Last Updated on 24 August 2014
POINT: John Moore
The price of a product doesn’t necessarily affect its marketing plan. Objectives still need to be set. Strategies must be identified. Tactics need to be developed. Constraints (budget & timing) must be listed. None of that changes with low-priced or high-priced products.
What does change are the strategies and tactics needed, relative to how a product is priced given its competitive landscape.
As mentioned earlier, high priced products need a rich story behind it in order to justify its premium price. That story needs to come through in the strategies and tactics used to gain customer attention in hopes of earning a purchase.
How a product is priced relative to its competition will significantly affect its marketing plan.
The more competitors a product has, the more difficult it will be to gain customer attention.
The more similarly priced competitors a product has, the more difficult it will be to earn a purchase.
The onus is on the marketer to create imaginative strategies and tactics that breakthrough the cluttered competitive landscape.
Fast food retail marketers face this conundrum every day. Prices are similar across the board for fast food retailers. Every fast food retailer competes on price from Taco Bell to Burger King to Subway.
To standout from all their competitors, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Subway need to be more imaginative in what they say, when they say it, how they say it, and whom they say it to.
Taco Bell continuously showed creativity when they were running their “Think Outside the Bun” marketing.
Burger King continuously tries to be more uniquely creative than McDonald’s in its marketing efforts. (Doesn’t always work for Burger King.)
Subway continuously, and with sharp focus, shows its creativity in marketing its $5 foot long sandwiches and in telling its eat healthy story.
The simple fact remains, a brand, no matter if its priced high or low, must be interesting to get customers interested. A marketing plan needs to follow through on the “be interesting” positioning.
COUNTERPOINT: Paul Williams
I’m going to keep this one simple as I think the answer is simple… A great marketing plan won’t change based on the price of a product.
Whether you’re selling low-priced cotton swabs or multi-billion dollar cruise ships, the marketing plan should be geared to do the same thing:
Define ways to meaningfully engage with your intended participants (target audience) with the right message, in the right place, at the right time
