Lowering your prices doesn't mean more people buying.

The speaker, Phoebe, is a brand strategist who helps business owners communicate their brand's uniqueness and connect with their target audience. She poses a question to business owners about whether they have considered lowering their prices to attract more customers. She shares a personal story about buying anti-red glasses and considering cheaper options. Although cheaper brands offered similar designs, Phoebe ultimately chose the more expensive brand because it provided security, validation, and confidence. She emphasizes that price is not the only factor when making a purchase, and business owners should consider meeting other needs of their customers instead of simply lowering prices. Phoebe suggests increasing brand perception, improving customer service, addressing objections, and understanding customers' needs and desires. She concludes that understanding the target audience is crucial for crafting a brand that resonates with them and ensures repeat purchases. Hey everyone, Phoebe here. I'm a brand strategist and I help business owners get clarity on how to communicate what makes their brand different and emotionally connect with their target audience. Now just for today, I have a question for you, dear business owners. Was there ever a time that you thought about lowering your prices just to get more customers? Or maybe you're even considering it now, maybe you're in that stage. Now before you even go full-blown on that, if you're still considering or if you already did lower your prices, maybe it's time for you like to do some rethinking of what could possibly grow your business. All right, now just some thoughts. A quick story, I had my anti-red glasses broken just a few days ago and of course since anti-red glasses are an essential nowadays because we're on our computers 24-7, it wasn't essential for me so I needed to buy a new one which is yay because it's like validated my thirst for acquiring new stuff charts. But yeah, so that was the situation. I needed new eyeglasses and my first option to buy was anti-red glasses from the brand called Baobab and it was around 800 pesos including the shipping fee. So it was around that price. My only concern was that if I buy this product then I wouldn't be able to buy other stuff anymore because I've only set a certain budget for the month and I would have exhausted my budget already. So that was the problem. Now my consideration was that maybe I can find other quality anti-red glasses from other brands that could be way cheaper and that would probably be a good deal for me, you know, getting the same quality but for a cheaper price. So I was looking for something like that and so I started looking and yes, there were so many brands out there, so many product choices that offered similar designs, yes, and they were three times more cheaper than my first option which was a Baobab eyeglasses. So it was three times cheaper. There were options that were around 200 pesos. Wow, it's super cheap. There were also options around 400 pesos which was kind of a good deal as well and you might be thinking that I've found gold, that it's probably a no-brainer for me and I would have purchased immediately but you're wrong because it took me like 798 hours. Char, that's a hyperbole. But yeah, it took me a lot of hours going back and forth contemplating deciding which product I should go for and purchase. When I look at the expensive ones in my list, again, that would mean exhausting my budget for the month and I wouldn't be able to buy any other like, you know, for leisure or stuff but when I go for like the cheaper ones in my list, I would ask myself, okay, why is this like way cheaper? Is it because like the product is not really good? Is it really that quality? Will it look good on me? Will I look good on this? Will I feel comfortable wearing them? Like what's the catch of it being cheaper? So I had those objections in mind and after like, again, how many hours of doing that, going back and forth and stuff, eventually I was having a headache, again, because of like the exposure, too much exposure from gadgets because aside from me scrolling through Shopee, I was also like doing work stuff in my laptop. So that's the case, I was having a headache already and of course what popped into my mind is, man, I need anti-red glasses ASAP because I'm doing a lot of like digital stuff and with that, I just went and purchased one that I felt most safe with and that was my first choice which was the Baobab anti-red glasses which was also by far the most expensive one in my cart. Now, moral of the story, kind of like reflected on that, even though I did, as a consumer, considered buying something cheaper for the same quality of product, no other cheaper brands were able to provide the same security, validation, and confidence that Baobab gave me. Now, don't get me wrong, but I'm not trying to generalize stuff, I'm not trying to say that if this is my purchasing behavior, then this must be the purchasing behavior of other people. No, it's not like that. So what I'm trying to point out is that, yes, there are hundreds, thousands of people who are trying to look for cheaper options, better deals, but just because something is cheaper doesn't always mean that that will be their choice and that's because price point is never the only factor when it comes to buying. Another factor could be something like, is this product right for me? Another factor could be, does this product meet all of my needs? Number three, does this product or does this brand make me feel secure? Things like that. Now, considering that price point is not the only factor for buying, maybe now is also the time for you as a business owner to consider, are you actually going to lower down your prices or are you going to meet the other needs? Are you going to meet the other factors that your ideal client, your ideal customer are actually looking for? Maybe it's not a matter of lowering down your prices, maybe it's a matter of increasing your brand perception, maybe it's a matter of improving your customer service, maybe it's a matter of improving your brand presence, a matter of addressing their objections on social media, you know, just to give them that security, things like that. Now, that's other ideas, some stuff that you can do in order to attract more of your target customers. And again, the bottom line is always understanding who they are, what they actually want, frustrations they have, you know, secret desires, solutions they've tried, etc. It's understanding all of those nitty-gritty details about their life so that you can craft your brand in a way that actually and truly resonates with who they are. So that when they come across your brand, they feel like you're the one. And when you do prove that you're the one, you meet all of their needs, you become their standard. And when you become their standard, it will be hard for them to find another brand that can beat you or even level with you. As a result, they just end up buying from you again and again and again. And that's similar to my experience with Baobab. If I'm not mistaken, this is actually the fourth time I will be buying from their shop. By the way, disclaimer, this is not sponsored in any way by Baobab or whatsoever. This is purely coming from my experience. I'm sharing new insights and perspective as a consumer myself and as a brand strategist, hoping that it can help you, you know, approach your business moving forward. So yeah, that's it for this episode. And I guess my role here for today is to break that belief that in order to get more customers, you need to like, lower down your prices. Because no, that's not always true. Cheaper isn't always what people want. Sometimes it's more of the other things, right? And that's for you to figure out. And you can only figure that out based on how much you know your target audience. So again, it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me, Char. I'm Phoebe. I'm a brand strategist. And I help business owners get clarity on how they're going to communicate what makes them different, what makes them valuable, and emotionally connect to their target audience. Now, if you want to work with me, there's a link in the show notes below that can direct you towards that. But if not, please feel free to take advantage of the free content that I will be posting moving forward. And to make things more valuable for you, if you have any comments, insights, stories, or experiences you want to share with us, please feel free to email me or put that down in the comment section below. Because every time you speak up, every time you share something, that's always a chance you take to solve problems. Because what if other people are also asking the same questions, right? What if other people are also having the same sentiment or having the same problems with you? Those are always opportunities for problems to be solved, for, you know, things to be addressed, for discussions to start. And that, for me, that's really something valuable. And not just for me, but I think it's also valuable for a lot of people out there, especially the ones who are listening to this type of content, you know, trying to learn more and actually grow their business. I hope you had a great time listening to this podcast episode. And if you did, you might want to follow me on my other social media platforms, because I also post valuable content there. So you might be picking up some golden nuggets outside this. And if you want to say hi, please do so, because it's always nice to be connected to new people. And who knows, I might be learning from you as well. And I would very much love that. Hope you're having a great day and see you on the next one.