Tag: premium

Story-telling for a Price

Ever since we were kids, fairy-tales seemed to be our only refuge and escape from reality.  We used to constantly read and listen to stories. To say the least, stories have played a crucial role in our lives since our childhood. Till this very day, stories still affect us tremendously, and this resulted in many companies using them across their various touch points. Marketers seem to have found the best way to exploit and to use them in their marketing efforts.

Based on several studies, stories showed the tendency to resonate with consumers the most. When listening to a story, several parts of the brain are activated. This leads the customers to visualise what they’re being told.

 This has led many advertisers to resort to story-telling in ads and when trying to talk about their products with the customers. Stories are used as an attention-grabbing method since it happens to have a high impact on the consumers. Instead of using a traditional method, advertisers resort to storytelling for consumers tend to relate to it and remember it the most.

Storytelling has also made its way in sales. Sales-people started to talk to the customers about their products in the form of a story. In sales, it’s all about solving the people’s problem and making the customers the heroes of their own stories. To demonstrate this, the salesperson might act up as a sage who offers help to the hero aka the customer in order to solve their problem.

Through stories, marketers have been able to captivate and grab the customers’ attention. They also managed to motivate them and to drive them to take actions and pay a higher premium.

Some customers are willing to pay more for a cup of coffee from Starbucks than for a regular one. However, they would not be paying for the coffee’s quality or the product’s features; but rather, they’re paying for its story. A story which Starbucks constantly communicates whether about its products, its cosy place that feels like home, or about what it should symbolise to you. Such stories of value have merely made products become an extension of our own identity.

Stories help build a special bond and relationship with the customers. They tend to resonate with them the most. By putting a high emphasis on storytelling, it certainly allows for further communication of value.

At the end of the day, are we actually paying for the actual price of the item or for its story?

Sounds Fancy

You can’t possibly think of Paris without the concepts of love, romance, the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, etc. coming into your mind. It’s really amazing how each country has its own set of associations attached to it. This notion also applies to brands and products.

For consumers, the name of the brand and its country of origin (COO) play a huge role in affecting their perceptions and purchasing decisions. A perfume made in China for example, won’t be perceived by consumers in the same manner had it been made in France.

Some countries like France tend to evoke hedonistic associations with the products while other countries like Germany, for example, tend to enhance the utilitarian perceptions as seen in its car industry’s branding strategy.

Many brands have used the COO’s effect to alter the brand’s positioning in the consumers’ minds and to give them a certain expectation. Haagen-Dazs is one of the brand names that have been created for such purpose.  Its Danish sounding name sort of gave it a background story which allowed it to command a premium and to create a new niche for itself.

This actually happened without the brand being Danish. Haagen-Dazs was actually established in America. In fact, the name itself “Haagen-Dazs” is made up and does not even exist in the Danish language.

So, what’s your favourite ice cream brand?