A $7 bag of Doritos might seem like an unlikely source of B2B marketing insight, but it highlights a challenge many companies face when launching innovations and premium products. In this episode, Mary and Tom explore why pricing failures often occur even when a product delivers real value. The discussion examines how companies become trapped inside their own expertise, how customers define competitors differently than suppliers do, and why understanding the alternatives customers are actually considering is essential for setting the right price. Along the way, they share examples from industrial and healthcare markets and discuss how strategic tools can help organizations uncover opportunities—and threats—that are often hiding in plain sight.

Key Takeaways

• Customers rarely evaluate products in isolation—they compare them against alternatives that companies often overlook.

• One of the biggest pricing mistakes occurs when organizations define competitors differently than their customers do.

• The simple question “Compared to what?” can dramatically improve pricing, positioning, and commercialization decisions.

Key Quotes

“Companies compare themselves to competitors they know. Customers compare them to alternatives they would actually consider.”

“One of the biggest cold showers in strategy is discovering that your customers don’t define the competitive landscape the same way you do.”

“No matter how innovative the product, customers eventually ask the same question: compared to what?”

As the episode concludes, the team reinforces a simple but powerful idea: competitive advantage often begins by seeing the market through your customers’ eyes instead of your own.