Pricier means Better?

I guess the beauty of pricing strategies is that the businessmen can make profits simply by charging more on the right stuff at the right time to the right people. It always make me wonder that if higher price means better quality. When I shop in the supermarket or malls, there is oftentimes huge varieties for one type of product. Surly people like choices, but too many of them can make us confused as well. For example, I can probably tell the quality difference between a $10 walmart handbag and a $800 LV handbag. However, if there are two handbags made of similar materials, sizes, and even styles, it is just weird to see the huge price difference. Here's two pictures of the handbags below, one is made by Coach which is pretty luxurious brand; but the other one is made by Chanel which is absolutely "divine". So I guess by paying a ten times bigger price tag, you bought yourself some kind of ticket to a upper level as well. I am sorry I have to use such extrem examples. But my point is if some market genius can get into people's mind, they can get into the pocket too. When people can not tell the real differences of the real products, at least they can read the price tags. If paying more can make you any happier, all the businessmen will probably say: be my guest!

You Think You Can Read the Price Tags?

When I was new to the States, I don't know much about the beauty of sales. Whenever I found something I like, I would buy it immediately just in case it would be sold out. But I don't know since when, I start to wait. The exactly same stuff could cost be 90% less if I wait a few weeks to a few months. Some friends start to laugh me being cheap, and I reply them that I am just learning to be smart. The retail world in America is like the most interesting game I've ever played. When something just being introduced, they are "hot", and everyone want a fresh piece of it. Then after a few weeks, they usually get discounted to about half price. Then some people are just out of their patience, they they took action and satisfied. But if you want to me really good at it, you can learn from me. My most successful steals are a $19.99 Guess wool coat ( originally $199) and a pair of $38 Lucky Jeans (originally $169). Of course some people would argue that they are not hot or in trend anymore, but I would like to tell them that those items were bought 3 months after they were put on shelf. Since I am no hollywood super star and I will probably wear a pair of good jeans or a nice wool coat for some years, I really do not mind the wait!

Who Are Really Celebrating?

Halloween's just passed, and Thanksgiving's around the corner, and there are all kinds of Christmas-related stuff are on sale already. I heard more than once people complaining that they hear Christmas songs in all the stores at the beginning of October. And all the Christmas trees even before Halloween. So I wonder who are really celebrating? The everyday customers or the business people? When I work for retail stores, it's almost like the managers have been waiting for the whole year to pick the sales up during holiday seasons. They put up the their favoriate tricks like coupons, sales and clearence, and all kinds of "final blow out". But I am really not sure what are being blown, inventory or customers' mind? If you are not careful enough, and let the business people get into your mind; oh boy, they're going to dig a big hole in your pocket. No mercy! So when your are shopping for thanksgiving and Christmas gifts, you probably want to be really controlled and alert. It's almost like the biggest battle between you and the stores of the year. And trust me, nobody is willing to lose!

Smart Packaging

As Mr. Featherman has tought us today, "brand" is not a just a symbol or name for a company, it is more a "emotional connection" bewtween the consumers and what are we selling. So I wonder how do we build the connection between them? I believe the most direct way is to make the customers remember our products. And the simplest way to achieve that is to impact their emotions using virtual effects. For instance, if the marketers could develop some really interesting packaging, the customers will be attracted to the products regardless of the contents inside it. Alright, I may exaggerated a little bit, what's inside the packaging is still important. However, we have to understand that most people are not buying utility any more, they are buying emotions such as confidence, victorty, popularity and etc. Therefore, we can never underestimate the power of a package design or a catchy slogon.

Big Lesson About Target Market

My family used to run a fashion store when I was a kid. It’s pretty good business as my mom has fairly good taste for picking up the trendiest clothes to put up in the store. Our main target market is mid-aged working ladies who have powerful purchasing power.

I remembered that there’s one time my mom got sick and had to be hospitalized for a few days, so my father had to be responsible for picking up the clothes. Although my mom told him all the tricks, and specific styles would sell; my father still messed up.

He picked up those kinds of old –styled clothes which were not appeal to our regular customers at all. My whole family was worried for some days. Then my mom came up with a brilliant idea. Since the Mother’s Day coming, we made all those posters for “mother’s day big sale”, and we switched our target market from our regular customers to their mothers! And of course, we modified the display and salesmen strategies as well. Instead of talking about the style, we focused on the high quality of the material, comfortableness, and low prices etc.

At the end, we managed to sell all those clothes at acceptable profits. However, it was still a big lesson for my family. As if we did not switch strategy properly, the loss could be huge. And surely my father never get to be the buyer any more.

Trick 101 for Doing Business with Chinese

As many Asian countries are more and more open to Western investors, people started to talk about the tricks of doing business with the Asian folks.I was born in China, and spent my childhood over there. I always believe it is kind of tricky to deal with the business guys.

When I was about twelve or thirteen years old, I started to take extra notice of my own appearence. I tried to shop outfits for myself in malls. However, the extremly frustrating thing was I always over paid for stuff! For example, my mother once got me a jacket at half of the price that the sales woman told me. I asked my mom the trick, she said the salesmen won't take young kids seriously because you guys do not understand the market. I learned the lesson, so after that no matter what I intended to shop, I did some "information research" ahead and compared prices carefully between stores.

The same theories apply to the Western business people: if you want to have the best deal, you have to be equipped with the most useful knowledge as well as skills. You have to even "package" yourself to look really smart so some people are less motivated to "play games" with you. If you can speak the locals' language, that's going to be a big plus because the locals would assume you know the market. And the prices you get will be much more fair.

More Than Commercials

When I ask people around me about what is the first thing comes to their mind about Marketing, nine out of ten answers will be successful commercials. Truly, everyday people do not learn deep concepts and all the subareas of the science of marketing. They get off work, and turn on the TV, Waalah, that’s how the marketers reach them! We see some impressive commercial through all kinds of media. Some are funny, some are inspiring, and some are just controversial. However, I personally believe that the most successful TV commercial in the recent years are from GEICO, the insurance company. Their idea is simple: go with them, and you will be saving money! From caveman series, to the gecko series, and now the money stack series, the marketers behind them do not only make people think and remember their names, more importantly, they managed to implant those slogans into our life! We remember them, and we talk about them, and we make jokes out of it! And by the way, did I mention there’s a couple of my friends have just recently switched to GEICO insurance? I mean, sure, of course, “so easy a caveman can do it”! why Not?