Ashley Alderson (host of Boutique Chat/Boutique Hub) explains the difference between value and price for retailers and product-based brands. She defines price as the point where perceived pleasure/benefit outweighs the pain of spending, and emphasizes that brand owners should continuously raise perceived value (through product photography, merchandising, solving customer problems, customer service, and building trust) rather than simply lowering price. Examples (e.g., coffee at Starbucks vs a gas station) illustrate how identical products can command different prices through positioning; key takeaway: 'cheap ain't loyal' — compete on value, not on price.
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Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, E commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the.
Boutique Hub and and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to 5 Minute Friday. Today is one of my favorite topics.
I as you guys know, if you've.
Been a member of the Boutique Hub in our community or if you've been a part of Retail Bootcamp. You know, one of my favorite topics is marketing and brand positioning and understanding how to serve your customer. And this is one of the lessons I just completely geek out on teaching so I had to bring it here. And that is the difference between value and price. And I'm here to tell you, I see a lot of retailers fall in this trap of really not understanding and maximizing the difference between the two of these things. And when money is tight, this is critical. Especially in 2024. This is a weird year. So I think now is the time to really dig in and understand the difference between value and price. So what is it? Well, price is the point. It's not just a number, but it's the point at which the ideal perceived pleasure and value of buying this product and using this product and getting the benefits from this product outweigh the perceived pain of letting go of your hard earned dollars to buy the product. So value equals the point at which the pleasure outweighs the pain. Now that can be a huge fluctuation in dollar amounts, right? How much does the pleasure outweigh the pain? That's up for you to decide as the brand owner and how you're going to position your products and your goal as the brand owner day after day really comes down to this simple thing. And that is how do I constantly, day after day increase the level of value I'm providing or the perceived value of doing business with my brand so that people will pay more for it. And so how can you increase the idea of value? Well, one is product photography. Your product photography sets the tone at which the value of your products are going to be established. The better the quality of photos, the more I'm probably willing to pay for something. The same is true with merchandising. If I just see a T shirt on a hanger or a T shirt on a flat lay or A random candle with some ugly background in a photo. Right? No merchandising at all. Well, my perceived value is pretty low though. When I see a cute T shirt with a side tie knot with a cute pair of denim and and it's fully merchandised on this cute model in a beautiful lifestyle photo, or it's fully merchandise on a mannequin in a beautiful storefront with display, I have higher perceived value and I'm willing to pay more for that T shirt. That's the difference in a $12t shirt and a $40t shirt right there, along with quality of the material. Right. Do I position my brand to solve my customer's problems? That's another great way to increase the idea of value along with customer service. Do I know my customer well enough to know her pain points and know where she's going and what she's struggling with and what her fears are? How do I her life more simple. If I can do that, I increase the idea of value versus buy this new arrival. Buy it product. Here's another one. Buy it. There's a huge difference. So how do I know my customer and make her feel really good and like I helped her solve a real problem? Increases the idea of value. And finally, you can increase the idea of value by increasing the level of trust that your customer has for you. So are you a face of your brand? Do you have a community built around your brand? Do you have, like, relationships with your customer, whether that's in person, in store, or online? How much do your customers know, like, and trust you? And typically, that means they are increasing their level of value that they put on you and the customer service and the quality that you provide. Now here's the tricky part. When you think about a product, not all products may be positioned in the same way. Your price has to be fluctuating, right? Think about this. If you're going to buy a cup of coffee, you may pay $8 at Starbucks for a cup of coffee. You may pay $1 in a gas station for the cup of coffee. What's the difference? It could even be the same coffee, right? But the difference is the brand position, the marketing, the aesthetic, the appeal, the feeling that you're buying into something different, the ease, the additional upsells and offers and flavors and hot and cold and syrup and macchiato and all the fancy things that go along with it. Or is it just a cup of coffee? So it can be the same cup of coffee, but positioned in two totally different ways. You have this opportunity to do this every day in your marketing and your business and how you position your brand. The biggest thing is this value is not price. They're not the same thing. Low price, right. You can't compete on if I lower my price, that's really going to be value to my customer and they're going to want to buy and buy more and buy often. Well, the tricky part is cheap a loyal. Your customers may be loyal to Walmart because they're bargain shoppers, but if they value things like quality and aesthetic and appeal and customer service and, you know, trust. Can I return this? If there's an issue with it? That's not a Walmart purchase, that's a boutique purchase. There's a difference. And you are not competing with Walmart on price because cheap ain't loyal. So you have to be willing to charge according to value where the the pleasure of that product outweighs the pain of letting go of your hard earned dollars. And your goal as a business owner every day is to work on increasing that level of value. So increase those prices, increase that value and you're going to increase your profits at the end of the day. That's it for five Minute Friday, you guys. I hope you love these short, sweet episodes. I'm always open to new ideas, so shoot me a message over on Instagram @aj Alderson or @ the Boutique Hub on Instagram. I'd love to hear from you or this week inside of membership at the Hub. I want to hear your thoughts. How do you every single day work on increasing the perceived value of your brand and the products you're selling and how's it going? Let me know inside of our membership Community at the Hub you guys. And as always, thanks. Thanks for listening to these episodes. I hope you have an awesome, awesome rest of your week.
Thanks for listening guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.
