A 500ml bottle of purified water can be priced at 2 yuan, 3 yuan, 5 yuan, or 38 yuan. Why? Pricing is a strategy! It involves brand positioning, market opportunities, product features, and user perception. Pricing not only determines the customer base, competitors, and internal and external profit distribution, but also the allocation of core resources.
Price Determines Competition, Benefit Distribution, and Resource Integration A 500ml bottle of purified water can be priced at 2 yuan, 3 yuan, 5 yuan, or 38 yuan. Why? Because the customer groups they face are completely different. Pricing is brand segmentation. The above-mentioned purified water brands are Nongfu Spring, Ganten, Kunlun Mountain, and Evian. Price divides who the customer group is, which field to compete in and with whom, and how large the market share is. At the same time, pricing determines the entire value chain. Different pricing requires different configurations of channels, teams, services, marketing, and other resources. Pricing also determines the company's operating income and profit, which represents the entire interest chain of the enterprise, including customer interests, employee interests, supplier interests, landlord interests, shareholder and investor interests, etc. Without a reasonable pricing, a healthy profit loop cannot be formed. Without a profit loop, how can a company give employees bonuses and benefits? How can it cultivate and retain talent? How can it invest in product R&D? How can it do promotion and marketing? If none of these exist, then what is the point of talking about brand building and business models? In the 4C marketing theory, the price strategy adopts a "psychological price," which means forgetting cost and only considering the psychological cost that consumers are willing to pay. The psychological cost can be very high or very low, meaning that pricing can be based on consumers' willingness to pay. If consumers think it is worth a certain amount, it can be priced at that amount, which may result in a high or low price. Apple phones and Xiaomi phones are typical examples. Why in this era do consumers begin to accept scene prices? Isn't it said that consumer sovereignty is rising? People are rational, so products should be good and cheap; people are also emotional, so if a product makes users feel good, they will gladly pay a little more. Now is the leisure era. Consumers have shifted from "focusing solely on material interests" to "valuing both material and spiritual interests." This is consumption upgrading. If a product or service can provide value points to users in a certain scene, the product achieves a scene price.
Cost Price and Scene Price What is cost price? It is the selling price obtained by adding the gross margin to the cost. What is scene price? It is the selling price obtained by adding the scene premium to the cost price of the product. Scene premium = value of scene value points (material value + spiritual value) Raw materials, craftsmanship, quality, and function are material value points, satisfying users' utility needs for the product; culture, stories, IP, emotions, fun, friendship, and immediate satisfaction are spiritual value points, satisfying users' needs for pleasure. Here are a few examples:
Wuhan Santi Company sells Wuchang rice and sets up a "Steaming Up" live steaming scene, showcasing the value of product quality;
Zhengzhou Awu Yellow River Carp uses a display screen in front of diners to play scenes of ingredient selection and production processes, showcasing the value of raw materials and craftsmanship;
Robam's high-suction range hood sets up a smoke absorption scene experience at the terminal, showcasing the value of product function;
Impression Liu Sanjie's large-scale live-action song and dance scene, and the animation story scenes in Disney Castle, showcase the value of story and IP;
Jiang Xiaobai's expression bottle and Coca-Cola's nickname bottle restore scene dialogues, showcasing the value of emotions, fun, and friendship; Answer Tea's scene of answering questions and revealing answers showcases the value of immediate satisfaction (curiosity). Impression Liu Sanjie In layman's terms, scene price consumption means that in a certain scene, consumers are willing to pay a higher but affordable price to buy a product that satisfies both functional and spiritual needs. In the jewelry industry, 3D hard gold products and 22K products sell well because the new generation of consumers is willing to pay for experience and feeling, and can accept scene prices. A 22K product costs between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan in total, which consumers can afford. If converted by weight, it is about 600 yuan per gram. For merchants, profits increase significantly; for consumers, the culture of the product makes them willing to spend, and it is the best endorsement product. For example, Jiang Xiaobai is a social expression baijiu for young people. Because it has a social expression scene, it achieves a scene price: during supermarket promotions, Jiang Xiaobai is priced at 45 yuan for 2 bottles. What is the actual baijiu content? Each bottle is 100ml, and two bottles total only 200ml. If converted to 500ml, even at supermarket promotion prices, it would be as high as 112.5 yuan. Selling a bottle at this price is not low! But when a few friends gather, one bottle per person, each person only pays 22.5 yuan, which consumers can afford. Coca-Cola Confession Bottle Look at Coca-Cola again. How much does a bottle sell for? The pre-sale price is 99 yuan per bottle, and the actual price is 84 yuan per bottle. Why is it so expensive? Because a scene is added: there is a mini recorder on the cap, and you can record what you want to say. When you give this bottle of Coke to someone else, when they open the cap, it will automatically play your voice. Surprised? Unexpected? Wouldn't you be willing to pay for this scene? This is the magic of scene price.
How to Achieve Scene Price? The fundamental way for brands and products to achieve scene price is to show value points to target users, and through scene experience, let users recognize these value points and be willing to pay for them. There are many ways to display and experience these value points. In general, they are the display of material value points, the display of spiritual value points, and the simultaneous display of material and spiritual value points.
1. Tap into channel value points to provide spiritual satisfaction Users have three questions when shopping: What to buy? Where to buy? Why buy? A: After determining "what to buy," the next step is "where to buy." "Where to buy" concerns the channel value points that users value. Different channels have different value points, so users make different choices. If users care about cost-effectiveness, they may choose Taobao and Pinduoduo; if they care about identity recognition, they may choose high-end and unique channels; if they care about "immediate satisfaction," they may choose channels with scene value. B: Show identity recognition value points to achieve scene price The same product in different channel scenes will have different prices that consumers are willing to pay. Channels that achieve scene prices often have the function of user identity recognition. The same bottle of wine, water, or pack of cigarettes has a very different price in a five-star hotel compared to a supermarket. Because five-star hotels naturally have identity recognition value points. To achieve scene price for your product, you either choose to enter channels with identity recognition value points, or you display the channel's identity recognition value points. The users of Joy City and Hema Fresh are young people with petty bourgeois tastes. To display this identity recognition value point of the channel, Hema Fresh holds weekly activities such as "art flower arranging, zero-based oil painting experience, opera, and recitation" with a petty bourgeois flavor. C: Use channel scene value to achieve scene price The scene value of a channel is that scene needs occurring within the channel can be immediately satisfied within the channel. There are some special channels that are integrated with consumption scenes, meaning that scene needs occur in the channel, and the channel satisfies scene consumption, forming a complete loop of demand and consumption. For example: When driving on the highway, everyone goes to the service area. The highway service area is a special channel with scene value. In other words, when you go to the service area, you have scene needs such as "refreshing up" and "eating." At this time, consumers can buy refreshing drinks like "Dongpeng Special Drink" and hunger-relieving foods like "Wufangzhai Zongzi" at convenience stores. At this moment, the scene needs are immediately satisfied. When consumer demand is stimulated and the product is immediately available, consumers can accept a slightly higher price, which conforms to the "see and get" principle of the lazy economy. Here, "Dongpeng Special Drink" and "Wufangzhai Zongzi" achieve the scene price of a specific channel.
2. Provide scene solutions to eliminate consumption pain points If a product can focus on a specific consumption scene, provide scene-based solutions for users, and eliminate consumption pain points, then the product can achieve a scene price. The value point supporting this scene price is eliminating pain points. Eliminating pain points is also a form of spiritual satisfaction. Changing the product's packaging specifications to adapt to different consumption scenes is the most common and effective scene solution. In the chili sauce market, Laoganma is far ahead. A chili sauce called Hubang focuses on the side dish market of the takeout segment, not only achieving market breakthroughs but also achieving scene prices. A 30g×12 specification chili sauce sells for 40 yuan, while Laoganma's 210g chili sauce is less than 12 yuan. Similarly, Xiaoguan Tea's small packaging is also to solve the pain point of "carrying during travel and brewing tea."
3. Use value points to create pleasure Use the product as a prop, create or leverage scene topics, attach value points, and create pleasure for users. This value point may be culture, story, ritual, or cost-effectiveness. The pleasure created may be friendship, emotion, fun, etc. Pleasure creation formula: Product + Scene topic × Value point = Pleasure Panda Can't Walk Cake's brand proposition is "Five-star cake, only for the most important people." Is the price cheap? Not cheap! How do consumers experience a five-star cake? Does it taste about the same? Then what does it rely on? It relies on scene topics and the friendship and fun generated by the added ritual. Cake (product) + Panda Can't Walk (scene topic) × Ritual = Customer pleasure On the customer's birthday, an employee dressed as a "panda person" delivers the cake. After arriving at the designated location, they also give the customer a surprise birthday blessing ceremony, using the "Panda Can't Walk" scene topic and ritual to create pleasure of fun and friendship. Weiquan juice spelling bottles, Wei Long spicy strips, weight-loss bowls, and Xiaoming Tongxue achieve scene prices because they create scene copy topics and use cultural value points to make users feel happy emotions and fun. Every era has different consumption scenes. Many brands use well-known IP scene topics and cultural value points to make users have a pleasant visual experience, thereby achieving scene prices.
Source: Economics Around You (ID: jjchangshi) Once the tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Committed to FMCG manufacturer and distributor transformation and upgrading and channel digital solutions