Premium pricing

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Premium pricing (also called image pricing or prestige pricing) is the practice of keeping the price of one of the products or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. [1] Premium refers to a segment of a company's brands, products, or services that carry tangible or imaginary surplus value in the upper mid- to high price range. [2] [3] The practice is intended to exploit the tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation or represent exceptional quality and distinction. A premium pricing strategy involves setting the price of a product higher than similar products. This strategy is sometimes also called skim pricing because it is an attempt to “skim the cream” off the top of the market. It is used to maximize profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more, where there are no substitutes for the product, where there are barriers to entering the market or when the seller cannot save on costs by producing at a high volume.

Contents

Luxury has a psychological association with premium pricing. The implication for marketing is that consumers are willing to pay more for certain goods and not for others. To the marketer, it means creating a brand equity or value for which the consumer is willing to pay extra. Marketers view luxury as the main factor differentiating a brand in a product category.

Strategic considerations

The use of premium pricing as either a marketing strategy or a competitive practice depends on certain factors that influence its profitability and sustainability. Such factors include:

The disadvantages of this pricing strategy include:

Premium segment

Premium brands are designed to convey an impression of exclusivity or rarity, [6] especially in the mass markets. Targeted customer groups can be high or average income; especially the latter can be premium-aware but on the lookout for bargains. [7] Frequently, companies will invent various (sub)brands to differentiate their product lines into premium and general segments (as, for example, Toyota does with its Lexus marque). In most ways, the premium segment can be thought of as the complement of value brands. The success of a brand is determined by the combination of aforesaid category and the market share. [8] In that sense, the term "premium" replaces the traditional attribute "luxury," although the former can be perceived as less ostentatious. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodity</span> Fungible item produced to satisfy wants or needs

In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.

Price discrimination is a microeconomic pricing strategy where identical or largely similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider to different buyers based on which market segment they are perceived to be part of. Price discrimination is distinguished from product differentiation by the difference in production cost for the differently priced products involved in the latter strategy. Price discrimination essentially relies on the variation in customers' willingness to pay and in the elasticity of their demand. For price discrimination to succeed, a seller must have market power, such as a dominant market share, product uniqueness, sole pricing power, etc.

Positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors. It is different from the concept of brand awareness. In order to position products or brands, companies may emphasize the distinguishing features of their brand or they may try to create a suitable image through the marketing mix. Once a brand has achieved a strong position, it can become difficult to reposition it. To effectively position a brand and create a lasting brand memory, brands need to be able to connect to consumers in an authentic way, creating a brand persona usually helps build this sort of connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pricing</span> Process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products

Pricing is the process whereby a business sets and displays the price at which it will sell its products and services and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acquire the goods, the manufacturing cost, the marketplace, competition, market condition, brand, and quality of the product.

In marketing, market segmentation or customer segmentation is the process of dividing a consumer or business market into meaningful sub-groups of current or potential customers known as segments. Its purpose is to identify profitable and growing segments that a company can target with distinct marketing strategies.

Brand equity, in marketing, is the worth of a brand in and of itself – i.e., the social value of a well-known brand name. The owner of a well-known brand name can generate more revenue simply from brand recognition, as consumers perceive the products of well-known brands as better than those of lesser-known brands.

In economics and marketing, product differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or service from others to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as from a firm's other products. The concept was proposed by Edward Chamberlin in his 1933 book, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.

Price skimming is a price setting strategy that a firm can employ when launching a product or service for the first time. By following this price skimming method and capturing the extra profit a firm is able to recoup its sunk costs quicker as well as profit off of a higher price in the market before new competition enters and lowers the market price. It has become a relatively common practice for managers in new and growing market, introducing prices high and dropping them over time.

Porter's generic strategies describe how a company pursues competitive advantage across its chosen market scope. There are three/four generic strategies, either lower cost, differentiated, or focus. A company chooses to pursue one of two types of competitive advantage, either via lower costs than its competition or by differentiating itself along dimensions valued by customers to command a higher price. A company also chooses one of two types of scope, either focus or industry-wide, offering its product across many market segments. The generic strategy reflects the choices made regarding both the type of competitive advantage and the scope. The concept was described by Michael Porter in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luxury goods</span> Good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises

In economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a more significant proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to necessity goods, where demand increases proportionally less than income. Luxury goods is often used synonymously with superior goods.

Masstige is a marketing term meaning downward brand extension. The word is a portmanteau of the words mass and prestige and has been described as "prestige for the masses".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pricing strategies</span> Approach to selling a product or service

A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. To determine the most effective pricing strategy for a company, senior executives need to first identify the company's pricing position, pricing segment, pricing capability and their competitive pricing reaction strategy. Pricing strategies and tactics vary from company to company, and also differ across countries, cultures, industries and over time, with the maturing of industries and markets and changes in wider economic conditions.

An aspirational brand is a term in consumer marketing for a brand or product which a large segment of its exposure audience wishes to own, but for economic reasons cannot. Because the desire for aspirational goods is relative to the consumer's purchasing power, an aspirational brand may be a luxury good if the person desires it, or it may simply be any product whether luxury or not if a consumer has less spending money.

A product line extension is the use of an established product brand name for a new item in the same product category.

Value-based price, also called value-optimized pricing or charging what the market will bear, is a market-driven pricing strategy which sets the price of a good or service according to its perceived or estimated value. The value that a consumer gives to a good or service, can then be defined as their willingness to pay for it or the amount of time and resources they would be willing to give up for it. For example, a painting may be priced at a higher cost than the price of a canvas and paints. If set using the value-based approach, its price will reflect factors such as age, cultural significance, and, most importantly, how much benefit the buyer is deriving. Owning an original Dalí or Picasso painting elevates the self-esteem of the buyer and hence elevates the perceived benefits of ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of marketing</span> Overview of and topical guide to marketing

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to marketing:

A target market, also known as serviceable obtainable market (SOM), is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total market for a product or service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand</span> Identification for a good or service

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand's customers, its owners and shareholders. Brand names are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.

Value-added agriculture refers most generally to manufacturing processes that increase the value of primary agricultural commodities. Value-added agriculture may also refer to increasing the economic value of a commodity through particular production processes, e.g., organic produce, or through regionally branded products that increase consumer appeal and willingness to pay a premium over similar but undifferentiated products. It can also be described as the process that transforms the raw agricultural product into something new through packaging, processing, cooling, drying, extracting, and other processes that change a product from its original raw form. As a result of this transformation, the customer base of a product and revenue sources for the producer are expanded.

Customer cost refers not only to the price of a product, but it also encompasses the purchase costs, use costs and the post-use costs. Purchase costs consist of the cost of searching for a product, gathering information about the product and the cost of obtaining that information. Usually, the highest use costs arise for durable goods that have a high demand on resources, such as energy or water, or those with high maintenance costs. Post-use costs encompass the costs for collecting, storing and disposing of the product once the item has been discarded.

References

  1. Gittings, Christopher (2002). The Advertising Handbook. New York: Routledge. ISBN   0-415-24391-2.
  2. "Here is How to Position Your Product as a Premium Brand". entrepreneur. 2016. The best way to position a product as a premium brand is with a high price
  3. Gerardo A. Dada (2012). "Taking a premium position in the market". Austin AMA / slideshare. Align prices with Value - You might already have a premium product but you are selling it at a commodity price
  4. "Prestige Pricing: Pros & Cons and Examples". Inevitable Steps. March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  5. Smith, Gordon (1997). Trademark Valuation. New York: Wiley. ISBN   0-471-14112-7.
  6. "Exclusive, rare, limited, or premium?". thehipperelement.com. 2014. If you have an unlimited supply, everybody knows that lots of people are using it, and there are no restrictions, that means it's not exclusive, not rare, and not limited. ... "Premium" is an artificial limit on something that is not actually limited, aimed at people who have higher expectations, and therefore a higher perception of value.
  7. "Quality or price: What makes a product 'premium'?". mycustomer.com. 2013. 74% are on the hunt for a premium product at a discounted rate and love finding a luxury brand at half the cost
  8. Vijay Vishwanath and Jonathan Mark (1997). "Your Brand's Best Strategy". Harvard Business Review.
  9. "Luxury versus Premium - Luxury Detectives". wpp. 2011.