Priced to annoy

Pricing probably does more to drive people crazy than the other 3Ps of marketing. And inconsistent pricing is the worst.

I saw this sign outside Claira in Vancouver. The "Esthetics & Slimming Studio" also has a published price list which lists the Brazilian Bikini with a "Reg" price of $35, and a "Vip" price of $30. However not all services have "Vip" prices, whilst other services don't have "Reg" prices.

Leaving the fact that it should be "VIP" to one side, what does this pricing tell the customer?

1. New customers get the best deal (At least for a "Brazilian bikini")


2. "Vip" customers only get a good deal on some services


3. Some services are only available to "Vip" customers

If I was a "Vip" customer, whatever that requires, I'd be annoyed that the "New customers" can get a better price that I can.

But this establishment is far from unique. Far too many firms offer better pricing to new customers than to loyal customers. For years the TD Bank (Okay, TD Canada Trust) did this with an iPod giveaway. Customers who switched from other banks could get one, while existing customers got nothing. The marketers probably thought it was a great idea as it brought in lots of new customers, but then they did not have deal with all of the very annoyed people at the counter.

It's really simple. The more loyal I am, the better the price should be. I've started banking with the TD Bank over 40 years years ago. I'm still waiting for my iPod.

Searching for a new visual metaphor

Preparing for an upcoming class I was prowling aournd the web looking for stuff on Knowledge Brokers. I cound an article and downloaded a copy.

And what is Adobe's icon to save a copy? A tiny rendering of a 3.5" diskette. While I make the connection, I'm sure that there are many people who have no idea what a diskette is.

Will this icon transcend the technology behind it? We've seen that with all telephones being represented by a handset that was originally manufactured in 1949 and was based on an older design from 1937.

Photo Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Model500Telephone1951.jpg

The problem is that some time very soon the diskette visual metaphor will mean nothing to the vast majority of people.

Make it cheaper by making it worse

(Book cover from Amazon.com)

One of my daughter's favourite books is "The Baby Goes Beep" by Rebeca O'Connell (writer) and Ken Wilson-Max (illustrator). She is VERY familiar with the book. How familiar? At the library we we saw another book by the same illustrator and she pointed to the drawing on the cover and said "Baby Goes Beep".

In the children's book market there are a couple of ways that publishers release picture books. The conventional hard cover and the board book. Board books are more rugged and the titles are usually aimed at a younger audience. However, because the pages are thicker than regular books, the publishers must sometimes edit the content to reduce the length.

The problem is that this editing process can make big changes to the overall book. "The Baby Goes Beep" tells the story of a baby going grocery shopping with its parents. The three of them come home and the baby bangs on the groceries, sings, flips through a books, eats lunch, makes a mess, has a bath, gets lots of kisses, and finally goes to sleep. The final illustration in the hardcover is of the baby standing up in its crib, while the parents are fast asleep on the sofa in the background.

The rhythm is the same for each word. "The baby goes beep", "The baby goes beep beep", "The baby goes beep beep beep beep", etc.

The board book version misses out some of the words, "The baby goes la", and also misses out the two repetition version, "The baby goes beep beep".

The problem that I have with the board book version is that the story is incomplete and the rhythm of the words is lacking. So, as I read it to my daughter I had to "flesh it out". So, yes the board book version is cheaper (about 1/3 of the price) but it is not the same product and I think it is a an inferior product. In the world of audio books the cover would say "Abridged".

The publishers omitted this essential piece of information, leading me to think that I was getting the complete story. It's not the same thing and don't try to pretend it is.

This side up, or down (Your choice)

Bowen Island is having a bit of a building boom. There are some big homes going up and money seems to be no object. When I went look at the building site on Sunday I noticed that the plywood subfloor appears to have been installed upside down.

There are a number of possible causes.

1. The builders don't care (bad)



2. The builders think they know better (perhaps bad)



3. The builders can't read (very bad)



4. It doesn't matter which way it is installed (very confusing)
   

No matter what, this is a failure to communicate the benefits of installation between the manufacturer and the end user. So either it was installed upside down for a reason, and it will not affect the performance, or the builders are sloppy.

If I was the homeowner, either way I'd be concerned. I wonder if they'll ever find out?

So famous he needs no introduction

HP is unveiling its new tablet computer tomorrow. Vancouver has its own HP store. Tucked away a little bit far from the heart of the retail action, it is a rather poor competitor for the blockbuster Apple store in the Pacific Centre. (An aside. I've read estimates of the sales per square foot for Apple stores of up to $10.000. That is a truly monumental figure.)

Two representatives from HP were handing out these cards at the corner for Granville and Georgia this afternoon, July 11, 2011. The cards announced the launch event for HP's new TouchPad at the HP store. And people attending the launch can "Meet Alex Burrows, get his autograph and your picture taken with him".

I find it interesting, but not at all surprising, that the copywriter did not seem in necessary to tell people who Alex Burrow is. (He is a star player with the NHL Vancouver Canucks.)

So, why no mention of the team? I presume that it is related to sponsorship. And if HP was a sponsor, the Canucks and NHL logos would be all over the piece.

You can sell anything

Today was a beautiful day and I rode my bike to school. In West Vancouver, the home of Canada's wealthiest postal codes, I passed a small gym.

What do I see as I ride by? They have moved the spin class outside, and while I ride by with the wind in my hair (well helmet) and the sun on my face, the spin class are all working like fiends and going nowhere.

I just don't get it. Why not actually ride on a nice day? Oh well, no accounting for taste. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow if they are out again.

The death of a business

After 9 months of hard work, the owners of a small business on Bowen Island have decided to throw in the towel.

Evidently this has been the worst autumn, winter, and spring for any business that depends on the tourist trade. (I can confirm the "worst autumn, winter, and spring" part of this. The absolutely miserable weather put a big dent in my riding.)

In speaking to the co-owner of the restaurant, he said his most powerful emotion was relief. That is a not uncommon reaction among entrepreneurs when they decide to pull the plug. Of course there is some grieving and regret over the time and money devoted to a venture what did not turn out as expected. But as with many things in life, we often learn more from failure than success.

I've heard of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that will not even look at your business plan unless you've already had one venture go bankrupt. They say that there are lots of lessons that you learn from bankruptcy, and they don't want you learning then with their money. Kind of makes sense.

Are they chips or fries?

On Thursday afternoon, at the start of the long weekend, I rode my bike from downtown to catch the ferry home. To no real surprise, despite the new summer schedule, the ferry was running almost 30 minutes late. As I'd had a longish ride, and after stopping I was a bit cool, I decided to treat myself to some chips, as in fish and chips, from the takeout at Troll's in Horseshoe Bay.

For some reason, the restaurant, when referring to these deep-fried pieces of potato use two different terms. When sold with pieces of battered fish they are "chips". But when sold on their own they are "fries".

It is these sorts of inconsistencies that drive people crazy. Having grown up in Australia, Canada and the United States, I speak both "chip" and "fry", but for a business that depends to a large degree on the tourist trade you think that might be aware of the potential for misunderstanding.

It may seem petty, but what do businesses hope to gain by confusing their customers, or potential customers?