Pricing Paradox

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Pricing your products or services well is important for business sustainability. What happens when you lower your standards or sell yourself short just to get to your markets? Well, you get to your markets alright, but you don’t leave a lasting impact on them. Take the example of a nightclub owner about to launch his first club in town. Nobody knows about it yet, and so he fears there won’t be enough attention. The better the launch, the more successful the club will be in that part of town. To create a good launch, he may have to come up with clever group discount packages, sell drinks at a cheaper rate; he may even resort to giving away free tickets to everyone- All of this for the ‘hope’ of attracting a larger crowd and creating excitement. Hope.

This may seem like a perfectly reasonable approach to marketing, and it is. But, if he can create a larger buzz, without having to lose out on potential income, why shouldn’t he? After all, a high impact launch results in lasting memories and a consistent traffic flow thereafter. The question is, can his approach ever generate scarcity? Can it ever generate exclusivity? Aren’t both of these important factors in the success of a nightclub? In the fear of having an “empty club” launch - where nobody wants to enter, the owner sells himself short. All he really needed to do was understand what would make his potential customers pay BIG $$$ and cue in line for: It may be an attractive crowd. It may be seeing the excitement and buzz. It may be interesting stories. It may be the thrill of anticipation. It may be the chance to meet successful people. Or it may be a combination of all of these factors.

One solution for this is to throw parties with modeling agencies during launch to get the attractive crowd at the venue. Next, you could get people to cue up to create an illusion of scarcity. If you can artificially create an environment conducive to what your market perceives as “popular”, you can kick-start your club from nothing to being the hottest in a matter of days. Translate all of this to the online world and your options increase considerably. Here are a few gorilla marketing steps I’d recommend:

Target the early adopters
Get them excited about the event.
Get them to bring their networks to the event. Frequent customers would stay with you for years.
Build a community. Treat them royally. Enable them to spread good things about you through W.O.M.
Use online social media tools to share this excitement with other untapped potential customers. Let this buzz sell itself.

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)