Upcoming Events
May 23, 2013
CBI Conference Centre,
Centre Point Tower
103 New Oxford St
London, WC1A 1DU
Join us for the Pricing for Profit Conference, hosted by Simon-Kucher & Partners on Thursday 23 May at the CBI Conference Centre, London.
According to Business Week, Simon-Kucher is “the world leader in giving advice to companies on how to price their products” and according to The Economist, “the world’s leading pricing consultancy.” The Pricing for Profit Conference offers the opportunity to hear our industry experts share their knowledge on how your organisation can increase profits by optimising prices, as well as to discuss specific pricing concerns you may have with one of our team. Conference participants will be provided with valuable insights from sales, pricing and marketing, as well as case studies and benchmarks from a wide range of B2B and B2C sectors. Moreover, this year we are delighted to have Mr Paul Williamson present: “Pricing the London 2012 Olympic Games”, sharing his insights on how pricing played a crucial role in making the Olympic Games such a success.
See the detailed program and speakers here
To register, e-mail Conferences.London@simon-kucher.com. Conference attendance is free of charge and will be reserved on a first come first served basis.
Past Events
The Future of Primary Banking Relationships
Tuesday 12 February 2013
Fortnum and Mason, London
Sponsored by Simon Kucher & Partners
The traditional 'free in credit' current account banking model is being questioned at last. But fee-based packaged accounts are also being scrutinised by the regulator. The emergence of new banking brands has promise, but has yet to produce any startling differentiation in pricing, service or value. But greater ease of current account switching, as the Payment Council’s system goes live in 2013, is set to invigorate competition further. Add to this, the emergence of new technologies such as mobile, and the greater sophistication of online banking services which all enrich customer experience and aid loyalty - the stage is set for primary banking propositions to be radically overhauled, both to win and retain customers.
Speakers on the day included:
Simon Mottram, Consulting Director, Financial Services, YouGov
Jens Baumgarten, Managing Partner, Simon-Kucher & Partners
Ben Snowman, Director, Simon Kucher & Partners
Followed by a panel discussion with :
Anthony Thomson, co-founder, Metro Bank
Mark Mullen, Chief Executive, First Direct
Dan Wagner, CEO and Chairman, mPowa
Women in Consulting Recruitment Event
January 23, 2013
Central London
This event was designed to provide an opportunity for female students to come and talk to female consultants about their experience with Simon-Kucher & Partners in an informal setting.
There were drinks and nibbles, and a short introduction to the company. However the main purpose of the evening was to give students the opportunity to come and ask any questions you might have, and get to know us a bit better!
Commercial Excellence Conference 2012
November 21, 2012
CBI Conference Centre
The all-day event offered a variety of sessions, with the morning focussed primarily on B2B and the afternoon B2C. In addition to our own industry experts, we were delighted to have Marco Bertini of London Business School and Colin Harper of Storecheck Marketing to talk about how sales, marketing and pricing can help your organisation grow its profits.
See detailed program and speakers here
Findings from the day
Organisations must be increasingly strategic in their use of progressive pricing, marketing and sales strategies in the face of further economic turbulence. At the conference, which covered both B2B and B2C business needs, Mark Billige, Managing Partner at Simon-Kucher revealed that strong C-level commitment to pricing, combined with a dedicated pricing organisation, is essential to protect and boost profits in today’s economic climate.
These and other insights were shared with an audience of over 60 senior executives from sectors including retail, construction, telco and media. In addition to inflation-busting strategies, the roster of experts discussed topics including, ‘Pricing the greatest show on earth: lessons from London 2012’, by keynote speaker Marco Bertini, Assistant Professor of Marketing, London Business School. Additional sessions by experts at Simon-Kucher covered ‘Sales Incentives to Steer Behaviour; Customer Targeting & Differentiation; Membership Schemes; Negotiation, and Price Optimisation.
Developing Commercial Excellence
Peter Colman, Sales Excellence expert, provided a holistic review of achieving commercial excellence. “Put simply, every extra penny a sales force can provide is profit. At the same time, every customer interface must be factored in, using segmentation as the key to develop a successful, differentiated market approach. “He concluded, “Commercial excellence is a cultural shift, not simply a project; the new ways of working must become the norm.”
Segment your markets, target your customers and differentiate your offer
The Membership session by David Smith, Senior Consultant, further explored the importance of customer information. Customer knowledge lies at the heart of membership schemes which in turn support organisations in discovering where opportunities can be found to gain customer share. Additional sessions served to reminded the audience that the drive to profitability requires a good understanding of customers and what they value. Sebastian Strasmann, Partner, outlined the need to understand the value of the goods/services offered and to segment the market according to customer needs. He commented, “Customers must be appropriately differentiated in order to offer solutions and alternatives to attract them all – with relevant offers.”
The day concluded with Mark Billige’s closing session where he reminded attendees, of the need for “end-to-end coordination, from strategy to analytics to interpretation and implementation to create and exercise pricing power.”
Some quotes from attendees:
"Extremely relevant content regardless of industry or sector"
“Provides a great level of understanding and inspiration to companies about the potential rewards available to them by paying attention to pricing”
“It is very valuable for the content, the professionalism of the speakers and for networking”
September 25, 2012
Park Plaza Westminster Bridge
London
TheMediaBriefing held the second annual Mobile Media Strategies conference – a dedicated full day event on mobile publishing techniques and learnings. Mark Billige presentation, covering:
- Decoupling mobile products from print pricing
- Understanding the media/digital competitive environment
- Psychological price points and bundling strategies
- ‘Freemium’ models and up-selling
Digital Technology Pricing Conference
February 28, 2012
The Hospital Club
London
The Digital Technology Pricing Conference provided unique insights into the challenge of monetisation across the digital sector. Our team of industry experts lead presentations addressing key questions by digital business managers, and introduced steps to prepare for the future across telecommunication, digital media and online payment service sectors.
The agenda included presentations on:
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Data monetisation
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Building a digital media pricing strategy
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Impact of mobile payment services
The agenda can be downloaded here.
Pricing for Profit Conference 2012
April 17, 2012
Cavendish Conference Centre
London
This all day event to celebrate our 10 years in London offered a variety of sessions covering a broad range of topics from product portfolio strategy to pricing change management with several sessions discussing specific industry challenges.
Reflecting on what is top on many managers' minds these days, the conference focussed on quick wins to improve the P&L in periods of economic uncertainty and steps to prepare for the future. We presented strategies and tactics drawn from our extensive project experience and dozens of discussions with CEOs we have had over the last couple of years.