What Are You Paying For?
June 9, 2009
Try to find the unique benefit that your product or service provides and you may not be perceived as just another vendor selling cheap T-shirts.
As consumers, we are continually asked to make purchases on the basis of value. The advent of internet commerce has made it very easy to find the vendor with the lowest price, but it is not always best to compete on price alone. If you offer added value, you can charge more than your competitors.
On a recent family trip to Washington, DC, my family and some friends of ours were walking near the Smithsonian. All along the road were vendors selling food, souvenirs, and T-shirts.
“T-shirts; three for $10!” was a common offer. After hearing the “three-for-$10” T-shirt offer several times, we came upon another vendor shouting, “Top-quality T-shirts; $4 each!” Curious about his higher price, I approached the vendor and he repeated his offer: “Top-quality T-shirts; $4 each!”
I asked him, half jokingly, “How much are the ‘low-quality’ shirts?” He smiled, and answered, “The low-quality shirts are 3 for $10; you can get them from the guy down the street.”
Here was a street vendor who understood the importance of value. I’m not sure if the T-shirts were actually of better quality, but he found a way to distinguish his product from everyone else’s. In this way, the T-shirts ceased to be a commodity item, only to be bought for the lowest price.
Try to find the unique benefit that your product or service provides. Then you won’t be perceived as just another vendor selling cheap T-shirts.
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