I was reading a book the other day, the autobiography of a man, Jack Petchey, with whom my Dad was in the Fleet Air Arm (a name for the British Navy airforce) in World War II. Mr. Petchey and my Dad were good friends during the war and for a while after the war. Jack went on to be very, very successful and because of his success wrote an autobiography.
Jack Petchey started working at 11 years old for a greengrocer (shop selling vegetables and salad ingredients) in the East End of London, where, he says that he was taught his first lesson in marketing.
When he first started at the greengrocery, he was given, by the owner, a large box of tomatoes and asked to polish half of the tomatoes and not the other half. After he had finished polishing the half of the box that was supposed to be polished he was told to put them into two piles. One pile of tomatoes (the ones that were not polished) were given a lower price, while the tomatoes that had been polished were given a higher price.
Jack asked the owner why the tomatoes were two different prices, at which time the owner told him that some people like to buy cheap and some people like to buy expensive.
While we all know that some people don’t buy if things that are (in their estimation) too expensive, we also know that some people don’t buy if the things that they are considering purchasing are not expensive enough.
Make sure your pricing varies so that you can appeal to both those people that like to get a bargain price and those people who are more comfortable buying something that they fits their ideas of quality and what (in their opinion) is an appropriate price.
Remember: never underestimate people’s willingness to spend money to impress their friends. Whether they impress their friends with how little they spent or impress them with how much they were able to spend on a product.
A tip of the glass from me to you
E column
by Elizabeth “E” Slater, In Short Direct Marketing
A recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and sales in the wine marketplace. Slater has taught more wineries and winery associations how to create and improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing programs and to make the most of each customer’s potential than anyone in the wine industry today.
Follow E on twitter @esavant and facebook.
