IoT Worlds
Blog

Pricing Strategy as a form of branding

In this article, we will answer a question that is often asked by business owners: “How does pricing strategy affect branding”?

Introduction

When you want to grow your business, it’s important to know the strategies to help you reach your goals. Pricing strategy is one of them. Find out more in this article!

What is Pricing Strategy?

A pricing strategy is a process of setting a price for a product or service. It’s one of the most crucial components of branding and marketing. Pricing is often designed to influence customer behaviour, encourage loyalty, and gain a competitive advantage. The strategies employed may be complex, but successful pricing requires the right mix of expertise, creativity, and intuition. A pricing strategy considers segments, ability to pay, market conditions, competitor actions, trade margins, and input costs, amongst others.

How can pricing strategy be connected to a brand image?

For a company, pricing strategy is one of the most important forms of marketing. It tells potential customers what they can expect from your brand. A pricing strategy can create emotions by associating specific prices with products and services. The price will set the tone for how customers view your brand. When you choose the right price, your brand will get positive attention and loyalty among existing customers. The right price will also attract new customers looking for products or services that meet certain needs. Pricing strategy is the main reason why some companies are often more popular than others. They set their prices lower than their competitors, and they get a lot of attention from their target markets. At the same time, other companies choose a higher price for their products and services. People often choose these brands because they set their prices higher than the competition.

How pricing can be used as a form of branding to push the message and brand

Price is the first thing consumers consider when they see a product. Consumers use the price tag to subconsciously judge product quality based on their perception of products or services. Pricing is used as a positioning strategy by differentiating yourself from competitors and telling a story about why you are different and more valuable than they are. Pricing is also an excellent way to prove that your product is different or better than another. For example, as a leader in the real estate industry, you must differentiate yourself from your competitors. It is not enough to have different pricing or positioning; you must prove that the differences are worth the cost. One way to do this is by creating a very sharp price point, but make sure that it is also worth the price.

Pricing is a great way to prove your value proposition and help you stand out from your competition. In addition, it will give people a reason to remember and talk about your product or service. Many brands leverage the pricing strategy in their business branding:

Apple

Today, Apple is a household name, and most families have at least one Apple product in their homes. On Bloomberg Businessweek, Tim Cook said: “We never had a purpose of marketing a low-cost phone. With this phone, our major goal is to sell a unique product while still providing a fantastic user experience at a cheaper cost.”

The pricing strategy that Apple has mastered and effectively utilized is the “Minimum advertised pricing” (MAP). It is a pricing strategy employed by Apple to beat the competition.

Apple forbids retailers from selling their apple products below a given price. According to Macworld, Apple sells its products directly to the final consumers via its online stores.  Apple only offers big retailers such as Wal-Mart or BestBuy just a little wholesale discount. By doing this, Apple retains the appeal of its high-priced products. In addition, it discourages the retailers from offering outrageous discounts that lower the Apple products’ selling price.

Retailers can’t afford to provide huge discounts on Apple products or risk running at a loss. As a result, customers end up paying the price close to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

This way, Apple created a unique brand image due to its pricing strategy different from its numerous competitors.

The Apple pricing strategy was formed on four(4) fundamental principles. They are:

  • Offer a limited amount of items
  • Focus on the high end
  • Profits take precedence over market share.
  • Create a halo effect that makes people eager for new Apple products

According to a Statista survey, 113 million iPhone users are in the United States. This figure accounts for about 47 percent of all smartphone users in the United States. Since 2009, Apple has sold more than 1.5 billion iPhones, making it one of the most used smartphones in the world.

Dollar/Pound Stores

These stores literally have the price in their brand names. Customers know what to expect before entering these stores.

Aldi/Lidl

The Aldi / Lidl brand image is very much price orientated. These stores are no-frills, straight-to-the-point grocery essentials for the lowest price possible. They both frequently advertise how £20 can get you an entire week of shopping supply compared to the traditional supermarkets.

Spirit Airlines/EasyJet

These airlines are notoriously known for being no-frills, nothing included, cheapest of the cheapest flights. It’s very much a part of how they brand themselves with their adverts always bold and straight to the price point. Their price strategy worked for their targeted market and didn’t stop customers from patronizing their airline.

Conclusion

It’s vital to acknowledge pricing strategy as a form of branding for your business. This is because pricing plays a critical role in customers’ perception of your brand, product quality, and services. Many companies believe that pricing is simply about setting prices for products, but there is much more to it than that. The right pricing for your product or service is important because it makes it attractive to potential customers. Finally, it also tells potential customers what makes your brand different from your competitors and why they should patronize you.

Related Articles

WP Radio
WP Radio
OFFLINE LIVE