Price vs. Quality: That is the question!

It’s the debate that every marketer faces. Am i marketing the price or the quality of my product or service. This is decision should be reflected in all of your marketing efforts. Everything including text (copyrighting), images, price and strategy should be determined with that decision in mind.

Marketing on price: if you’re planning on promoting your businesses prices, you are suggesting that your option is the cheapest, most cost effective or best value. If you are offering your product at a higher price than your neighbour next door and the product is identical, including your service, then why would clients come to you? As obvious as it sounds, business owners don’t realise this. Although my example of the neighbour next door is exagerated, customers are willing to travel to save a couple dollars. That geographical limitation depends on the difference in price and is directly corelated. So your ‘neighbour’ could be 3km away but for a $50 price difference, people may be inclined to go there over you.

Higher prices must be justified. To have a higher price, you must offer something more than your competition: more value. They need to get more for their dollar. It could be the convenience of not having to travel as far, more knowledgeable staff, a free accessory, reward points, extended warranty or anything that can offer them extra benefit.

Higher price often means higher quality. If your competing on price, you have to offer value, but competing on quality allows you to have control on pricing, better product perception and higher likelyhood of repeat customers. This is especially obvious in the services industry and in the electronics industry but applies to many businesses. A service is differentiated since it’s personallized and intagible. Clients are willing to pay more for a better result. So your marketing firms higher price can be justified by the amazing results you’ve had in the past, your bakery/catering business has those cupcakes that melt in your mouth, your service makes every client leave with a smile. Whatever you’re doing that isn’t being done elsewhere is what should be present in your promotions.

If you’re in montreal, take this as an example. This applies to any other city as well. Look at the ads for Public Mobile. They’re usually ads with the price and the features saying that you can get unlimited talk and text for $ 25 per month (Public Mobile is a low cost mobile provider in montreal). Clearly, Public is trying to compete on price stating that they’re offering the lowest price and best value. Bell Mobility on the other hand, advertises the blue Bell logo with scenes of famous hockey players, top of the line cell phones  and an unbeatable network (Bell Mobility is one of the largest mobile carriers in Canada). They are obviously competing on quality; quality of the phones that they carry, the network, and the high end features like live tv on your cellphone. These features are not available with public, but Bell’s prices are much higher than Public’s.

Do you compete on price or quality?