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He may be right, but that doesn’t mean competition does not exist. 

If your business is going after a market with many new and existing competitors – and chances are you are – then you can not easily ignore competition. 

At the heart of any competition strategy, is the goal to create or acquire advantages – ideally substantial – over your competitors. These are yours moats – the protective layer that keeps competitors out of your home and away from your customers. 

For many companies, there are a number of ways to create a competitive advantage. We look at three common and often pursued forms of competitive advantage – technological, operational, and supplier. 

The Technology Moat

Businesses that has a technological advantage, creates technology innovation (e.g. proprietary technology, patents) that is either difficult for competitors to acquire or re-create. 

It can include technology such as the recommendation engines of Netflix or Spotify, or the formula for a new drug of a pharmaceutical company. Not disconnected to the innovation, is also the product quality. This advantage requires resources (e.g. capital) to acquire, but can have a long-lasting payoff and competitor moat. 

The Operations Moat

A second competitor advantage companies try to acquire is an operational advantage. That operational advantage is focused on decreasing the cost of producing and delivering goods or services, by increasing the effectiveness of elements in their operations. 

This can include how the supply chain is managed to the manufacturing/production process used to create and distribute product. This competitor advantage has helped companies such as clothing giant Zara, retail leader Wal-Mart, and even startups such as Warby Parker and Casper well. Acquiring this advantage also requires resources (e.g. capital) as well as expertise to design and execute. Done well, this advantage can improve a company’s cost positioning, reduce waste and increase pathways to profitability. 

The Branding Moat

A third competitor advantage some companies try to acquire is a branding advantage. This is commonly seen in consumer-facing companies, including clothing brands and retailers. The goal of the branding advantage is to extend beyond a transactional relationship with customers, but create an emotional connection and loyalty. This advantage can decrease costs of customer acquisition – for SaaS companies negative churn – increase the number and frequency of repeat purchases, increase total spend (revenue), and increase customer satisfaction and advocacy. Unlike other competitive advantages, creating a brand advantage is an earned advantage and can take more time to acquire and retain. Once achieved, brands can experience longer term benefit as seen by companies such as retailer Nordstrom, fashion brands such as AllBirds and Patagonia, and video game maker Nintendo. 

But these are not the only moat-creating advantages you can build for your business. Entrepreneurs also have pricing  

Make Pricing A True Competitive Advantage

Using price to create a competitive advantage is not a new. For many companies trying to make a dent in a new market, price is often deployed to shake up the market and put pressure on incumbent pricing. What this typically has meants lower – sometimes free – pricing. 

This pricing tactic can be highly disruptive and lucrative as companies such as Ikea, Walmart, and tech companies such as Zoom and Google have used low prices as a competitive advantage against legacy brands and companies. 

When looking at what made the pricing strategies of these companies successful is not just in going low, but how they defended their value even at lower prices and found pathways to new sustainable revenue channels and profitability. 

This is important, because for too many companies creating market disruption using low prices is used as a blunt instrument that leave them scrambling to find ways to monetize and defend their worth in the eyes of customers. Not only can this be a costly reality to maintain, but can also result in a pivot that is hard to recover. 

Pricing is multi-dimensional and can be deployed in many different ways. The key is in the rigor in planning and execution. 

From the years of working with companies at all stages of growth across the world, there are five core questions to consider when deciding how best to use pricing to create a competitive moat.  

#1: Do you know your monetizable value today?

This is obvious, but if you are using your pricing strategically, particularly through lower prices and discounts, then it is all the more important to know what the baseline willingness to pay for your product is. 

Many companies go low on price without considering what their true willingness to pay is and for what customer segments. This is giving away the farm without realizing perhaps all you really own is the chicken coop. Alterantively, if we want to be more strategic and tactical, we may not have to give away 50% of our customer’s willingness to pay, if we know 30% will due. Anyone who’s had to convince a customer to buy their product will know, each dollar is hard earned so if you don’t have to, don’t leave it on the table. 

#2: What is our value defense?

Whether you’re going high or going low, it is important to know how the pricing strategy will be defended. Too many times we have seen companies where the first and last line of defense is (low) pricing. 

As any sales professional will atest, you never start the discussion on price; the prospective customers will struggle to hear anything else. 

So what price drivers can and must you defend? Who are the value drivers meaningful for?

Pricing is a core inter-connected component of the value proposition and buyer decision, so it is vital to identify and defend those price drivers that shape a customer’s perception of your product. 

Consider a new car a customer is looking to buy. What does she consider?

• Price? 
• Performance? 
• Safetey?
• Financing?
• Trust in the dealership?
• Brand?
• Asthetics such as car color?
• Features such as the sound system?

What factors matter and the relative importance is important to understand what is defendable and what is given away. It is rarely all or nothing. 

That said, value is a lot like trust. It is very difficult to gain, but extremely easy to lose. 

#3: What are the success factors for our pricing strategy?

It is important not only to execute new pricing, but to understand what are the success factor of the strategy. This requires prepararation ahead of the pricing launch to understand what will be needed to manage successful execution. 

In the case of Walmart, their “Everyday low prices” strategy is more than a marketing slogan. The pricing strategy is enabled by a company that knows world-class supply chain and operational excellence is how that strategy will be delivered and sustained. 

When thinking about how you will use pricing to create a competitive advantage, consider what factors are required to make the strategy successful. 

#4: What alternative strategies can be deployed in the future? 

There are two parts to this – (1) as a result of today’s decisions, what opportunities or limitations are creaed; and (2) what other pricing models and approaches are potentially available. 

Pricing will evolve as fast as your company and it’s products. So it’s important to consider given the current state, what else can you do with your pricing in the future. 

This can be using more complex pricing methods such as dynamic pricing, but will also require the technical backend development and investment to successfully execute. 

It can be the development of a mix of pricing models, that will capture revenue and growth opportunities across different buyer groups and use cases. Rarely is the pricing decision an at the moment decision, and will require planning and more importantly research and analysis to support the decision with your team. 

#5: What organizational competencies are created?

We often think of pricing from an output perspective (e.g. a price, revenue, profit), but pricing – when done well – is a core competency that is hard to replicate, maintain and execute well. 

For all the technical and marketing prowess of companies such as Amazon and Apple, pricing remains a straetgic advantage. The advantage is not only for the price they execute and achieve, but the organizational capability to maintain discipline, and continuously maintain and evolve the pricing. It is hard, which is what sets the best companies apart. 

Final Thoughts

Pricing is an effective way businesses can create a competitive moat, but is too often designed and executed like a promotion rather than a strategic decision. 

The tradeoff for short-term customer acquisition, are the potential longer term consequences to the business including the dilution of price/willingness to pay, increasingly expensive customer acquisition costs,  and limited future pricing options. 

Thoughtful planning and design, early and often can mitigate future pricing and proposition challenges. This starts with establishing a willingness to pay baseline for targeted customer segments to craft how the competitive moat will be executed and sustained. 

Like any good strategy, maintenance and defense is required. This means we need to measure and modify regularly. If immediate value is given away (e.g. lower prices), then we need to ensure core value drivers are defended and we understand what tactical pricing options are available as the market and business changes.

Like a good cajun roux, if you stop stirring and take your eye off the pot, it will burn making the roux unusable. Avoid the pitfalls to make pricing a true competitive advantage and moat that will position your business strategically for the long-term. 

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It takes a nano-second for the eyes of the entrepreneur or executive to light up in excitement. They talk about the product idea and inspiration. Walk through the cool features and functions their teams developed (or in-development). Then comes the big finish, the x-factor – why no one else is doing it and why this will disrupt the market. The enthusiasm is infectious. When presented right, you feel like they discovered fire.

Then I start asking the “money questions” – How much are you charging? Why will customers buy and use your product? Who are your customers? The response often comes in a little slower and less assured.

It is here when the customer insight gap appear. The insights collected are insufficient to make pricing and go-to-market decisions. To compensate, competitor data plays an out-sized role to make these critical decisions. This begs the question, do competitors know more about your customers than you?

Competition is important, but…

Competition is absolutely important and should not be underestimated. Where it becomes counterintuitive is when a company believes (a) the product is market defining; (b) the product is better than competition; and (c) customers will get immense value in using the product.

If either is true, then why are competitors playing such a prominent role in pricing decisions influencing your customers?

This is not how market leaders and makers approach pricing.

Apple recently announced HomePod, their new speaker and smart assistant hub. HomePod is a direct competitor to market leader Amazon’s Echo and challenger Google’s Home.

The price for Apple’s latest hardware? $349. That’s 90% more expensive than the Echo ($180) and 170% more expensive than the Home ($129).

Apple has historically positioned its products as upscale and premium. To justify HomePod’s positioning, Apple spoke to the customer. More specifically their target customer segments. The HomePod is designed for the music lover. It’s for customers who appreciate a premium listening experience and technological innovation. It’s for customers who love to have a piece of luxury design occupy a visible space in the home.

This isn’t branding, this is customer insight in action. Apple knows the customer they want to win and is going straight for them. They do not allow competitors to dictate their prices. Instead, Apple uses price as a differentiator.

Why some companies let competitors influence the value of their innovation

I understand not every company is Apple (yet). But all companies have three key tools to help win the market: product, price and marketing communication.

Conceding price from the beginning is a risky strategy. Often price concessions dilute product differentiation and growth opportunities. It is a growth strategy many companies have trouble pivoting from. So why do companies lean on competitors to determine their prices? Here are three factors I’ve seen drive this risky strategy.

Built-in market validation (with a pinch of fear)

It’s hard enough convincing your family and friends your product is a winner and worth paying for. Harder still with total strangers. When competitors are already in the market doing even half of what you’re doing, then there is access to pricing validation. If the price started from gut feel, even better there’s “data”.

Is this “right” for the company? Most likely not. The trade-off for the perceived ease and validation of competitor pricing is avoiding the necessary customer insight work needed by growth companies. It’s accepted as ‘good enough’ to move on.

Bridging the gap of incomplete and imperfect information is the value of comparables. It is a common tool used by investors to determine company valuations. Unfortunately, the risk that often bears out is the comparable is too superficial and not accounting material differences that influence outcomes.

Companies using competitor pricing as the market price run similar risks. The most obvious are creating perceptions the product is comparable thereby diluting the innovation and inherent value. The larger risk is missing the preferences and behaviors unique to your customers.

There is also the understandable fear of ‘going it alone’. For entrepreneurs, most moments of their company’s existence is a risk. I can empathize the risk aversion. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the right customer insight shouldn’t be collected and used.

Not asking pricing focused questions when gathering customer insight

Too often the customer insight is insufficient. What this means is relevant pricing questions are not asked. This is dangerous. These questions are critical for three reasons.

1. First, these questions help inform the baseline perception about your product. Asking the right questions inform gaps to address via product, marketing or sales. It’s a lot easier influencing customer behavior when you know what they think about your product.
2. Second, the right questions inform the relative value of your product. This can include competitor alternatives, specific features, and use cases. What is important is gauging influences on customer behavior and decision-making.
3. Finally, this process builds into the company’s research DNA commercially-minded questions. It’s a different way of communicating with customers and sometimes a harder one. The goal is not to collect opinion, but understand the behavior of your customers.

This lack of insight decreases confidence to make a decision. Too often the insight is at a population and not target cohorts. What results is some blended pricing using competitor prices and costs.

Belief prices can change in the future

Like other parts of the business, some entrepreneurs believe that prices can be updated in the future so accept prices that ‘work’ now. As some prominent entrepreneurs suggest, get it out to the market and hear what the market tells you.

Unfortunately, pricing is one of those things that is less forgiving. Even when customers are willing to give a second chance, there is often no basis to believe the company is capable of the necessary correction.

One recent example is the highly competitive food delivery space where companies such as Sprig and Munchery competed for the dining table. There is an increasing downward pressure on what e-food companies prices led by increased dependence on promotions and discounting to win customers. This leads to a danger cycle which becomes very expensive and difficult to sustain.

Technology and operational fine-tuning provide opportunities to scale. As a ceiling is reached (read: cost savings), the unit economics makes even less sense as the customer’s willingness to pay was far lower than most of these companies could afford to offer. In the case of Munchery which was losing up to $5 million in a single month and recently closed Sprig was losing up to $350k per month.

When pricing receives too little attention too late in a company’s go-to-market, corrections are difficult. In addition to a misread of customer’s willingness to pay, these food companies were conditioning price perception with each new deal or promotion.

Hindsight is 20:20, but one has to wonder how much revenue and profit growth could have been achieved with a pricing strategy built on customer insight and value.

Get the insight you need

Entrepreneurs and companies can be proactive in gathering customers insight and take greater control of their pricing destiny.

While time is a key ingredient to customer research, some quick wins are achievable. Here are 5 things that can be done today.

1. Set goals: Know what you don’t know and fill in the blanks

Before asking a single question, define what insight is needed to push the product and company forward. The questions you develop based on these goals will give more impactful insights

2. Define early customer segments, refine and repeat

Sounds obvious right? Surprisingly many companies struggle defining who their customers are. Companies need to get specific or at least who they want their customers to be.

This is iterative so don’t expect the perfect customer profile the first go around. The goal is to peel away layers to get to the heart of what makes one customer group unique from another.

3. Build behavior questions, not opinion questions

A pricing truism I often share with clients and in talks: pricing is always important. It’s more valuable to determine what other factors are important and the relative value of those factors versus price.

Like an anthropologist, you are looking for behavioral cues. Focusing on behavior questions shed light on what customers value, how decisions are made and the inputs needed to form that decision.

4. Use every customer interaction as an insight opportunity

When entrepreneurs and companies hear ‘research’ they often imagine long projects resulting in a bulky report collecting dust. Customer research shouldn’t be avoided but practiced by the entire company.

Gathering responses from even a small cohort of customers can be powerful. These interactions shed light on what is valued, friction points in adoption and refine the proposition. Don’t miss these opportunities customers give you.

5. Link insights to go-to-market actionable activities

Insight gathering may seem like an end in itself. It’s not. You’re collecting insight so that it’s actionable. That means the things you learn from and about customers should serve how prices are set and communicated.

Insights should inform how marketing and sales campaigns are designed and measured. If you’re collecting customer insight that is not actionable, then stop. The goal is to reduce the number of steps to get from question to action.

Final thoughts

Going out and learning what you don’t know about customers can be scary and intimidating. Not doing so is riskier. Don’t dilute the value of your product even before you give yourself a chance to learn about your customers.

If you have a product (or building one) that is better for customers, then embrace the difference by not giving it away. Find what makes your customers unique and what drives them.

Don’t concede your pricing power without knowing what that pricing power is. If you accept competitor prices are right for your product, then eventually your customers will too. This is a losing and unsustainable position to be in.

If you bet on a ‘change it later’ strategy and not get the insights you need, you’re effectively mortgaging your pricing power. Don’t give up before seizing the opportunity to learn and win customers, which will pay dividends in the short- and long-term.

Interested in learning more?

If you or your team is interested in having a hosted session on your pricing and monetization model, please contact us at: contact@helloadvisr.com

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