No, I’m not talking about consumers locking in the lowest price. This is about you resisting the gravitational pull of commodification by taking proactive steps to protect the price of the goods and services you produce.
Pricing is an important part of the marketing process and one that most companies do not take lightly. Price is the result of thoughtful examination of cost, value, profitability and a range of market factors such as consumer perception and competition. Yet all too often price is the first casualty when the feet hit the street. When faced with competitive pressure or the ever-anxiety inducing RFP process it is tempting to make price carry the entire burden of winning the sale, and out comes the scissors looking to snip profitability to the bone.
The fact is price should be the last factor deployed in winning your sale. Instead of sacrificing price at the first bump in the sales road we should be building up the defenses, fortifying the position, protecting price with every tool in our arsenal. By separating price from cost we can communicate an appreciation for the value of a product or service. The more clearly we can dollarize that value in terms of TCO the stronger defense we build for our price. Further, strength of brand, perceptions of quality and luxury, and other characteristics such as ease of use, durability and suitability to a task, can all help in the fight to protect your price.
Global competition, cut-throat marketplaces, and ever more savvy consumers are just some of the factors conspiring in an endless assault on your price. But that attack on your price is also a longterm attack on your quality, your R&D, your profitability, your brand and value, and ultimately your business. So what have you done today to protect your price?
The Mirror and the Lens
We in the marketing game love to talk about processes, tools, trends, methodologies and such, but when it comes to branding I think the most important tools at our disposal are the mirror and the lens. A brand is more than the sum of its marks; it is an expression of the company, a promise to the customers, and a signpost for expectation and accountability.
To brand effectively requires introspection – a good, long, hard, look in the mirror. It is essential to understand what you look like, to know how you are perceived from the outside. You need to examine your best face and your worst hair day to know where to apply your energies and to know how you can best service the brand you’ve created. The mirror help us see ourselves, take in our own gestalt, but we need to be open to what we see when we take a look.
Once we’ve begun to see ourselves, the lens is how we focus down on trouble spots. Examining detail, tweaking and adjusting under the microscope. Bending our vision to see as clearly as possible the impact our corporate work flows are having on our outputs and acceptance.
The process is not linear, but a pendulum swinging back and forth between the holistic and the detailed, the gestalt and the minutiae. This motion between mirror and lens bringing context to both views and thereby creating a deep and permeating brand awareness.