So the other day during a sales training call we stumbled into Sprinkles cupcakes and to my utter amazement they were selling cupcakes for $2.50 a piece – not for people – but for dogs. The cup cakes for people were considerable more.
That’s what I love about marketing and entrepreneurship, I just couldn’t imagine a cupcake worth 2-3 dollars especially for my dog. Am I weird? Anyway the point being that the people at Sprinkles did imagine such things and then took action to make it happen.
Now I meet with business owner’s everyday that struggle with what to charge their customer, what’s a fair price, what’s too expensive? [Keep Reading – Answers Below.]
Like many things in life, it’s that inner relationship; in this case it’s that inner relationship with money that may be causing you to doubt your price or your value or it could be because you don’t know how to express the real value of your product or service.
Here’s what I want you to take away:
Don’t always set the price according to the market. Instead show the benefits and the value your customers will receive and they will pay your price. It’s the story that creates your value and resonates with your customers. The right message to the right customers at the right time.
Publicity can add credibility and value to your products; Sprinkles got an endorsement from Oprah, which help them achieve a huge amount of credibility and of course a little overnight success. Now don’t get me wrong you must have a decent product but the price has more to do with your position and the benefits than anything else.
What’s the real difference between Timex and Rolex they both keep time fairly accurately? However, one sells for about $50 bucks the other sells for about $5,000 dollars.
Realize that both of these watches have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). What’s a USP? What is so special about you? What makes you different in the your market? Does your USP tell the customer what’s unique about your product or service? Domino’s Pizza started out by promising pizza in 30 minutes.
No one is going to spend $5 dollars for a cupcake or $5,000 for a watch unless you can build the value with the benefits and position your product or service as somehow different or unique in that category.
Anyway in case you were wondering I didn’t see the value in a $2.50 cupcake for my dog or me so I didn’t buy anything.
And that’s why cupcakes for dogs are a good thing.