Cast a fresh
eye at your product pricing strategy and marketing - Part 1
Do You Charge Enough?
by Molly Gordon, MCC
Summary: While developing your product or
services pricing strategy and marketing them, it is important to remember
that higher prices are not necessarily the equivalent of gouging
or "taking people for all you can get." Higher prices can
be seen as a duty you owe to your best customers so that you can continue
to deliver fabulous products.
Here is an excerpt from
an exchange between members of an online group -- identifying details
removed:
Person A: I am just sick of seeing people
just out to make a buck, regardless of how they treat others.
Person B: Right on. I think we need a new paradigm. In the past, it's
been: what will the market bear? I think it should be: what's
the least I can charge and still thrive?
Person C: I couldn't agree more... I have
been trying for over a year to sell my products. I just haven't broken
through the glass ceiling of doing a $100 show. I would have to sell
almost everything to make that much. Everyone tells me to raise the
prices but I don't want to feel like I'm ripping the folks off.
What's wrong with this picture? How does having a solid
pricing strategy allowing you to charge a fair price, a price that is
sufficient to cover your costs and pay you a decent wage, constitute "ripping
folks off"? I couldn't sit this one out, so I posted a response,
which I am reprinting here in the hopes that it will be of some service.
In another life I was a fiber artist. To be specific,
I designed, fabricated, and sold one-of-a-kind knit and highly embellished
garments, mostly for women. You can see a particularly fun example of
my work here,
a "vest" I made for my 1967 VW Beetle. I'm mentioning this so
that you'll understand the sources of my present ideas about pricing strategy
and marketing.
I started selling my work at a local farmer's market.
I sold the occasional hat there, but my heart was in creating exceptional
pieces, and people looking for that kind of work don't expect to find
it at a farmer's market. If an appropriate customer came by, my work was
"invisible."
My work was then accepted for a Studio Tour, a tour-plus-sale
for artists in my community. This tour attracted hundreds and hundreds
of buyers, and they expected to see fine work and pay for it. When my
pieces didn't sell the first day, I scurried around lowering the prices.
I made myself (and the other folks in the same studio) nuts with all the
price adjustments I made that weekend. Lesson One: If the way
you show and market your work doesn't instantly tell the customer what
about it they love, they'll never get close enough to even read the price.
I went on to show at a local art gallery. I put a price
of $135 on an exquisite hand knit. The materials probably cost more than
half of that; they included at least 45 textures and tones ranging from
midnight blue to violet to silver-threaded black. It really was amazing,
if I do say so myself. The shawl sat there all through the holiday (peak)
buying season.
In early spring I pulled the shawl from the gallery and
took it up to a shop in Port Townsend, an old sea port that attracts lots
of summer visitors. The shop took the shawl and another piece, a very
colorful sweater, and I priced the pieces at $400 and $600, respectively.
They sold within two weeks TO THE SAME PERSON. The lesson in pricing strategy
and marketing: When the right person sees your work in the right
context, price is not the primary element of their decision to buy.
Next article:
Cast a fresh
eye at your product pricing strategy and marketing - Part 2:
Think About Your Product Value
* * *
 Learn
more about Authentic Promotion - a comprehensive small
business marketing resource that turns marketing and self promotion into
a path of increasing self-awareness, authenticity, and right livelihood.
In particular, the pricing strategies you learn to apply will build the
solid foundation for your authentic prosperity as an entrepreneur.
* * *
Contact an acknowledged expert
on small business marketing Molly Gordon at:
Shaboom Inc. Life could be a dream…
PO Box 195
Suquamish, WA 98392-0195
mgordon@authenticpromotion.com
As a business coach and small
business marketing consultant, Molly Gordon, MCC, is available in Greater
Seattle Area and internationally |
