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Packages Pricing Strategy Example

Alright, good things come in packages, what do you say to your buyer when you say good things come in packages? I have this all laid out for you, I know exactly what you want, and it's going to be a great value, right? Okay, the Oh Baby, I love the spice of this, this has personality shining through. Alright, so here we go, $1000, it has two sessions, it has a newborn and a 6 month session, they're about an hour, and 100% of this is due at the first session, so you pay the $1000 up front, and with that, you get an online gallery of your images for viewing and sharing, and you get a $500 credit towards a product. And you get two digital files, okay? So we've addressed the "I have a brand new baby and I want to share it with everybody", and we have charged up front for the work $ is paid up front, and with the $500 credit, you're saying you absolutely need something physical, that you can hold in your hands, and I'm giving you a way to get that by taking that $500, so basically it's like...

a minimum purchase of $500, it's that strategy shining through here, and the digital files are retouched. Added value, okay? So, step two, Watch me Grow, $1325, so we've gone up $325 in price, and this time we get three sessions, so now we're going to have a newborn, a six month and a one year session, they're about an hour, only half of this is due at the first session, so, what's interesting here is that the initial investment is a little bit less, even though they're investing more, I think that's brilliant spread that money out, rule of thirds, rule of fourths, right? So in this one, you have an online gallery, you have the three hour long sessions, this time you have a $ credit, so your analytical buyer is going to say, OK, this one is $325 more, I get an extra session, and I get $250 more of credit. That's a pretty good value, right? I can see that as a reason, and we get to document three different stages of this baby's life, okay? You get three digital files, and you get an eight by twelve bamboo block with luster paper, so they get a product as well, so this one is clearly a better value, your value minded customers are going to say "I definitely don't want that one I definitely want this one", so you've automatically bumped him down, now let's look at the next one, the Watch me Grow Deluxe, $1850, so we're talking about $850 more than the first session, and $525 more than the second option. This one also has three sessions, so, same sessions, you get the same online gallery, you get the same credit, $750, but this time instead of three high resolution images, you get ten high resolution images, okay, so there is added value, and then you get an 11 by 14 premium velvet paper print, that sounds really nice, right? Is the value there enough to have them invest an additional $500? I'm not quite sure, I would suggest, on this, I would guess that people go here, every single time, this one's a no-brainer, this one, the bottom one, the $1850, that's a big jump in price, to just get a few extra digital files, and then switch from a, oh no, it has a block, you just add an additional 11 by 14, so that would be my guess, I love the wording on this, but I think people are going to get stuck right here. I would either add in an additional session so you can have more images, or I would increase the product credit, so that, or you could do both, because when you have more sessions you need more product credit to get more products for the additional images. Then, we have two session packages, photo sessions take place no longer than six months apart, three session packages, so these are more a la carte items, and it says newborns are ideally photographed between seven and ten days, product credits are total credits per package, so that's really good to clarify on here, because when I first read it, I wasn't quite sure if that $ credit was for each session, so that the client could purchase product from each session, or if it were total for the entire experience, so I really like that that's included there, because that was a question I had, and then product credits may be applied toward product collections featured at the end of this brochure, and then it talks about the logistics of how things are collected. So, I think, that you could clean this, and again, this is obviously cut out from a very beautiful design I suspect, because this is a well thought out pricing menu, I would say that probably, this information, with all the logistics, should be in a separate email after they book, it's the how to make this happen, here's what to expect, that could be pulled off of the pricing list and delivered in a different way. Let's keep going, there's another page to this one. And then we've got product collections, A great value not only for your home decor, but also for custom, unique gifts for friends and family. So, now, this photographer is saying I know you have all of these wonderful things, don't forget your family, they need things too, so we've got the gotta have it for $750, and this one lines out, this is great, this is the value of $1100, so this is a huge savings, and it's clearly spelled out so the buyer doesn't have to do the math, and it goes out 12 gift prints, you can choose four by sixes, five by sevens,eight by tens, you can mix up the sizes, it's giving the buyer flexibility to get exactly what they want, it also comes with an eleven by fourteen with a frame, or an eleven by seventeen acrylic print, so it's giving the buyer choices, an eight by twelve standout, with luster paper and a stainless plastic edge, an eight by twelve maple wood print, or a bamboo block and you also get a canvas and then you get 20% off additional printed products. So the gotta have it has a lot in it. I would suspect that there's probably too much in this package, because 12 gift prints is a lot. If I got 12 gift prints, I would give a couple to my parents, a couple to Peter's parents, I would put a couple out, and then I would have a whole lot of prints left. And then the same thing, all of these different products, it's unclear to me what I would do with these as a buyer, even if I didn't live in an RV (laughs) So, this one I think could be cleaned up a little bit, and simplified, because it's a lot to decide, and not only do you get all of these things, but you have to make choices within this package, not just image choices but also product choices. This is complex, probably too complex for someone to be able to wade through. And then the last one, sharing is caring, it's $1195, an a la carte value of $1800, so, you can see right there it's a really good value, let's see what's involved in here, there are 15 gift prints, an eleven by fourteen framed print or an acrylic print, wallet brag books, digital files are included in this one that is a big perk that is included in this one, an eleven by fourteen bamboo block, a canvas or aluminum print, and then you get a bigger savings on any additional items. So I think it's basically the same thing, it does have the digital files in it, which I think would make a lot of people jump from the $755 to the $1195 package, but I think it needs to be cleaned up a little bit, it's very complex. Okay, so when we put those filters in, is it easy to understand that this one is not, the other ones previously were. Okay, so we have made it through four pricing structures, let's go back and talk about your pricing structures, what did you use, did you guys learn anything else going through these different strategies, looking at other people's pricing structures? Isn't it great to learn from other people and see what they're doing and see what prices they're charging, and how they're working with their business? I learned so much from looking at that, and in fact, when we had our business in Boulder, we were friends with photographers, and we would come together and we would meet and share price lists and say hey, how is this working for you? What are you doing? What are your clients asking for? We collaborated together on that, we learned so much, and it made everybody in our area better, so if you have that option to go out and share with your competitors, or as I like to think of them as colleagues, that's a great opportunity if you can make that happen, be a leader in your area, and you will gain so much from that. So, when you go through, and you go back and you really finalize your pricing structure, look at the strategies you use, and make sure you use them intentionally, make sure that your pricing guide encourages your client to spend what you need them to spend, try to guess what they're most likely to buy, what's the best value on this pricing structure, and here's the really big thing, does it give them an opportunity to invest more with you than what you think they're willing to spend, because I promise you, your clients will surprise you if they have the opportunity to invest more than what you think they will. We made it through pricing part three (laughs). Hopefully this was really helpful to you, what questions can I answer? I don't know if you've covered this yet, but as far as putting your prices on your website goes, what do you recommend? Because that seems to be across the board with photographers. Absolutely, that is a great question. I've done both, and what I've found is that my prices are higher than my competitors, when I put my prices on my website, people stop calling. (laughs) When I pull them off of my website, people start calling again, and what I think the reason is is that it's hard to gain the impression of value of what we actually do when you're looking at a website. What I need to do for my clients for them to see value is to talk to them and spend time with them. So, whenever they email me and say I'm interested in a portrait session, I pick up the phone and I call them, and I talk to them, "oh my gosh, how did you hear about us? What are you interested in? Why did you call? What do you want to have a family portrait done for? Do you have anything in mind? Oh my gosh, we went out to do, we have this new location that Peter is so excited about, he is just dying to get out there and create images in this location, see the difference between that reaction verus our prices are... right? It helps build the value in what we do, they can see how excited we are, how passionate we are, all of the things that we can do, oh my gosh, do you want me to come to your house and help you find a wall to put these images out there? Uh, yeah, right? That's the kind of service that we offer that nobody else does, very few people do. Okay? So if you put them up there and you want it to be a quick and dirty low end experience, put them up on your website, let people figure it out themselves, if you compete on service, walk them through everything in person. That's what a high end gallery does, that's what a high end boutique does, that's what a high end restaurant does. When you want to be high end, do what high end places do.