You know you don't want to compete on price. That's for losers.
What you want to do is figure out how to add more and more and more value.
Here's a little story of adding value. The girls and I just had a blast shopping for a wedding present for my sister. We bought her a a $0.50 piece of chocolate for $6.00 (among other things.)
How does one go about adding value? Let me tell you how it happened with the non-Godiva chocolate.
1. The venue. Lovely, cool, spacious, did I say "lovely." Good taste in the selling site adds value.
2. The packaging. Lovely, creative, colorful, and fun. Excellent packaging adds value.
3. The creativity. The message on the package is very clever. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what it says because my sister reads this blog and it would totally ruin the surprise. Another example of similar packaging of chocolate: Emergency Chocolate.
4. Free gift wrap. I didn't even get a nasty look when I asked them to wrap a $6.00 purchase. It has the label of the store, a pretty ribbon, and nice cellophane. Gift wrap adds tons of value - saves the buyer time and money.
5. The experience. Shopping at our local boutique, Jefferson's, is an experience. So is shopping at Wal-Mart, but that's not necessarily an enjoyable experience; sometimes it's even traumatic. At boutiques, it's fun to see who else is shopping there. At discount stores, you have to fight the mobs.
6. The brand. That's why brands are so valuable to their owners. But the company who produces this chocolate does not have a recognizable brand. Yet.
The economy is weird right now, I don't deny that. But gobs of money is out there. Go out there and get a piece of it by adding value.
