Lessons

Lesson Info

Pricing Practicum: Bird of Virtue

Let's get a manet a next pouring her website uh we actually have their product on the table I don't know we could get a good view of that at some point but it's this necklace right here that we're going to talk about yes that's the problem child today all right, yeah, I guess it's the problem child in the sense that it's probably the part of my line that I'm most excited about because it means the most to me andi I feel like it can affect people the most yeah create the most changing their yeah so just real quick remind us who you are on the products that you're making and then let's talk specifically about that piece I'm lending oliver and I am the creator owner of berta virtue, a small jewelry design company in san francisco yeah and what's unique about your pieces oh right they are they're braille necklaces on and they're all different virtues and it's braille on the front side and then the reverse side is the english word. And so the concept really is that it can be some khun it's ...

a personal message someone can either choose tio have the braille on the outside I mean, most people don't read braille so you know they can have that daily reminder and people fiddle with their necklaces all the time and it just seems like a a subtle way to remind yourself but you know if you're more empowered and you wantto say to everybody I'm curious today you can put the english side on so awesome eso what's the price point on that particular necklace there forty dollars, forty dollars a good price point what has been what has been the problem with this they're not selling enough they're not you're just not kind of getting us much traction on lemons he thought you would people get really excited about them actually because it when they come to my booth like a craft show because that's my main venue for selling they're really drawn in and then they touch it and they're like oh it's just what does that say that sometimes people say silently where sometimes I'm like sign language trail yeah um but I and I don't know it may just be an issue of like display, you know, because I feel like I probably need to tailor the display or the packaging or something like that tio have it be more obvious that it's braille or that their inspirational are the other part of it is that it ties in with my business name and that I'm trying to have virtue in my own life and I hope that people relate with the virtues that I've chosen and that they want that more in there on yeah so okay tell me about a product that sells better for you that are specifically tell me about the necklace sells better free like that one that try and go one okay, I saw a lot of those with kenneth yeah, it is yeah, you fell a lot of those in there sixty six x sixty sixty six okay, um that is very interesting to me based on that necklace and the price point on that I'm just a price point might actually be a problem for that piece if you're selling more of those at sixty six dollars I think you could raise the price on that maybe not to be the same. Is that because you've got you know you've got a lot of color and stuff going on. You've got a lot going on on this necklace too, but maybe fifty, fifty five I know on that's just in relation to that piece I mean, yeah, I know you had mentioned you don't really necessarily run the individual numbers on what your bases are peace but I know how much that one costs. Okay good and so that's a good price for you both a wholesale and retail. Yeah it's actually it's actually said I need to know a really good time on my website no problem okay, so seven to even better yeah yeah then I would definitely say the price of this could go up I don't see it as less valuable as far less valuable as it is kind of far in price from this one idea in terms of positioning and pricing, I think another thing is that it's going to be story that sells this piece and that story isn't necessarily going to come from your own from just in your marketing I think that story may need to be the channel that people find you through and so that also speaks a lot to positioning in terms of price an audience as well I think these would be an amazing media piece on dso if these haven't been written up in, you know, all sorts of magazines and you can start really small, I would start by targeting perhaps regional publications so you're in the bay area there are lots of regional publications here I'm not familiar with what specifically they are, but I would start with some of those do you do you know, regional publications at all like magazines for fancy people? Uh well can focus think is out of here is okay, all right, but what about magazines was targeting the bay area? I mean, personally, I read sunset magazine a lot, but I don't know if you actually think those would be really great son, that I think that a lot I think those would be fantastic and sunset I think that you could definitely do some of the personal style magazines. You could even hit some of the home decor magazines because there's a lot of crossover between home decor and just design in general on dh so they might be looking. That might be something that's interesting to them. Any kind of publication that's putting up gift guides? Definitely you want to be, you know, sending that out it's too late or holiday gift guide in terms of print publications right now. But it is not too late in terms of digital publications right now, s o make sure that, you know, maybe something for you to do next week is to put together a quick story about why you designed these and maybe a customer story of, you know, somebody who bought a specific virtue for really good reason right that up and send it out to a bunch of design blog's for inclusion and holiday gift guys. And I would I would do that, eh? Pb confirmed stuff's going to start getting published very soon. But then also just in terms of the new year and also valentine's day for a bigger publications, you know, a couple people mentioned o magazine throughout yesterday, I think. That would be a fantastic place to go with that. But any kind of personal development magazine, any kind of women's magazine leading with the story behind this necklace is going to give you some really fantastic positioning on dh then associating that piece with those brands is gonna position you in a way that's also going to demand a higher price tag as well. Yeah, any questions? My one question is so with this whole project I actually kind of wanted to create, like, maybe a blog's sort of platform where because I do get a lot of stories from people either at a show are emailing me and saying, I bought this because my friend was going through this rough time, all right, treat cancer patients or something, and they get the courage one and, um, and so I wanted to create, like, some sort of like I would like to have a bigger, bigger doing good sort of purpose of this and in that people can share and to create some sort of community. But so I guess I mean, fear gets in the way of everything always, uh, do a weight because I'm not going to be able tio get the website together before I send these things out, I mean, dio I just make it's, like, package it on something that says, coming soon you know yeah, the black or grey so I wouldn't I wouldn't do a media push before it's available for sale on your website but it's on my website okay, I just know it was like the community part oh yeah log grab whatever. So, um no block on your mom's side no okay, yeah so that would be definitely one thing but you could also start with email as well. So what do you get a story? We're going to talk a lot about email marketing tomorrow tune in for that. So what if you did an email a week based on different virtues and stories from customers on dh then also I would suggest and again, we're going to talk about this tomorrow that when you have customers sail, you follow up with an email about a month later and you ask them or even a week or two later you ask them, why did you purchase this? What does this virtue mean to you and how are you using this necklace? And even if you get a couple of responses from that, you'll start building up this library of stories that you can use teo both do outreach and to use on your block or an email, but you'll also just have this collection of things that you can return to whenever you do need inspiration maybe for a new virtue are for you know other kinds of marketing collateral as well and you'll have the library that you can go to for the media so that when you are sending out not exactly press releases but when you're sending out pitches you'll have those stories that you can reference back and media publications eat that stuff up because they don't want to just talk about your product, right? They want to talk about the story are they want to share a story and if that story then leads to a product that's great for them and st for you so I would highly highly recommend strategy like that so well, I think the price could definitely be higher I don't necessarily think it's completely a pricing problem I just think that this product is full of opportunity. The other thing that I want to say is this is your home page right now correct? Yeah, I want to see this necklace being your featured necklace because this is a signature piece this piece has to do with the name of your company. This has got to be your signature product and it's an accessible products so why not make it the signature piece of your company? Yeah, so I might even suggest it looks like you've got kind of like a shop paige up here right now I might suggest instead doing a slide show at the top that draws attention tio those necklaces in particular he certainly can work some other products into that slide show, but in that slide show I wouldn't let the necklace just stand on its own and use some of those value words some of those words that point to symbols and meaning around this you know, you could say something like a reminder of your virtue on your chest, a reminder of your hurt you on your skin on a daily basis is something like that. I'm not good at marketing messaging on the high, but that's that's the idea that I would really suggest for a slide show like that you want to make this the signature of your brand for sure I mean, I love your other work don't get me wrong, I am crazy about it, but this really I think is should be the signature piece. I think the other thing that you might want to suggest in terms of earth think about in terms of community involvement is, could you? Is there a charity? Is there an organization that you could donate a percentage of sales? Teo again that's another reason to position the price a little bit differently? It doesn't have to cut into your bottom line on do you get to be a do gooder at the same time, but it also can reinforce the value of that piece on baby each of the different words it has a different charity that sounds like a admin nightmare but I think I would think if you can about a particular organization that you would like to donate a percentage of profits too yeah that's a good idea I mean there's a local centre for the blind so then I mean, that seems appropriate e and I would do that do we have any questions or comments from the internet about linnaeus piece uh yeah we do we dio the questions that were getting actually have to do with the grail what is what is in your mind our internet audience what the braille story it comes from why braille oh why did I choose you um you know, initially it was just because I'm a curious person and I actually had a relative that I'll talk to you a relative that was deaf and so we actually learned sign language in college on dh so I just kind of like was this fascination of alternate forms of communication but the braille I just I just liked because I don't know I mean like personally that the whole virtues thing I was going this last year has been really a changing year for me and I have thought a lot about all of these virtues and I've tried to incorporate them in my life and but I don't necessarily want the world knowing and so just from an aesthetic perspective I thought that braille kind of made sense. And also just from a tactile perspective, I don't. I mean, I always talk with my hands and touch my body or d oh, that sounds weird. Way. Um, anyways, I feel like people always play with their jewelry, so I d'oh that was a long winded answer. No, I think it's great there. And that's. Certainly a story behind the piece to an origin. Stories are a great way to think about, you know, angles that you can approach the media as well. Our angles, you know, for for talking to influence her. So I think that's great. Anything else for linda? No, just something for you and tp lisa says, how does your brain hold all of that information? Thie internet now I am virgie's says that she really likes the explanation of the necklace and the braille. And so I can definitely see john marie and I are sitting here like we want to know what that is or why area in the chat room, but also just really the story connects people, so I really appreciate that lesson as well. From terra. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Right. I think we're gonna go to meghan next, yes.