The Secret Weapon for Premium Pricing
When you’re building your brand, pricing strategies and practices can really make or break your road to success.
How you can charge premium pricing without sounding too pushy or like you are just out for the buck? How can you ensure that your pricing approaches reflect your brand quality but still don’t turn customers off instantly?
Well, I have one secret weapon to share with you when it comes to creating a premium pricing strategy. The truth of the matter is that pricing practices and strategies have little to do with the product and everything to do with you, the brand.
THE DANGERS OF PRICE COMPETITIONS
One of the biggest pitfalls you can make when it comes to pricing approaches is to look at your competition and similar companies in your category to help you make a decision on pricing. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Look at the competition, decide what’s working for them, and then apply that to your own brand.
Here’s why that’s a bad idea, though: Really, you’re just creating a race to the bottom. You’ve now created a price competition between your brands instead of forging your own path with what makes your brand special.
To give you an example, I worked with a national company in reviewing their pricing, and we first examined their market position—how they compare to their direct and indirect competitors. When looking at all the advertisements, we discovered that all the ads looked exactly the same with the same offer and the same price point.
This was a HUGE red flag for me that showed me exactly what work we needed to do: We needed to work not on their pricing but on their brand. Also known as the secret weapon for premium pricing!
WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?
When you’re building your brand, it’s essential that you do nothing until you nail down what your mission, vision and values are. Without these firmly in place, the rest of the work you do growing your brand won’t be done on solid ground. You need to know these things before your brand can take off.
Why is this so important? Because without your mission, vision and values, there’s nothing to set you apart from your competitors. This is what makes you unique as a brand.
I know it’s tempting to compete with those in your same category or who look similar, but the fact of the matter is the essence of your brand—what sets you apart—is what will help you create a category of one. Once you don’t have competitors because of your uniqueness, then you can set your own price point based on your brand, not based on what everyone else is doing.
LEAD WITH YOUR VALUES
Your brand needs to resonate with your audience. Your key message should be one that’s transformative, not transactional. You want to call people to what is most important to you, to create an emotional experience with your brand and not a functional one.
You want your brand to speak to the struggles your audience feels and then show them how it will serve to get them over those struggles and transform their lives. When you find the best way to do this, that’s when premium pricing is possible. Price is no longer a leading factor in their decision-making process about whether to buy or not. Price doesn’t matter because they are emotionally connected to your brand.
Pricing strategies can be tricky when you’re just building your brand. It’s tempting to do as the leaders have done for years with success. However, your brand simply isn’t like everyone else’s just as you aren’t like everyone else. So why should your prices be?
Looking for different ways to improve your brand and build that solid foundation you need for success? I would love to take everything I’ve learned in working with national companies and apply it to your new small business.
