How to Use a Price Positioning Strategy to Enhance Your Brand Value
Your price positioning strategy is about more than simply deciding the number that goes on your product’s sales ticket. It’s a crucial aspect of marketing as well.
One of the biggest impacts it has is on how your potential customers perceive your brand value. In this article, we’ll explore why that is. We’ll also take a look at a few common pricing strategies and give a step-by-step guide on how to develop your own effective pricing strategy.
How does price positioning impact brand value?
In a competitive market, your approach to pricing your product offerings can have a huge impact on your brand value and ultimately on business growth.
It does this in several ways. Remember that you can think of brand value as the amount of money you’d have to spend to build a new brand from scratch to the level of your current brand. With that in mind, it’s obvious that your pricing strategy could affect this in the following ways:
Perception of product value
Consumer perceptions of the value of your product only partly derive from the product itself. Luxury brands selling premium products at a high price point are sending out a signal that these products are inherently more valuable than cheaper goods.
Conversely, budget brands that want to appeal to more price-sensitive customers can do so by using an economy pricing strategy.
Impact on consumer behavior
Related to this is the impact the chosen pricing strategy has on consumer behavior. Those price-sensitive consumers are far more likely to flock to lower-priced options in large numbers. On the other hand, selling a product at a premium price will inspire trust in those who are looking for a higher-quality product, meaning they’re more likely to give it a try.
Brand differentiation
Brand differentiation begins with the product itself. For example, a company that sells B2B communication solutions may focus on the relative value of machine learning vs. AI tools included in their products as opposed to their competitors. A fashion brand might emphasize its ethical production credentials in order to stand out from the competition.
But pricing also has a crucial role to play. For instance, you can analyze your competitors’ offerings to find the ones that are most similar to yours. Then you could opt to enter the market at a slightly lower price point, which in itself would be enough to differentiate your brand on value.
Increased profitability
Ultimately, getting optimal pricing right can lead to a significant boost in your profit margins. Using effective strategic pricing models will help you strike the perfect balance between price and demand and, hence, reach out to as many potential customers as possible.
5 price positioning strategies to enhance brand value
Let’s now take a look at five common price positioning strategies that can help you realize optimal brand value.
Penetration pricing
The first common strategy is known as penetration pricing. This is when you pitch your product as a low-priced option at first to try to break through and capture a solid market share.
Then you gradually raise your price while focusing on maximizing customer retention. Over time, this leads to an increase in brand value as your product becomes established and your profit margin gradually rises.
Economy pricing
This is the option to choose if your intended market is budget-conscious customers. In other words, pile it high and sell it cheap. It’s one of the time-honored marketing strategies that never goes out of style, and for good reason.
Although your profit margins might be thin, the fact that your customer base will be large should make up for this and ensure that both your brand value and your overall profit are healthy.
Value-based pricing
The focus of value-based pricing is on the value the product brings to the customer. If your product has distinctive features that you can easily communicate to target customers, this can be an excellent choice. It’s vital to bear in mind that your marketing efforts are key to making value-based pricing work.
For instance, you might be selling an LLM-based AI product that uses retrieval augmented generation technology so that companies can customize the solution precisely to their own business needs. This is an important differentiator, but for non-experts, the value it has might not be immediately obvious.
Solution? Make sure you explain it clearly. Put an FAQ page in a prominent position on your website and make “What is retrieval augmented generation?” the very first question on the list. That way, you can direct potential customers to the page and help them understand the added value your product brings.
Premium pricing
Premium pricing strategies have a direct impact on perceived brand value, as explained earlier. Pitching your product as a premium option is wise as long as you can back it up.
Product quality is paramount, as is superior customer service. As long as you can deliver those, the resulting positive customer reviews will reinforce your brand’s market positioning and help establish the high value of your brand.
Price skimming
Price skimming is the opposite of penetration pricing. You set a high price to begin with, then gradually reduce it. This won’t be a good option if you’re trying to enter a market that’s already highly competitive, of course.
On the whole, it tends to work best for brands offering innovative products those who have a first-mover advantage.
Drawing up your price positioning strategy
So, how do you put all this into practice? Here are the steps to follow to draw up your own effective pricing strategy:
1. Understand your target audience
First, you need to develop a sound understanding of your target customers. Who are they? What do they value in a product? Starting with comprehensive research into each customer segment of your target market will put you in a good position to find the optimal price for your product.
2. Analyze the competition
Conducting a competitor analysis is the next step. Study their product and their pricing strategies. This will give you useful insights into how to set a price positioning strategy for your own brand.
3. Write a value proposition
A value proposition is a concise statement that sums up the value your product brings to customers. It should be a compelling positioning statement that speaks directly to your potential customer base.
For example, the video platform Vimeo’s value proposition is just: “Do more with video:
Meet the complete video platform that can transform the way you do business.”
Short, sweet, and to the point. The objective is to summarize the value your product brings in one brief expression.
4. Select a best-fit strategy
If you’ve followed steps one to three, you’ll be well-placed to select the best-fit pricing strategy. It’s possible you may need to tweak it after launch, so make sure to carry out regular reviews.
Final takeaways
Your brand value is one of the most important elements of your business. And your price positioning strategy can be a powerful tool to maximize it.
Whether you want to cultivate an image of exclusivity with premium pricing or gain market share fast using a penetration pricing approach, it’s all about finding the best-fit strategy for your business.
All it takes is some planning and some careful analysis of your target market and competitors, and you’ll be able to adopt the right pricing strategy for your product. And in the long term, that’s great news for your bottom line.
