The Pricing Exchange podcast #3

Brendan Hodge has "The Dirt" on Pricing

Excited to share my latest conversation on "The Pricing Exchange" podcast with Brendan Hodge - pricing leader with over two decades of experience at Dell, Scott's Miracle Gro, Wendy's, and Hyperion Materials.

Brendan brings a refreshingly practical perspective to pricing through stories you won't hear anywhere else:

• The Junior Bacon Cheeseburger Crisis: When bacon prices skyrocketed, Wendy's discovered something fascinating - half their customers valued bacon enough to pay 30% more, while the other half just wanted "something for 99 cents" and happily switched to alternatives. Result? Higher profits with no lost customers.

• How he accidentally prevented a retail "trade war" between Home Depot, Lowe's, and Walmart by creating a transparent point system for trade discounts

• The surprising truth about Wendy's 99-cent Frosty summer promotion (hint: it wasn't actually driving more sales!)

• And yes, confirmation that "there are things cheaper than dirt" - because his company has literally sold dirt for positive prices!

My favorite Brendan-ism: "For a lot of people, even if up to this point they have not cared about pricing, pricing now cares about them." A perfect summary of how market pressures are forcing companies to develop sophisticated pricing strategies whether they want to or not.

Disclaimer: The stories and insights shared in this podcast are based on my personal experiences and conversations throughout my career. While some content reflects recent events, they are drawn from a broad range of interactions with professionals across professional services, including friends and colleagues from various organizations, and do not specifically refer to or represent any single employer, past or present. Identities have been anonymized, and quotes may be paraphrased or combined for clarity and storytelling purposes. This post is a personal endeavor and does not reflect the views or proprietary information of any employer.