Product Price and Perceived Value
It’s imperative that your customer’s perception of what your product is worth is similar to the sales price of the item. In other words your customers need to feel that they are getting value for money. Establishing the perceived value of your product is important you could simply ask friends and family to objectively value your product and ask the question before they know how much you intend to sell the product for. If they consistently estimate the value of your product at less than you intend to sell it for, you may have a problem with your perceived value.
The perceived value of a product / service can be increased by:
- Including a value added service like support or set-up and installation
- Branding, customers perceive products with strong branding to be better quality – I own several watches one of which is a Rolex, I have had more problems with the Rolex than all my other watches put together. So what made me spend $3000.00 on a watch, where I could have spent £29.99 on an alternative and possibly more reliable product? (this question will be answered later on in the publication)
- Customer Testimonials – try to include plenty of preferable customer accounts of your product / service. this will increase perceived value by giving visitors to your site actual customer experiences of your product
- The presence of a strong guarantee. This increases the perceived value because it shows that you are fully committed to your products
- Get your product endorsed by well known websites or brands – being associated with well-known household brands will inspire consumer confidence. This can also be extended to getting your site registered with quality assurance sites that allow you, once registered, to display their seal of approval.
It is important that before you commit to a particular product or service that your target market will accept the sales price you need to achieve to maintain a healthy business profit. If you cannot find a cost-efficient supply of the product (withstanding all the costs of bringing the product to market) that meets with your customers expectation of cost, look for alternative product lines.
