Know-How Exchange : Strategy

You must find a way to convince the customer of the additional value. There are many ways to do this, such as:

- using testimonials from people who talk about the benefits

- getting it into the hands of early adopters, who will then convince others of the value. People will readily buy whatever helps the pros play so well.

- provide customers a chance to try it risk free (use before you buy, buy but be able to return it for money back, etc.).

Are you going to retail this yourself or distribute through retail outlets. If you use retail outlets you might want to consider teaming up with golf retailers to offer your product as a value add to the other golfing products they sell.

Alternatively you might want to approach golf clubs where you could retail the product and also see if members would like to test the product. This can then lead to case studies and testimonials which you can use to further promote the product.

Good luck
Susan
M4B

HI,

Peter and Susan have excellent suggestions; you basically want golfers to fully focus on the product's value to them ('how much would I be willing to pay to improve my golf game?') instead of e.g. the cost to you or the price of competing products. One innovative way to do so is the 'pay what you want' price scheme, which has been successful for Radiohead and for restaurants all over the world (interestingly, not for movie theaters).

The concept is simple: customers pay anything they want, no minimum price, restrictions or negotiations. This techniques gets customers maximally involved and increases sales greatly. The actual price paid could be lower or higher that what you would get with a fixed price, depending on how customers value your product and what they believe your costs are. That is why I believe it would work for your product (great experience, low production costs) and it does not work for a movie theatre (variable experience, lots of similar competitors, customers underestimate the costs)

Cheers

Measure the improvement that your aid provides and have it confirmed by an independent organization. Your marketing can focus on the specific promise ("Guaranteed to save 10 strokes/game") which can command the (slightly) higher price.

Here are a couple of articles that might help as you create a pricing strategy. One is about value and the other is making sure you don't create channel conflict when landing on a price. Hope they help as you mull over the other suggestions.

https://www.gtms-inc.com/tip_addingvalue.htm

https://www.gtms-inc.com/tip_pricingstrategies.htm

make sure it is listed in the airline shopping catalogues.

$29.99 (usually $39.99)

people don't have much to do when they are sutting in the plane and many golfers won't mind paying this small amount on the flight.

In addition to the sales, you get great national and international exposure for the product just by being in the shopping catalogues.

If you budget can stretch to it - get a top golfer to endorse it and have a nice 1 page add also in the in-flight magazines.

You can also do the same on cruise ship magazines especially on routes where passengers are carrying their clubs with them to play a round or two whilst on vacation.

This is a very low cost way to get great exposure and make immediate sales.

Matthew