Economics

While Will is pondering his pricing strategy to raise his revenues, he visited a friend, Elsa Budley, who has had more experience selling online. Elsa started an online business a couple of years ago selling her artwork. Although her initial sales were also disappointing, she offered some advice. She discovered that she actually sold more artwork when she raised her price at the same time that she expanded her online advertising budget. Elsa thinks Will’s key to success is to raise prices and sell more books.

It has occurred to Will Bury that his digital books are a perfect candidate for a global business. Why should his market just be Americans who want to listen to books? Even while his technology only handles English language text, the demand for his books might be much greater beyond the domestic market. Going global, however, might complicate the transactions. Additionally, should he price his books the same in each market? Will is interested in maximizing his revenues because his unit production and transportation costs are low. Can he use any of his research on the pricing of the general consumer distribution of movies to pricing in different international markets?

Will Bury thinks he is on the brink of great success and fortune with a proprietary technology that may transform how people access books and other materials currently offered only in print. But he is also on the verge of making some fundamental business mistakes that could rob him of his well-deserved success. He can be more successful if he observes some basic concepts included in the early part of this course.