Kaushik Krishnan

Sales and Marketing, Birding , Nature , Photography , etc

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Birthdays, anniverseries, etc etc. celebration for what ?

Recently i came accross this strange situation where i had contributed to celebrate a birthday celebration in the office but forgot to wish the person next day morning.


Then i got back this interesting challenge that keeps going on in my brain every time i am in one of these 'celebrations' what is that we are looking for in that celebration ?

  • Is it the year that has gone by that you are celebrating ? - If you are celebrating the year that went by then you should have celebrated on every occasion that made you feel good. Many times i feel that people do not do this and rather carry on with life 
  • Is it the year that you are looking forward to that you are celebrating ?  If this was the case you should be a born astrologer. How is it that you know in advance that the year is going to be so good ?
It against logic in certain cases like your birthday, why celebrate one getting older ? It is against logic to me. 


If you want to celebrate - celebrate life itself !!! Every day in your life !!!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Its all about pricing honey - Top Ramen and Indo Nissin Foods

Sometimes its all about pricing honey. Indo Nissin foods has been selling the coveted Top Ramen noodles in the market for a couple of years now, the market leader though is Nestle's Maggi Noodles which revolutionised the market with the 2 minute maggi adverts. Top Ramen is happy playing the second fiddle and works with the pricing of Maggi price - 1 Re = Top Ramen pricing.

Indo nissin have also tied up with Reliance to sell the same product at Top Ramen - 1 Re pricing in reliance fresh stores. Hiowver it will be with Reliance select branding. This is profitable to Indo Nissin as they save on selling costs.

Coming back to the topic itself how do you price a product ?

Scenario 1 - You are the first player and have to choose a price - Well thats a tricky situation. however we have an answer start with the best possible price at the top where you think it will sell. You can always bring it down.

Scenario 2 - You raise the price - This is the case with market leaders they continue to raise prices once the product becomes a leader. However the customer will feel overcharged and see the lower price as the fair price look for options that are cheaper.

Scenario 3 - You lower your price - When you are not doing too weell you tend to lower your price a bit. This price is seen as the fair price by the customers and they will refuse to move with you when you increase your price again.

Questions that you need to ask yourself

1. Do my customers need this offering ? If not then you might have to lower your price

2. Are you offering an affordable luxury compared to the market which offers either a luxury or cheaper replica

3. Are you significantly better than the competition ? Then you can raise prices if you have the nessasary demand

What other options you have ?

1. Increase the confidence in your product among the customers - Offer money back if not fulfilling the need, free support and the like

2. Bundle the product and provide the slow moving product as a bundle along with the fast moving product at a considerably lower price point. Remove the slow moving product and launch a better product at the same price point if you even need the same product in the shelf.

3. Remove the price tag if possible - Listen what your customer needs as a solution and then offer the price based on what he can and will pay.