Pricing Tells a Story

Storytelling in marketing is nothing new. In All Marketers are Liars (Seth Godin), we learned that all marketers tell stories and the best marketers tell stories customers believe. Seth goes on to explain that stories are shortcuts to understanding what a product/service is all about.

While reading the August issue of Inc. Magazine, I ran across the line you read in subject header: PRICING TELLS A STORY. Per Sjofors, managing partner at Atenga, is credited with saying that chewy line. He's right ... every price has a story.

There’s a story behind why Air Jordans are so expensive. By buying a pair of Air Jordans, a middle-aged rec-gym b-ball player can Be Like Mike. There is also a story behind the ultra-inexpensive Starbury shoe. The Starbury shoe story tells us we do not need to get caught up in all the hype and dole out a fortune for a pair of basketball sneakers.

There’s a story that goes along with the price for dining at PF Chang’s. You revel in the experience of enjoying family, friends, food, and attentive service from the PF Changs waitstaff. But there is also the story of paying for an equally-tasty and less expensive meal at Pei Wei. The pricing story Pei Wei tells us is about delivering great Asian-inspired food without the pretense of a full-service restaurant like its sibling, PF Chang's.

There’s a story behind Wendy’s 99-cent Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger. Might not be an interesting story, but a story nonetheless. The Quadruple Bypass Burger from the Heart Attack Grill has an interesting story to go along with its higher price. We’re talking a hamburger experience of eating 8,000 calories and if you and your arteries can survive the gluttony, you’ll be wheelchaired out to your car by a nurse-attired Heart Attack Grill employee.

Pricing is one of the shortest shortcuts a company can take in telling a story about its products. So ... what story is your pricing telling customers?

Comments

[Jeffry Pilcher]

Great point. With branding, you need to look at every aspect of a company. Pricing is often overlooked.

Taking it one step further, the range of prices a company offers also tells a story. Are you always expensive? Always cheap? Do you always try to have a cheap, medium and expensive option? Are you consistent with your pricing strategy?

[Pat Nerr]

I think Patagonia is a pretty good example of pricing with a story

[Himanshi Singh]

Let is say this way, successful marketers are able to give what thier customers want. It could very well be a lie that people want to believe. Yes, it provoked me to think how come a cream, "Fair and Lovely", by HLL can change the genetics of skin of Indian customers. SKin color is genetic, right! It has been priced to make it availabe to masses. It claims it is right of all women to look beautiful. Funny though..Beauty or Fairness?

[Lewis Green]

John,

Great post! One of my biggest consulting challenges is convincing clients that pricing not only tells a story but determines what your customers will look like.

Here's one example: Starbucks and Duncan Donuts. Who visits these competitors is determined more by the pricing story than the coffee.

[Andy Grant]

At a higher level, Target and Wal-Mart absolutely tell a story through price.

Very interesting conversation.

[John Rosen]

I have a game I play with my friends who are not in marketing or branding. After listening to them lecture me on how branding is all BS, and how all we as marketers do is to unnecessarily drive up the price, and how they pay no attention to advertising, etc., I make them show me their private label toothpaste, razor blades, shirts and suits, running shoes (Nike was mentioned above) and then demand why they are driving a BMW or Mercedes instead of a Geo Metro. If I haven't made my point by then, I ask them which brand of shoe they buy for their little darings to wear to pre-school -- Stride Rite or Payless? And by the way, do they know that both are most likely made in the same factories in China but that Payless's are made with higher quality standards, backed by doctor's recommendations?

If I haven't go them hooked by then, I ask them if they prefer Whole Foods to Costco. At that point, it doesn't make any difference what their answer is -- either way, they are making a preference decision heavily influenced by price.