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    How To Charge Premium Prices By Reinventing Your Product

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 27, 2008 , 2comments

    One of the first things I help my clients do is increase their prices while at the same time increasing their customers. This happens with almost all of the clients that I’ve worked with. There are several reasons why I use this as one of my main strategies when doing an overhaul of their marketing system.

    1. Products/services that command premium prices are typically perceived by consumers as having higher quality and value.

    2. Increasing the price of the product/service gives you more flexibility to pile on ‘value-added’ or ‘free’ gifts that can often close the deal.

    3. Most of the time business owners tend to under-price their product/service because they mistakenly think it is the only ‘marketing’ edge they have over their competitors. (This is especially if they are newcomers in the industry.)

    When I was interviewing one of Singapore’s celebrity chefs, Chef Milind Sovani of The Song Of India, for my upcoming book ‘Secrets To Dominate Your Niche’ (that I’m co-authoring with a multimillionaire entrepreneur), he shared his thoughts on charging premium prices. He said, “If you want to be the best, then you’ll either have to exist at the top or at the bottom. This is because there is too much competition in the middle, and there are too many people existing in the middle who can do everything.”

    As a successful chef and restaurant owner who has changed the face of Indian food with his premium, fine dining Indian restaurant concept, Chef Milind certainly knows what he’s talking about.

    If you’ve been under pricing your product or service, here are a few ways you can reinvent it so you can start to charge premium prices and compete on your own level.

    Create your own standards of comparison: You’ve heard of the saying “You can’t compare apples to oranges.” But if you want to succeed in marketing your product/service at a premium price, then that’s exactly what you need to do. You can’t compete in a market where your product can be compared with every other similar product. That’s comparing apples with apples. Instead of blindly competing on the same level, create your own standards of comparison.

    That’s one of the usual techniques seminar leaders use when they sell their packaged information in CD/DVD sets. Instead of comparing their package with their competitors’ packages, they compare it with the price people have to fork out to attend the live seminar itself (which usually cost much more). In that sense their CD/DVD package is ‘heavily discounted’ while still delivering the critical information prospects are interested in.

    Itemize the ‘work’ that goes into your product/service: The luxury market is good at creating ‘perceived’ premium value for its highly priced products and services.

    Be frank now… would you be willing to pay US$325 or more for a 90 x 90 cm piece of cloth? Well, millions of people would and have for the legendary Hermès silk scarf. Why? Because other than the brand name, Hermès has created an elaborate and often repeated story around the creation of a Hermès scarf. The media and consumers have all lapped up all the details that the company had revealed about the process and work that goes into the making of a Hermès scarf.

    Whenever an article is written about the Hermès scarf, some or all of these facts invariably get mentioned as well:

    Now that you are also privy to these facts, does it change the way you ‘value’ a Hermès scarf?

    Pile on a highly attractive free gift: This gimmick is often used in the skincare and cosmetics industry, especially during the festive season. Marketers of big brand beauty products understand the principle of packaging an attractive free gift to sell a higher value product or a set of products. To get women to splurge an extra $80 or $100, they include a designer-like makeup pouch or handbag as a gift if they spend above a certain amount or buy the promotional product or package of the month.

    The key to applying this strategy successfully is to choose a free gift that is highly desirable in nature and something that is perceived to be of premium value that one cannot purchase anywhere else.

    I hope some of these strategies have inspired you to take a new look at your pricing and make some changes to the way you package your product/service. Remember: it takes about the same amount of time and money to sell a cheap product compared to a premium product. So use your time and effort wisely!

    Web 2.0 vs Old Marketing Techniques - The Real Truth!

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 18, 2008 , 3comments

    There are 2 split camps in the Internet Marketing world right now. One is pro web 2.0 marketing and the other is an advocate of the old ‘traditional’ ways of marketing. So which one is better? As a marketer, here’s my take on the issue:

    First of all let’s define both terms more clearly:

    ‘Old marketing’ refers to mostly tried and proven direct response marketing style; focusing largely on ad-driven lead generation activities, JVs, persuasive copywriting, etc. These strategies are highly predictable and can be tested and measured relatively easily. However, in general people are wary of ads and perceive them as not credible. So because old marketing strategies are mostly ad-driven, they are seen as a form of communication / information dissemination that is not very credible.

    Web 2.0 refers mostly to the newer form of web communities that consist of more interactive social-networking sites such as blogs, forums, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, etc. With the explosion of web 2.0, especially blogs, many marketers are adopting web 2.0 strategies, claiming they work better than the old strategies.

    To me, web 2.0 marketing is like a lot like/(basically) Public Relations marketing. They focus on getting favorable exposures and coverage in the media. The explosion of blogs and forums means there are more ‘media owners’ with (perceived) independent opinions. And because they are perceived to be independent, their opinions are perceived to be much more credible than advertisements that are obviously biased. These bloggers, forum contributors and social-networkers are critical influencers in their own niche areas of interest. And because of that, their opinions are important for the marketers wanting to market to those niches and their readers. Web 2.0 can be highly effective and powerful in building a brand and reputation because of their perceived credibility. As Rich Schefren stated in his Attention Age Doctrine and Stephen Covey wrote in The Speed of Trust, getting the attention and trust of your target market is critical. However, as you can imagine, this marketing strategy is extremely unpredictable as you are dealing with so many individuals’ opinions.

    Here are just some of the potential benefits of web 2.0:

    Get instant credibility: When influencers in their niches endorse you and write a favorable coverage about you or your product, you get instant credibility. This has greater value than advertising because editorial is considered more credible and authoritative than advertising. In fact, some studies have shown that this form of coverage is perceived to be about 7 times more credible than advertisements. It also attracts public interest, creating awareness, new business enquiries and referrals.

    Gain trust easier: When people read about businesses in the media they are perceived as market leaders and are more dynamic and more likely to be trusted. This shortens the business introduction and sales process considerably.

    You will gain fame much faster: Nothing will launch you into fame faster than several positive editorials in various media published around the same time. Just take a look at the William Hung global phenomena. Once it got picked up by a few media owners, the rest followed and it took on a life of its own. This is the kind of PR blitz a business would hope for. And how did it all started? Someone set up a website about William Hung immediately after his ‘money’ She Bangs “I’ve done my best…” performance. And it sparked a wildfire!

    Once published you can use it forever: Most of the time the media will be available for a very long period of time. E.g. A blog entry will always be available on the Internet and easily searchable as long as it is not deleted/taken down. This means that the more you are mentioned positively out there in the WWW, the more likely a potential customer will come across all those materials and become interested to do business with you.

    You can get if… for FREE: While advertisements are usually expensive, web 2.0 techniques can be economical and highly cost effective. You can even reach out to a wide mass audience for free by providing great content. This can create longer term results compared to traditional advertising.

    BUT! Here’s the irony of it:

    In this relationship, credibility is inversely proportionate to the predictability of the system.

    The more predictable = The less credible

    Human nature is such that at the end of the day, the ‘media owners’/influencers do have their own agenda for writing favorably/unfavorably about you. Whether it is for personal profit, to benefit their readers or simply to maintain their image of being in-the-know. You simply can’t escape that fact. In fact, more and more blog readers realized that bloggers will write a positive article about someone to put an affiliate link that profit themselves. They even have advertisement rates for those interested in advertising on their blogs.

    This means that their opinions won’t be as independent as what their readers might expect. They can be manipulated. And if they can be manipulated, they can be systemized to produce a predictable outcome. And if the outcome is predictable… it’s no longer as credible. It will become one of the old marketing techniques that can be measured, tested and optimized.

    Readers credit value and credibility to the writers because they are perceived to be independents. However, if they lose that, then it will become just another advertising venue.

    Just imagine, if Rich Schefren’s ‘maven-ism’ (Btw, what’s the difference from ‘guru’, ‘expert’, etc? It’s just another synonym?) can really be systemized, and there are hundreds of new mavens popping out in various niches, will you be as trusting when another new guy releases a new doctrine and claims to be a maven? The more predictable it becomes, the less credible it is going to be.

    That said, you can’t just deny the power of web 2.0. Similarly, those who are ignoring the power of PR are simply missing out big time. Rich Schefren, being a visionary, is able to tap into this and profit big time. And it will be a while before the market is tired of the web 2.0 marketing techniques, so ride on the wave.

    As I said in an earlier post, use both. Use all the strategies that bring in profits. That’s what a responsible marketer should do. Yaro Starak, a pro-blogger and strong advocate of web 2.0 (blogging) agrees in my earlier article.

    Your Money Making System

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Speed Profit Secrets on January 2, 2008 , 4comments

    It’s appropriate to start the New Year with this article. I’m assuming, and it’s pretty obvious that one of your new year evolution goals is to make money. This simple strategy will help you to increase your income and achieve your targeted goal in a more predictable manner.

    What is the strategy?

    It is the deceptively-simple-yet-extremely-effective conscious creation of a systemized sales process. It is amazing how most of the business owners and clients that I’ve spoken to neglect this very powerful strategy. They create their sales rather haphazardly, relying on short-term promotions most of the time. Are you making the same mistake?

    Without a system in place you’re basically shooting blindly in the middle of nowhere. Without a system for selling, then you’re at the mercy of your prospect’s emotional wimps of buying or not buying.

    Let me ask you a question. If you’re a pro golfer, would you go to a tournament  without researching about the terrain, the competitors, etc? If you’re a pro footballer in NFL or a pro basketballer in NBA, would your team go against another team without researching and knowing their strengths and weaknesses?

    Of course not! Being a professional means that you do all that as part of your job, on top of training your game skills. Interestingly, or rather disappointingly, most businesses don’t act professionally even though it affects the income that they are generating. They don’t spend the time to research their target market (the terrain) and their competitors. And they don’t come up with a system (game plan) to sell (to win).

    When I talk about creating marketing or sales system, I invariably get the question: So what is a system and how can you create one?

    Here’s my interpretations of a system: A system is an organized and coordinated methods/procedures that are designed to achieve a predictable and repeatable outcome. For example, a system can be a lead generation ad on a magazine that offers a free special report. To get the free report they have to provide their details for you to send it to them. The free report will educated and promote your products/services. It will be followed up with a sequence of 7 letters, 5 days apart.

    This means that everyone who responds to the ad will experience the exact same thing. And if the system is bringing in the sales, then you should repeat the whole process again and again.

    Until when? Until it’s no longer profitable.

    The great thing about having a system is that sales become predictable. And this means that you can track and measure the kind of responses and conversions you’re getting from your marketing efforts. Which means that you can always tweak and fine tune to make the system better. Can you see how this one strategy will massively increase your income?

    All pros use a system. Lead generation system, pitching system, closing system. Why do you think seminar speakers always give similar presentations? It’s because it’s a system that they have perfected and know will convert well for them.

    So start creating a selling system ASAP. Your income depends on it.

    New Year’s Evolution

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : News, Updates & General on January 1, 2008 , add a comment

    The new year is here. A new fresh start. A new opportunity to set new goals… or achieve the old ones :) Typically now is the time when everyone who believes in making new year resolutions is making theirs.

    Personally I’m a big believer in setting new goals each year. Though I prefer to think of it as new year’s evolution instead of resolution. ‘Resolution’ has the element of re-solving something that didn’t get solved in the past. While evolution means that you’re changing and improving.

    It’s similar to the Japanese word ‘Kaizen’, which has become a huge management buzzword and philosophy behind popular concepts like Total Quality Management. It means continuous incremental improvements. (Side note: While the Kaizen philosophy is attributed to the Japanese due to their quality revolution while under the guidance of Edward Deming, I can’t help but find the resemblance of the words Kaizen to the Chinese word ‘Gai Zheng’. Their literal meaning: ‘Gai’ to change; ‘Zheng’ be right. After all, the Chinese had a strong influence on Japanese language when they started. Just thought it’s interesting.)

    While I was thinking about the new evolution I’m planning for myself this 2008, I thought of the excerpt of an interview I watched of David Brandon, Chairman & CEO of Domino’s Pizza talking about his business philosophies.

    He said, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” There is no such thing as staying the same. And I remembered a similar philosophy of life taught by a mentor, “Either you are growing, or you’re dying. There is no in-between.”

    There is something liberating about thinking and seeing things in such stark black or white. There is no gray areas. No ifs. No buts. You either do. Or you don’t. You’re either progressing towards your goals, or regressing.

    As you’re deciding on your new evolutions this year, have that clear black or white mentality. Either you want to do it and go all out to achieve it, or when you catch yourself thinking “I’d like to achieve that if…” scrap that goal and let it go. You don’t want it enough to make it happen yet.

    And if that’s the case, be comfortable about it and let it go. Focus on the few evolution goals that you’re really passionate and committed to. It’s always better to complete the few important things that matter the most, rather than neglect everything by trying to do everything at the same time.

    One of my evolution goals in 2008: While I’ve been wanting to start my online business, I’ve been caught up too much with my offline consulting work. Now, the start of the new year is a great time for me to finally start. I’ve put this as a priority and I’ll go all out. This is my ‘Year One’.

    What is possible to achieve in one year online, starting from scratch? ;) What do you think? Let me know your evolution goals too. Maybe I can help.

    Happy Wonderful & Prosperous New Year!

    Why People Keep Shoving Cold Hard Cash Into My Hands

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Strategic Positioning & Branding on December 19, 2007 , add a comment

    Just in October, when I started this blog, I had the intention of cutting down my consultation services and focusing more on my personal projects, such as starting an Internet-based business. I definitely see the tremendous potential of the Internet.

    That’s why despite my crazy schedule, I tried to kick start my blog a few months back… in vain. New businesses kept coming in. Which was a good problem to have. However, this severely slowed down my exploring the exciting world of Internet marketing.

    But in October I decided enough is enough! I revamped my website and started this blog to share my profit strategies and start creating a brand awareness for myself and my company. I also posted some really valuable case studies.

    Things were going well for a while. My blog traffic has kept on doubling. And I’m getting a lot of new overseas readers. I squeezed out time to post on this blog as often as I can. But little did I expect…

    The blog actually brought in even more highly qualified prospects who are ready to do business with me! Instead of cutting down, I’m now swamped with prospects shoving their money at me.

    For example, last week we received a few deposit checks like the one below.

     

    $3,500 Check

    Someone even gave me a $1,000 cold hard cash for a deposit! :) (By the way, for non-Singaporean readers, below is how a SGD1,000 note look like. I just love the feel of cold hard cash in my hands)

    $1,000 Cash

    And I’ve just came back from closing another five-figure consulting deal. All of that in a week. With no advertising, no active promotion, no nothing. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you would know that I’ve not promoted my consultation services here at all. But that didn’t stop qualified prospects to seek me out. In fact, I’ve raised my fees twice this year, and I’m now considering raising them again.

    NOPE! It’s NOT my intention to try to impress you. I’m sharing with you this to show you how important creating a strategic positioning is for your business.

    When you’ve created a powerful positioning in the minds of your target market, like I did, it’s literally hard to stop them from coming to you.

    Recently, in his Attention Age Doctrine 2, Rich Schefren talks about becoming a Maven in your chosen industry. In essence this is the same as creating a strategic positioning in your niche market. This is also what Jay Abraham is talking about when he talks about the strategy of preeminence. Or what Dan Kennedy promotes as your U.S.P.

    All of those concepts are very similar and highly related. But if you boil down all these various sophisticated terms and concepts, at the end the core idea is about differentiating yourself.

    How are you different from your competitors and the rest of the masses? If your differentiation is perceived as more valuable than the rest of the available offers, the profit floodgates will open up for you.

    Don’t dismiss the critical importance of this! Deliberately and conciously take some time to create a strategic positioning for yourself. You will be massively rewarded for it.

    The REAL TRUTH About Rich Schefren’s Attention Age Doctrine Nobody Talks About

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : News, Updates & General on December 5, 2007 , 7comments

    I’ll probably rile a few people with this post, but I think I owe it to you, my readers, to post a truthful opinion on the latest Rich Schefren buzz. Just last week, Rich Schefren, the guru’s guru of Internet Marketing released his new Attention Age Doctrine 2.

    In it he describes the increasing scarcity of attention prospects are willing to give to marketers. He also talks about the overwhelming ‘new wave’ of the Internet that is Web 2.0. He states that the future is in Web 2.0 (interactive websites such as blogs, social networks, forums, etc), and that the ‘old-way marketing’ is going to be dead.

    I came across Rich’s work not too long ago. And I’m a fan and I think he provides tremendous value with his reports. More importantly I respect him as a very good marketer. He has strategically and successfully positioned himself as the guru’s guru.

    BUT..!

    Is what he presented in Attention Age Doctrine 2 really the case? Will Web 2.0 really overtake everything in Internet Marketing? Will traditional online marketing strategies really be left for dead?

    Personally I don’t think so. While Rich’s presentation on the scarcity of attention is spot on, I have some reservations about the enthusiasm surrounding the whole Web 2.0 taking over the Internet theme.

    And I’m not the only one doubting this. But let’s take a look at a few revealing things…

    Rich released his Attention Age Doctrine 2 via his blog and email to his subscribers. He then drives all the traffic to an opt-in page, asking people to subscribe before downloading his doctrine. That is plain-vanilla traditional marketing technique, not some fancy Web 2.0 thing.

    Granted that blogging is part of Web 2.0. But how effective is blogging as a marketer’s tool? Now, before you pro-bloggers get all work up about this, let’s listen to a few prominent pro-bloggers:

    Andy Beard from Niche Marketing just wrote:

    I Am Disappointed

    Over the last 10 months I have been quite prominent in my support of Rich, but very few of my readers seem to trust me enough to give Rich an email address to download a free report…

    RSS Readers Are Not Responsive

    … I am honestly quite disappointed in how poorly responsive my RSS Readers are when offered free information from a source I trust.

    Another very prominent pro-blogger I follow, Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey commented:

    Like you, I’ve been very disappointed by RSS response rates too and frankly, I don’t think RSS will ever replace email as much as I’d like it it.

    RSS readers just don’t engage in the content the same way they do to an email in their inbox. That’s why I started building my email list to go with my blog and emails I send out ALWAYS outperform the posts I make to my blog.

    You need to have the blog of course, but use all the efforts you are putting in here to attract traffic and get people onto a newsletter.

    I’ve also just met up with my friend Alvin Phang of Gather Success and creator of Atomic Blogging: Step-by-step blogging system for newbies. He too mentioned that some of his secret strategies to his rapid rise in the blogging world that he revealed in Atomic Blogging is based on ‘traditional’ strategies as they are more effective.

    Isn’t that interesting? This supports my earlier findings that traffic from social networks might not be as good in quality.

    Another tell-tale sign: Just take a look at how often successful Internet Marketers blog. In general they (including Rich) blog much lesser in frequency compared to pro-bloggers. If Web 2.0 is really taking over, wouldn’t all of the big names be blogging more regularly?

    Now, a sensitive question: Who do you think make more money? (I know the question is not specific and hard to compare etc, but I think you get what I mean)

    But that’s not all. At the end of the doctrine, Rich also promotes his products. Doesn’t this sounds like traditional viral e-books? Isn’t what he is doing more like a traditional product launch strategy? By the way, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is an excellent strategy.

    I think Web 2.0 is definitely an extremely important trend that marketers must pay attention to and leverage on. However, be very careful about just latching on to one idea (in this case that traditional online marketing strategies are going to be replaced fully by Web 2.0) and going to the extreme.

    The ‘old’/'traditional’ principles of Internet Marketing are still working very well. This is because they are based on human nature, and human nature changes very VERY slowly, even though technology changes extremely fast. The best is to combine old strategies with new one, like what Rich has done, and not use them exclusively.

    Again, I’m a fan of Rich’s work and I have a lot of respect for Rich. Just don’t get caught up with a new, ‘unproven’ idea and take it to the extreme.

    Take care.

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    Posted by Sant Qiu in : FREE Resources on December 1, 2007 , add a comment

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