Don’t Slash Your Prices! Build Your Brand!

 

Brand Building through blog marketing is unbeatable. Price lashing is a yoyo game based on die-hard traditional principles in the industrial revolution that do not build brands of high value guided by their values and purpose in the market. As an entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer, or startup company in the modern creative economy, the game of slashing prices does not promote solid brand building. But having your price questioned with an indication that it is expensive can be discouraging. However, you should never feel shaken and distracted from your brand-building and positioning guidelines and foothold, especially with clarity and confidence in the value of your brand and your principles in brand-building.

Traditional Mindset of Price Perception Before Value Appreciation

As a freelancer and solopreneur in a saturated market, I am learning to be proud of my brand and bold in defending the value I know it provides in my niche, industry, and the world. Here is my story and my brand-building principles that embody this blog and everything I believe in blog marketing. In dusty shoes, I pounded pavements and alleys cold calling to introduce my book “The Art of Simple Living.” Which I believe is a precious inspirational jewel and a brand of value. The values it upholds are valuable in life and business.

Here is the thing, when I was cold calling, people always wanted to know the price before I had explained its value. They didn’t care much about the value of the book but the price. Which is the traditional mindset of buying that is common in the market. When I told them the price, they said it was expensive and wanted me to slash it down, which for me, it was like devaluing a book that I know is of great value and worth that price. In my heart, I said, “Take it or leave it, for you don’t know what you are losing.” That is why I like Blog Marketing, with its power in Brand Building based on the purpose and value of your business. That way, making you be always on-brand with all your digital marketing efforts.

Focus on the Value of Your Brand

You shouldn’t feel intimidated by any brand in the market as long as you focus on its value in your niche and industry. Brands are not built on price slashing but on maintaining their value in the market and sticking to the customer values in their delivery systems. High value in brand-building does not come with cheap pricing. In my previous blog post, I presented five elements of good branding. And one of them was affordability. Affordability is a common factor in pricing in any industry. Let me remind you, however, that affordability and cheapness should never compromise your brand building and positioning.

Pricing is the main factor in establishing a competitive advantage in the market. However, being cheap and affordable can be a drawback to brand building and positioning, especially when you want to position your business as a brand of high value in the market. Playing see-saw with your brand pricing is like playing a childish game where you are not quite sure of your position in the game.

Price Slashing as a Competitive Advantage Strategy

Price slashing compromises brand building. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer, or startup company, using price slashing as differentiation and positioning strategy is a sign of getting cold feet in building a brand you initially envisioned in the market. It does not guarantee stability and bold positioning. It is like playing a hide-and-seek game with your competitors and customers in the market. For they might also and can think of slashing their pricing deeper than what you would have done. And everyone around you might also want to play the same kind of yoyo game by lowering their pricing. The game might end up going on and on against your competitors. And become a meaningless game rather than a game of building brands of value that know what they stand for in the market and believe in their valuable services or products.

The mindset for strategic brand building should always be; ‘’Take it or leave it.” Make your clients understand what they are missing by not choosing your brand. Use Blog marketing for people to understand the language and value of your brand. Marketing based on threatening each other and being threatened by competition in the market neutralizes the essence and meaning of your brand building. And does not build a solid brand for longevity and success in the market. It is a dangerous game that will bring negative connotations to your brand. It is like you doubt the quality of your services or products and their power over your competitors. Lowering your pricing is like failing to keep to the standards you have set in your Brand Promise.

Compromises Your Value Promise

Price slashing compromises your brand promise in the market. It means allowing yourself to dance to the same mediocracy of other brands with lower prices that are always playing yoyo with their pricing and fluctuating their quality and delivery standards to match their price slashing. You can never be a good brand by slashing prices unless you are Amazon which has always positioned itself as ‘Spend less. Smile more.” which does not mean they always cut down their pricing. Nope! It is just their messaging for brand building and positioning. You can sense their salesy language by its alliteration and contrasting technique.

Lowering your pricing means rebranding if you want to remain true to your integrity and reputation in the market by revising your brand promise and value proposition statement to stay on-brand. If you fail to do so, that means contradicting the purpose and value of your brand in the market. People who are always quiring pricing don’t understand brand marketing and don’t know how to appreciate the value of any service or product. And they hardly say thank you when you serve them, no matter how low your price and valuable your service or product is. So, keep yourself on-brand with your pricing based on the value of your brand.

Value Appreciation in Price Perception 

It is a cry in solopreneuring and freelancing that most clients complain about pricing with little understanding of the value of the item or service they are buying. “How best should you respond to clients who say your pricing is too high or expensive?’’ This question is always topical with graphic designers like Chris Do, who always emphasizes value appreciation in price perception. So, it is your duty as a creator to make your clients understand the value of your products or services. If your brand is of great value, you should never feel intimidated by the market and dance to price slashing as a strategy for gaining traction in the market. Stand by your brand value perception, not the client’s negative price perception of your brand.

 Keeping your brand pricing reinforces that value and fulfills your brand promise and value proposition statement. That is the right footing for maintaining and establishing a solid brand in the market.

So how best can you navigate through this price-slashing syndrome to keep your brand building solid without being shaken by any competitor’s price slashes? Here are the five aspects that will keep you standing against price-slashing games in the market.

Stick to Your Brand Values and Value

Stick to your brand values and maintain your brand value. Here don't confuse brand value and brand values. Brand value is the perceived value and the financial worth of your business based on how much you can sell in the market. It's the cost that you can easily translate into assets minus liabilities. Brand values are the guiding principles that your brand upholds and stand by to make a difference and impact in your niche and industry for contributing to making the world a better place to live, learn, work and do business for everyone. Brand values shape the belief system and your company culture or brand reputation. It is what you uphold and revere that guides daily operations, processes, and interactions of your brand within and outside your company or business venture. Here are techniques to navigate through against price slashing; 

• Have clarity and confidence in your brand. 

• Stick to your brand guidelines and principles. 

• Be knowledgeable of your niche and industry. 

• Stand by your Brand Promise. 

• Be guided by your Value Proposition Statement.

Customer Service 

That is the most sensitive issue in most business settings that most companies, especially the traditionally minded ones, find hard to handle. They only focus on business in its hard-core sense of making a profit above customer satisfaction and user experience. Their customer service staff members can be distant and zero concerned about making the client feel welcome. These are mainly offline brick-and-mortar business models that haven’t adopted and adapted to UX and customer-centric principles of the modern digital economy.

However, this is a non-starter with the creative entrepreneurs in the creative digital economy who believe in brand building by building good relationships with your customers. They are customer-centric through online services that enable frictionless and seamless customer services, with a bit of human touch through blog marketing. Here are techniques for navigating through customer service with no threats from your competitors; 

• Know what your client and customer prefer and want. 

• Be emphatic and apologetic wherever possible. 

• Use bots, but follow with a human voice. 

• Make your products or services easy to apply and use. 

• Deliver items to their location if possible and accessible.

Quality Offerings

Quality maintenance is the best strategy in brand building. It is the best way you can satisfy your customers for brand building. The reason for brand-building is to create a business that retains customers or clients that continue to buy from you in the future. That contributes to long-term revenue and profitability that boosts the sustainability of your brand in the market. Slashing prices does not guarantee the long-term success of your brand. Quality maintenance and management improve trust with your clients. In business, quality refers to the reliability, durability, and performance of your offerings in the market. 

These factors help differentiate your brand from other brands around you in the same niche and industry. The bottom line is quality service offerings bring in happier customers that can boost long-term support and higher revenue returns. So, don’t slash your prices. Maintain the quality for solid brand building in your niche and industry. Here are the techniques to navigate through quality offerings against price slashing for competitive advantage in brand attention for brand building. 

• Keep to your standards.   

• Stick to the proper finishing, design, looks, style, and feel of your. products or services. 

• Respond to customer issues on time and show concern. 

• Know your brand and be proud of its products or services. 

• Focus on the superior value of your brand in the market.

Convenience

Convenience is the best strategy for attracting customers from your competitors. It serves time and reduces stress, and saves the customer time and effort. Long queues for services are the main features in traditional-minded businesses and can be frustrating to customers and clients. So, as a modern business vying to build a strong brand in the market, reduce the time, energy, and effort your target audience use in accessing your products or services. Make everything convenient by making everything easy to access, purchase, deliver, and use. That will make it easier for customers to choose your brand, not your competitors. Convenience is how most customers in the digital economy choose what products to buy, what services to use, and with what service providers to engage.

Most customers always expect fast and free shipping offers when they engage with brands they believe in and trust. As an entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer, or startup company, you must crave to be like your own little Amazon. Don’t slash your prices! Build your brand based on your brand value proposition statement. I can hear your heavy sigh, which means appreciation of brand building first before price slashes. Brandconvenience is the best way of building a brand that does not fear competition but itself as a competition. Here are the techniques for navigating through convenience as the best strategy for brand building against competing through price slashes in the market; 

• Know what your client and customer prefer and want.

• Make packaging easy to open, reseal, and reusable. 

• Automate wherever applicable for frictionless delivery. 

• Make customer services fast and seamless. 

• Schedule a time that is convenient for your customer.

Speed Service

You created your brand to help people, so it must be perceived that way in the market. The faster and more instant you deliver the help, the better for your customers. Most traditional businesses take a long time to respond to their customers’ queries, and when they respond, it is at times with coldness with little concern and conscientiousness in the matter. That manner in handling customers’ issues does not boost reliability and long-term business relationships with your brand. 

Faster is more efficient and helpful to clients and customers. It reduces stress and frustration in life and business. Most prospects don’t wait to work or deal with slow brands. They expect speed services that know how to solve their pain points with immediate deep concern, not cold and unrefined feedback that does not fulfill their needs. Here are techniques you can use for quick service delivery;

• Self-Service: This is key where clients can help themselves. 

• Your Presence: Be there when you are needed. 

• Use a phone wherever applicable for rapport and human touch. 

• Maintain professionalism through empathy and etiquette.  

• Auto reply and make a follow-up with a human reply.

In brand building, serving people should never be a competition but an opportunity to provide value, not price slashes that compromise your brand building. I hope this inspires you to start your journey of building your brand based on the purpose and value of your business.

Thanks for reading it to the end in the same celebratory mood of brand building through blog marketing based on the purpose and value of your business. If you are interested in working with us, get in touch here;