Know-How Exchange : Strategy

First, let me say this...

Price is only ONE way to be competitive. The lower you can go the better. However, pricing TOO low can also damage the appearance of your business.

Secondly, you do NOT want to get into acquiring customers based on the lowest price. Why? Simple. Price alone rarely KEEPS customers. It's normally a bundled package. Good pricing, great product & even better customer service. Also, when going low with your customers, what happens when the printing shop down the street goes lower than you? Starting to see the big picture? Acquiring and KEEPING customers based on pricing is a dangerous game. Customers who choose a product or service based on price alone normally have ZERO LOYALTY!!!

Since your main target audience is college students, here are a couple of ideas:

1. The demographic you are after practically LIVE online. So, makes sense to go after them there. But, DO NOT pay for email addresses. Rather, come up with some type of P.R. campaign. Throw a big campus party with music, food, video games, etc. Have the attendees leave their email addresses and/or contact info. Maybe you could even promote something like a FREE campus wide pizza party. Or a food eating contest. Or a raffle giving away a mac notebook. Bottom line, come up with a way to capture as many emails as possible. And solicit them through this avenue. You dealing with teenagers. They love food, technology, parties, etc. Keep your demographic in mind clearly.

2. Offer a FREEBIE. Advertise that you will be giving away free party invitations or book covers or business cards, whatever. In exchange of course, you get their emails.

3. Don't be afraid to go old fashioned. It works!!! Plaster the busiest trafficked parts of the university (cafeteria, phone banks, etc.) with flyers. Foot traffic can produce amazing revenues. Can anyone say shopping mall? :)

Finally, just remember, keep building a list that you can continually market to. The money is in the list first. Then your offer. Whether online or off.

Good luck!!!

joegrss is exactly right when it comes to pricing. You're not going to have enough budget for great marketing if your margins are tight because your prices are too low. And low prices usually communicate inferior product or service (or both).

I'd keep prices a touch higher than competition and put some of that extra margin into training staff to be super-conscious of great service. Then put some more into paying someone to actually get out of the store and into the offices and dorms and campus hang-outs to spread the word.

If you feel you must have a customer incentive, do anything other than price/discounts. Discounts cost you dollar for dollar what you give. Premium items, on the other hand, can have far more apparent value than their actual cost. Even if you have to spend 100% of the apparent value, it's going to be better than cutting your price.

What can you print that your customers will find valuable? That's what you give them in lieu of discounts.

Can you specialize in "green" printing? Soy-based inks, 100% recycled paper (not just the "cheap stuff", such as: from www.newleafpaper.com) , solar-powered printing (or solar credits), electric car/scooter delivery of orders, etc.?

Karen's got great ideas about student needs.

My two kids have spent much of the last ten years studying, and one thing that they could have done with is an 'instant' print shop that accepts orders on-line, allows for automated document upload and confirmation of receipt, a ranging of finishing/binding options, and gives a guaranteed time when the document will be ready, and maybe even allows for home or on-campus delivery.

Use students as sales 'reps'...how many interns are processed from on to off campus?
If you capture students early, they will take their evangelism with them