is clearly delusional. And doesn’t have even a passing acquaintance with market research. Of course, this is the same outfit whose repair shop “lost” my front license plate a couple of years back.

But, take heart Coleman Cadillac, your letter wasn’t a complete waste of money. Thanks for reminding me that my 2001 Prius is a hot commodity. I’ll keep it mind if and when I decide to trade it in–for another hybrid.