Too many businesses compete by discounting. He’s charging $100, I’ll charge $90! He drops to $80, so make mine $69.95!
This race to the bottom means working harder, less profit and vanishing margins.
Now ask, “What can I add that makes me more valuable?”
Sure, you can give stuff away, hoping you’ll open doors to future business.
But what if you could persuade customers to pay for what they can get for free?
Consider rapper Nipsey Hussle’s lesson that charging for freebies generates attention, loyalty and business.
In 2013, Hussle released his “Crenshaw” mixtape. With the internet having conditioned music fans to expect music for nothing, most mixtapes were simply given away.
Instead, Hussle made “Crenshaw” available as a free digital download and produced 1,000 physical copies that he sold for $100 each. The copies were autographed and numbered, and came with a ticket to a concert. They sold out in 24 hours!
A hundred bucks for music you could download for free sounds crazy, but that’s why it worked. The CD wasn’t just a CD; it was membership in an exclusive club.
“Who the hell charges $100 for a mixtape?” became the story people noticed. When Jay-Z purchased 100 copies, he provided $10,000 worth of attention-grabbing validation…and millions in free publicity.
The lesson? People don’t simply buy products; they buy experiences.
So stop assuming price is the only value you can offer and add something your competition can’t.
Experience, scarcity, status, exclusivity, personal attention, access, convenience a story — even bragging rights — can all add value.
This is why Starbucks can charge $4 for coffee that would cost you 35 cents at home. You’re paying for the Starbucks experience.
People don’t always want the cheapest choice. They want the choice that makes them feel they received something worthwhile.
And sometimes making something more expensive actually makes it more interesting.
After all, if Hussle had just given “Crenshaw” away for free, we’d be talking about something else today.
Regardless of what you sell, there’s probably something you can add that would make someone happily pay twice as much.
Nipsey Hussle understood something many business owners overlook: Different gets noticed. And noticed gets talked about.
And in an overcrowded marketplace, being noticed is worth a whole lot more than being cheaper.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
Get more ideas at www.askmrmarketing.com.
