Creative Packaging and Pricing
Copyright 2006 Marketing Maven
To make more money with what you are already offering, consider
different strategies to make it easier for people to purchase
what you offer. Restructuring your pricing and packaging creates
more options for your customers. Here are some examples:
1) Bundle them. Offer your services in monthly increments.
Instead of working with people session by session, offer a
bundle of services. For instance, a personal trainer can offer
sets of workouts for 3, months, 6 months, or a year. Add value
by including a workbook to chart workout progress. You can also
create levels of advancement to create more options for clients.
Consider a silver, gold, and platinum program. Each level is a
higher price and offers more value to your clients.
If you offer products, consider other ways to bundle things. For
instance, a garden shop can put together a spring garden package
that includes flower bulbs, a trowel, wildflower seeds, and
gardeners' gloves. A restaurant could start packaging their
sauces and selling them to customers to take home. A life coach
could put together a notebook and CD set to sell online.
2) Change product usage. Railroad ties are now used as
decorative items for landscaping. I've also noticed that antique
stores are offering faucets as coat hangers. And how about those
stretchy bands that people use for workouts?
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda has this strategy dialed in. The
product was originally for baking. On their website, the company
also suggests you use baking soda for brushing your teeth, as
hand cleanser, mouth rinse, deodorant, skin care, crafts for
kids, deodorizing your dog, and to extinguish fires. As a
result, a simple product that might only be purchased once in a
while has been transformed into a must-have product.
3) Change your pricing options. Offer your customers an option
of paying in installments. Give a discount if customers buy a
service early or in bulk. Offer a credit card option or allow
people to buy online. Give people coupons, discounts,
frequent-buyer rewards, or loyal-customer rebates.
4) Offer it in a new way. For example, a book or a workshop can
be turned into a CD program. Certain prospects may not have time
to read a book or attend a workshop. But, with your new
packaging option, they can listen to your program during their
commute or at the gym on their mp3 player. A used furniture
store could paint some of their chairs or old frames in creative
colors and sell them as functional art.
5) "Plus" it. There is a term called "plussing" that comes from
Walt Disney's constant efforts to continually make an good idea
even better. An example of this is adding a playable scavenger
hunt game to the waiting area of the Haunted Mansion at
Disneyland Park. Hallmark Cards also uses the concept of
plussing. When their creative team develops a new product idea,
they invite all of their other divisions to follow a concept and
spin off additional new products.
ACTION STEP: Take a look at your packaging and pricing. What at
your company works well right now, but can be plussed or made
better? How your services or products be bundled? What pricing
options can you add? How can your products/services be made to
be even more remarkable? By providing a variety of options to
customers, you will make more sales.