Richmond Business & Commercial News

Pay what you think is appropriate

I don't know that I would suggest this pricing strategy, but it is interesting.  There is a coffee shop (Terra Bite Lounge) in Washington state that has no prices, but instead has a donation box.  The theory is that peer pressure, guilt, and common decency will cause the consumers to give appropriately (or more than appropriately).

Here is a link to the Seattle Times article, but I would suggest that you go to the Freakonomics blog where there is an interesting discussion going on in the comments.  Apparently there are several other businesses that have tried the same approach in different parts of the world -- with different results.

Rules for "One-shot Sales"

Or "Embracing the naive prospect" by Seth Godin, the marketing guru.

Seth points out some valuable insights for anyone that sells to a target market of consumers that are making a "once in a lifetime" purchase. (i.e., a DJ for a wedding, or a Realtor that deals primarily with first-time home buyers)

At first, I thought I would be pointing to this mainly for the benefit of other Realtors, obviously with the first thought coming to mind of how I deal with first-time buyers and sellers of businesses and real estate every day.  Then I realized that beyond my bubble there are industries that deal with this "naive" type of customer every day, too.

Now "naive" in this sense is not meant to put down anyone, it's just to acknowledge the experience level of your target market. 

Wedding vendors are a great example of this -- the wedding process is not something that most people end up going through enough to be experts at it (let's hope not, at least).  It is a crazy time trying to plan it, and even if you have a wedding planner, you still had to pick that person.

Visit Seth's site and see what he has to say about how to deal with these "naive" consumers.  I think his insight was right on track.

I would love to hear how anyone else is dealing with this issue in their own businesses.  I submit that this blog is one of the ways that I am addressing it in my business.