Brainstorming ways to generate more sales in the current economic times is a daily ritual for those who work at Marketing Eye. Our last quarter was still strong, but could have been better - like everyone else in the consulting game.
The latest, or more precisely, today's great idea is $10 per day websites over 12 months interest free. Now I personally have a problem with this, as it's the same product that we give clients who pay $8,000 for a website and they have to pay upfront.
Whilst we offer small to medium sized businesses a Marketing Manager for $24,000 per year*, we don't normally discount and this is more than 50% off the normal price.
We say, 'everybody needs a marketing eye, but not everyone has one' and we feel the same way about websites. Everybody needs one but not everyone has one or at least, has one that people see.
For us, it's like the first entry into marketing your business successfully after developing your brand.
We are not alone when it comes to discounting in the area of professional services. According to Raintoday.com, discounting is the norm.
61.4% of professional services firms report that they discount their fees from their internally standard or externally published rate or fee structure.
38.6% report they do not ever discount.
Marketing Eye does not discount its fee structure at all, but areas that are add-on's, we regularly review on a client-by-client basis. The reason being is that if the company we work with doesn't have a good brand, has a bad website, or doesn't understand the value of public relations, sometimes we have to lead the way and show them the benefits by actually giving it to them at a price that is too good to refuse. If they don't have these things, how can we market their businesses?
Should companies be discounting in the current climate?
To trial this promotion, we are focusing on companies in the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Townsville, Rockhampton and Cairns.
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5 comments:
It is a tricky question... In some cases discounting to assist your clients is a win win for everyone. However you can risk damaging your brand profile by discounting too heavily, such as in the well publicised case of Hungry Jacks, whose discount vouchers helped them cement a foothold in the market, but created an air of expectation amongst their consumer base of discounted food.
it is a tough time for everyone. I think discount is a negative way to deal with it.
I think discounting should not be ruled out entirely. Personally I think the key to surviving these tough economic times is flexibility. I think those companies who can respond to changing market conditions will be the ones who survive - and possibly grow. Although the Hungry Jacks anecdote does highlight the risk that clients will come to expect discounts...
A brand is a combination of what you believe to be true and what your actions show, so there is little a company can do to that doesn't have the the potential to affect the brand - both good and bad. However, I do agree with Judy, during a downturn companies need to adapt in order to survive and I think in this instance, a discount wouldn't damage the brand
I don't necessarily think that discounting is a bad thing for a company to do. I think that they sould really take a look at what the benefits are from doing this and if there are going to be negative effects before they make this decision.
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