Pricing

Coisas interessantes que se aprendem:

"price consulting started in the 1980s when Hermann Simon, a former professor of economics in Germany, challenged the traditional method of "cost-plus pricing," which is pricing something according to the cost of acquiring it."

Hermann Simon é um velho conhecido deste blogue. Um alemão, não admira pois que:

"First, Germany’s superior export performance has nothing to do with labor cost competitiveness. Demand for Germany’s exports has not been sensitive to changes in the cost of labor, as we show and as other studies (including ones by IMF, World Bank and ECB economists) confirm. German firms do not compete on “costs” but on factors other than price: things like product design, quality, high-tech content, and reliability."

Trecho inicial retirado de "How Stores Manipulate Prices So You'll Spend More"

O contexto é fundamental

"In 2000, Venchi ventured into retail selling only its chocolates. Such a narrow product line wasn’t enough to support a big investment. Six years later, the company tried again, but added chocolate beverages, ice cream and other products.
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It also upgraded its locations and store designs, replacing cheap furniture with tonier pieces. Venchi also hired more experienced sales staff.
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“The change in the perception was so big that the average consumer went from spending €5 to about €12,” Mr. Ferrero said. “We’re becoming more like a luxury fashion house than a food store.”"

E não tem nada a ver com o produto, tudo com o contexto em que o produto é percepcionado e adquirido.
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Trecho retirado de "Prices Pinch Prosciutto Trade"
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BTW, depois de ler o artigo completo, como não pensar no esforço exportador bem sucedido, que tantos e tantos pequenos produtores portugueses estão a ter.

"Pricing is Contextual" (parte IV)

Parte III.
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Outra provocação blasfema para a Dona Estrela:

"Price is a HUGE differentiator. And sometimes the only differentiator. Many times the only major difference between products is its price. Last time I shopped for a tennis racquet, the store offered hundreds to choose from. They were lined up in price order, least expensive on the left, most expensive on the right. I noticed the expensive ones tended to have larger racquet heads. When I asked the difference, the sales person said that once you get about to about $150, there is little difference other than racquet head size and price. He said older people generally want a larger head size, and have more money to spend, so those racquets cost many multiples more. And guess what? They buy them."

E voltar aquela afirmação tão poderosa:

"Price the customer, not the service" 

"Price defines your customer. What kind of customer do you want? Your price will define the kind of customer you will attract, so proceed with an understanding of the ramifications."

Trecho inicial retirado de "7 Reasons to Think Twice (Or More) About Your Pricing Strategy"

"Pricing is Contextual" (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Esta é a grande verdade!!!

"Both the seller and the buyer want to maximize value. That is the one area where our interests are completely aligned."

Mais algumas verdades:

"Prices are ultimately set by value, not by the competition or supply/demand, but by value.
Value is subjective. It is a feeling, not a number."

Esta é para escandalizar a Dona Estrela:

"Price the customer, not the service." 

Trechos retirados de "Value Is Subjective, Pricing Is Contextual"

"Pricing is Contextual" (parte II)

Ainda a propósito dos tiques socialistas de dirigismo do mercado em "Pricing is Contextual".
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Recordo um "alemão", filho de portugueses emigrantes, nascido na Alemanha e que, com a morte do pai, veio para Portugal gerir a empresa de mobiliário que o pai, entretanto regressado, tinha criado.
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Segundo ele, na Alemanha, os jovens compram no IKEA móveis baratos para os primeiros anos de vida. Só quando "assentam", bem depois dos trinta, é que investem a sério em mobiliário. Em Portugal, surpreendeu-o, os jovens compram móveis caros assim que casam.
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Cada país com os seus costumes, nem bons nem maus, com as suas especificidades.
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A juntar a estas características nacionais, a história que uma mesma empresa quer passar, para os seus potenciais clientes:

"Pricing is not logical. [Moi ici: Eheheh uma afirmação destas para muito boa gente é blasfémia. Para eles o preço é custo mais uma percentagem fixa] Neither is how we attribute value in a marketplace.
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All retailers have a pricing strategy that customers come to understand and each one is different.
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Price, like design, location or quality is part of your brand story—one you are asking customers to believe in. You get to choose the story you want to tell and who you want to tell it to.
It pays to understand what story the people you choose to serve want to believe."

Em Portugal, a história da marca FNAC é muito diferente da história em França, aposto. Em Portugal, muitos não reconhecem que a FNAC é uma loja low-cost que aposta no volume, por isso, pode praticar preços mais altos.

Trechos retirados de "Price Is Not Just A Strategy, It’s A Story"

"Pricing is Contextual"

A ex-eurodeputada Edite Estrela partilhou mesmo na sua página do Facebook a publicação do blog Aventar que se referia ao assunto, dizendo: "Se é verdade, alguém (governo) tem de defender os consumidores portugueses."

Mas alguém é obrigado a comprar no IKEA?
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Há alguma lei que obriga os preços a praticar numa loja num país a serem iguais aos praticados noutro país?
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Há alguma regra para definir preços?
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Como diz Ron Baker: "Pricing is Contextual"


Trecho retirado de "Temos o edredão mais caro da Europa"

Acerca dos preços

"Your pricing is just as much a part of your story as your content and online communications. It tells buyers and prospects what they can expect. Sometimes, they want the least expensive choice; sometimes they fear paying too little will leave them with an inferior product and/or experience.
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Depending on what your audience wants, be sure and wrap the story around that."

"One of the most exciting and nerve-wracking aspects of retail is determining what price to sell your products at. Pricing is both an art and a science that requires an experimental attitude coupled with an intuitive feel for how you want your brand and by extension your products to be perceived."

" First, do the work to determine customer value.  Value is not the same for all customer segments and customers, so spend the time to figure out which customer segments are meaningful in your business and how value changes from segment to segment.  Next, consistently communicate how your products and services add value.  When someone wants to have a conversation about fair margins, change the discussion to the benefits your product or service brings to customers."

"Pricing in business is a funny thing. It drives both revenue and profits but many business owners are not very aggressive about raising prices. Some are afraid.
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Research suggests that approximately twenty percent of buyers purchase on price alone. Most of the rest are considered value buyers, not afraid to pay more for quality products and services.
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If you believe you can’t raise prices, understand that it is mainly in your own head, not the head of your customers.
If you do not believe that what you sell is more valuable than last year, or even just six months ago, consider for minute what your clients are really thinking about your company."

Em "How Netflix did pricing right" um excelente exemplo de comunicação do aumento de preços explicado como deve ser.


Primeiro trecho retirado de "What Story Does Your Pricing Strategy Tell?"
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Segundo trecho retirado de "9 Strategies for Profitably Pricing Your Retail Products"
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Terceiro trecho retirado de "“IT’S A FAIR MARGIN” – A POOR WAY TO SET PRICES"
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Quarto trecho retirado de "Time to revisit your pricing"

O Valor é co-criado e contextual

"value is not only a function of the resources the firm exchanges with another actor but also a function of how this actor integrates other resources with this resource offering. The best that a firm can do is to provide a value proposition, followed by the application of its resources, through service, in a manner that makes integration of the offering possible, if the proposition is accepted.
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Value-in-context suggests that value is not only always cocreated; it is contingent on the integration of other resources and actors and thus is contextually specific.
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value creation needs to be viewed in the context of social systems in which value is created and evaluated, idiosyncratically.
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the strategic advantage of a firm can be recast from a logic that focuses on making better products to increase market share in existing markets to one of redefining existing markets for strategic advantage or defining and thus creating new markets."

Quem ainda pensa que o negócio são as coisas que fabrica ou os espaços que disponibiliza... está tão longe do futuro.


Trechos retirados de "Service_Dominant Logic: Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities" de Robert Lusch e Stephen Vargo.

"Yet in most organizations, strategic decisions are still prisoner to the imperative to spread upstream costs over ever larger product volumes"

Voltando novamente a "Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers", de Niraj Dawar, encontramos um trecho muito interessante para gerar uma reflexão sobre a intangibilidade da oferta.
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Um consumidor pode aproveitar uma promoção da distribuição grande e comprar um pack de 24 latas de Coca-Cola ao preço unitário de $0.25 e ficar todo contente.
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No dia seguinte, numa tarde de calor, o mesmo consumidor pode aceitar pagar $2 por uma lata de Coca-Cola bem fresca.

"This customer willingly concedes a large price premium, traceable not to a better cola, but to a better way of buying and consuming the cola. Think of what the customer is paying for: he or she does not have to remember to buy the twenty-four-pack in advance, break out one can, find a place to store the rest, lug the can around, and find a way to keep it chilled all the way to the point of thirst in the park. The premium the customer is willing to pay reflects value created and captured by delivering the product for specific consumption circumstances and tailoring the offering to those circumstances. The value the consumer pays for includes what the consumer buys (the can of Coca-Cola), but it also includes how the consumer buys and consumes (the can is sold chilled, in a single serve, at the point of thirst). 

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VALUE = WHAT + HOW
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Since the can of Coca-Cola can be purchased at the warehouse store for $0.25 or in the park for $2, the 700 percent price premium in the park reflects the value that resides in the how. This incremental value is created in the downstream activities of the firm—in its interactions with the marketplace. In this instance, the 700 percent is such a significant increase that, in comparison, upstream exercises to reduce the materials, manufacturing, or inventory costs of each can of cola cannot produce anything comparable. [Moi ici: Estão a ver onde é que a tríade pensa e sabe actuar e, onde este blogue recomenda actuar? Estão a ver porque é que o calçado português aumenta os preços ano após ano?] The sort of supply-chain efficiency that made Walmart so dominant, in contrast, provides between 2 and 5 percent in cost savings. That kind of savings is, of course, extremely valuable when you are playing on an intensely competitive playing field where every penny matters and can add up to significant amounts when you have the scale of a Walmart. But the point of building a competitive advantage in the downstream is to escape that intensity of competition altogether and to think in terms other than production scale. 

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Yet in most organizations, strategic decisions are still prisoner to the imperative to spread upstream costs over ever larger product volumes. They force businesses to seek profitability in thin margins from large scale. The question "How much more of this stuff can we sell?" limits us to what we sell. And it neglects the substantial sources of customer value in the downstream—in the how. The question may be obsolete, but it still weighs on strategy and practice in many businesses in many industries today."

O poder do contexto

Deste extenso artigo sobre o calçado português, "Portuguese Do It Better", saliento o caso da Eureka:

"«Percebi depressa que as discotecas e os sapatos se complementavam. Estou sempre a olhar para os pés das pessoas e vejo que há uma percentagem muito grande de clientes do Eskada [discoteca] que também são clientes da Eureka e que associam as duas marcas ao mesmo estilo de vida.
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«Fazemos desfiles, temos montras com calçado Eureka no interior das discotecas e damos descontos aos clientes regulares, quer das discotecas quer das lojas»."

 Há cerca de um ano que descobri esta associação e que fiquei fascinado com ela. Atraiu-me o poder do contexto, da oportunidade, para apresentar a oferta.
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Uma oferta destinada a uma tribo, apresentada no ponto de encontro da tribo.
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Exactamente o oposto de uma publicidade que apanhei há dias numa caixa multibanco, no interior de um Intermarché na cidade da Sertã(?). Estive para fotografar o ecrã, uma publicidade acerca de um congresso, ou seminário, ou encontro, sobre marketing digital(?) a ter lugar na AEP(?) em Matosinhos. O que achei verdadeiramente "weird" neste caso era o desperdício... quantos olhos iriam olhar para aquilo, iriam fazer parte de um indicador qualquer que contribui para o ego de alguém (acho que é o Eric Ries que escreve sobre isto dos indicadores para o ego mas que não levam a lado nenhum) mas com uma taxa de conversão absurdamente baixa...
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É também pelo poder do contexto que ando interessado numa start-up que está a testar um modelo de negócio em que consegue moldar e plastificar a colocação publicitária de imagens nos contextos adequados.

A cada um o seu preço

"Retailers don’t really talk about how to compete with Amazon—they talk about how to avoid being decimated by it.
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“Retailers learned the race-to-the-bottom model just wasn’t sustainable,”
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“Retailers are moving away from low prices to relevant prices,”
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Retailers are positioning themselves to charge customers based on their willingness to pay"

Um ponto, o fim da lista de preços... a contextualização dos preços - recordar "Contextual Pricing: The Death of List Price and the New Market Reality"

Contudo, sinto que falta algo... a batota, a boa velha batota, A experiência da compra.
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Trecho retirado de "Why you might pay more than your neighbor for the same bottle of salad dressing"

Conservas e pricing

Uma dúvida.
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Se os meus vizinhos da Comur, na Murtosa, fizessem "pressão" para que este produto ficasse ao lado das embalagens de peixe fumado, nos frios, talvez tivessem muito mais sucesso do que colocados ao lado de outras latas de conserva a 0,60€.
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Como aprendi com alguém, nós olhamos sempre para o preço num contexto.

"Coca-Cola Co. found that a can of soda sold in the sportswear aisle of Wal-Mart, alongside clothing, can command a higher price than if it’s positioned in the beverage aisle near its rivals."

The supplier therefore has the opportunity to shape our expectations

" Imagine your friend from Estonia is visiting, and discovers that one of your neighbourhood pubs serves her favourite drink, which is made in Tallinn from local ingredients. You offer to buy her a glass of it. How much would you expect to pay? Consider these four scenarios:
Imagine it is poured from a bottle into a wine glass. You might compare it with wine, and expect to be charged £4 for 175ml.
If it’s poured into a champagne glass, it might be £7 for the same amount.
If you instead discover that it is sold by the half pint, you are likely to compare it with beer, and £2 for the half pint will seem reasonable.
If it is served in a shot glass, you would probably think of it as a liqueur and be happy to pay £2 for 25ml.
That’s a price difference of 11 times, just based on how the drink is presented. Of course the alcohol content is also a factor – but not a factor of 11. Whichever products we most closely associate a new purchase with are the ones we are likely to use as a price guideline. Most products could potentially be compared with a number of different alternatives. The supplier therefore has the opportunity to shape our expectations by creating an association with a more expensive product."

E fico a pensar nos fabricantes que continuam concentrados na produção e no controlo dos custos.
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Trecho retirado de "How clever price positioning influences perceived value"

A estrutura do preço

Um gráfico que me continua a dançar cá dentro, após a leitura de "Contextual Pricing: The Death of List Price and the New Market Reality" é este:

"If you do not have market power (i.e., buyers will defect to other vendors), you must accede to simple fixed or simple variable pricing. If, on the other hand, you have market power, you should decide on a two-part pricing structure (left side of map). Then you must consider the purchase volumes of your customers. Are high-volume customers able to buy under a relatively fixed plan? Are small- or low-volume customers able to buy in a variable way? If not, consider offering price plans under which each customer can buy more in the manner he or she wishes. If your company has little market power, offer a pure fixed plan to volume buyers. If your company has substantial power, with volume buyers, have a two-part tariff but bias the split more towards the fixed-price charge."

Recordo logo o tempo em que a PT tinha um risco de perda de clientes nulo e, por isso, cobrava uma assinatura mensal e mais ainda, por cada chamada e em função da distância e da sua duração. Hoje... já não sou cliente, já nem sei... mas passou do lado esquerdo para o lado direito do gráfico.

Mexer no preço

"Dangerous price moves can destroy your business, either with sharply reduced revenues and/or competitive inroads. Yet many managers have little awareness as to which are the most dangerous price actions. For instance, the most dangerous price move by far is lowering your price, because it can alienate customers.
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When raise price, you are going to initially communicate the higher price to existing customers who know something about the value you offer. Yes, a higher price can be challenging, but at least the change affects those who know something about your value (existing customers) or those being targeted with a value message already. Noncustomers may never know the history of changes in price or value, so they are not bothered by it.
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Why do many rational managers believe that lowering prices is safe and useful? It's possible that the root of the problem lies with the idea of price elasticity. Price elasticity contains the seductive notion that a single simple number will explain market buying behavior and its relationship to price. This is almost never so. The idea that elasticity could do this is an insult to segmentation and context."

Trechos retirados de "Contextual Pricing: The Death of List Price and the New Market Reality"

“What else can we do for our customers?”

O artigo aqui referido, "When Marketing Is Strategy" de Niraj Dawar, chega-me às mãos enquanto ao mesmo tempo leio "Contextual Pricing"... não há coincidências, todos os acasos são significativos.

"It’s no secret that in many industries today, upstream activities—such as sourcing, production, and logistics—are being commoditized or outsourced, while downstream activities aimed at reducing customers’ costs and risks are emerging as the drivers of value creation and sources of competitive advantage."

Os que se queixam da diferença de preço entre a gasolina no Pingo Doce e a gasolina na autoestrada, da diferença de preço entre a água da torneira e a água gelada engarrafada na banca da praia, da diferença de preço entre a encomenda feita com um mês de antecedência e a encomenda feita para ontem, deviam reflectir:

"Consider a consumer’s purchase of a can of Coca-Cola. In a supermarket or warehouse club the consumer buys the drink as part of a 24-pack. The price is about 25 cents a can. The same consumer, finding herself in a park on a hot summer day, gladly pays two dollars for a chilled can of Coke sold at the point-of-thirst through a vending machine. That 700% price premium is attributable not to a better or different product but to a more convenient means of obtaining it. What the customer values is this: not having to remember to buy the 24-pack in advance, break out one can and find a place to store the rest, lug the can around all day, and figure out how to keep it chilled until she’s thirsty."

Tento passar ás empresas a mensagem de que uma excessiva concentração nos custos e na produção, no nosso umbigo, ocupa largura de banda, espaço de atenção, que devia ser dedicado a estudar os clientes-alvo, a tentar perceber o que é valorizado por eles:

"Downstream activities—such as delivering a product for specific consumption circumstances—are increasingly the reason customers choose one brand over another and provide the basis for customer loyalty.
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Yet business strategy continues to be driven by the ghost of the Industrial Revolution, long after the factories that used to be the primary sources of competitive advantage have been shuttered and off-shored. Companies are still organized around their production and their products, success is measured in terms of units moved, and organizational hopes are pinned on product pipelines. Production-related activities are honed to maximize throughput, and managers who worship efficiency are promoted. (Moi ici: O eficientismo tão criticado neste blogue) Businesses know what it takes to make and move stuff. The problem is, so does everybody else.
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The strategic question that drives business today is not “What else can we make?” but “What else can we do for our customers?” Customers and the market—not the factory or the product—now stand at the core of the business."

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Continua.

Porque o preço não é tudo!

Como ando a ler "Contextual Pricing: The Death of List Price and the New Market Reality", recordar "O poder do contexto" e o exemplo do preço da gasolina, recebi este artigo "Deco: Remédios sem receita 10% mais baratos nos hipermercados":

"A amostra estudada custa, em média, 10% menos nos hipermercados do que nas farmácias, segundo as respostas obtidas em Julho deste ano de um total de 300 espaços.
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As diferenças de preços podem atingir os 116%, como no caso de umas gotas para as cólicas do bebé que chegam a custar mais do dobro do preço entre o ponto de venda mais barato e o mais caro.
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Apesar de apresentarem preços mais elevados, as farmácias continuam a ter 84% das vendas dos medicamentos não sujeitos a receita médica, refere o artigo da Teste Saúde, a que a agência Lusa teve acesso."

Entretanto, há momentos no twitter o @CN_ profetizou "vai aparecer um engraçadinho com a ideia do preço fixo, vai uma aposta?"
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Os números são muito interessantes, apesar de em média o preço ser 10% superior nas farmácias, 84% das vendas continuam a ser nas farmácias. Por que será?
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Porque o preço não é tudo!
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Localização? Conveniência? Atendimento? Horário?
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Algo que as PMEs deviam interiorizar, o preço, mais baixo, não é o único critério. E neste caso a lição ainda é mais poderosa porque o produto comprado é o mesmo, a caixa é a mesma, só muda a prateleira, só muda o contexto.

O poder do contexto

Ontem, ao final da tarde comecei a ler "Contextual Pricing - The Death of List Price and the New Market REality" de Rob Docters, John Hanson, Cecilia Nguyen e Michael Barzelay.
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Fiz logo a relação com o postal da manhã "Por vezes, o truque estratégico não é mudar a oferta, é mudar de prateleira".

"The common sense observation, and the point of this book, is that the other things associated with each offer - the market - environment - changed, not the product. Product and value did not change, only the context.
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For companies focused on profitability, the key justification for focus on context is that almost always the leverageable differences in price among different buying contexts is far greater than differences between products and competitors.(Moi ici: O exemplo da gasolina que está a 1,559 €/litro na auto-estrada e a 1,469 €/litro no Pingo Doce cá do sítio)
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While it may seem strange to focus more on buying occasion and the customer mind-set than on your particular product, context is what makes for reliable pricing. Product value is only one driver of price. For the best pricing, look to context as much as to your product offer.
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The message here is that clinging to the idea that your company's product has an essential value is wrong. Value is not a concept compatible to diverse markets and a changing world."