A Pricing strategy or model helps companies find the pricing formula in fit with their business models. Thus aligning the customer needs with the product type while trying to enable profitability for the company. A good pricing strategy aligns the customer with the company’s long term financial sustainability to build a solid business model.

AppSumoed: transforming subscriptions in lifetime deals

If you know AppSumo, that is among the most popular deals platforms in the SaaS space. AppSumo takes a company with a subscription revenue model, transforms it (only for its platform) in a lifetime deal, thus making it a no brainer for its audience to purchase the deal.

This sort of pricing strategy can be effective at launch. When you have a product and a brand that none knows, leveraging on this sort of pricing strategy can:

• Help you feature your product on deals platforms which can amplify it in a very short time frame.
• Enable a large number of users to join an entry product, thus prompting those users to convert in higher-paying tiers over time.
• Making possible to gather feedback by a large number of initial users, thus helping them refine your product.

Thus, at launch it can be a good pricing strategy also for software products (which require continuous updates and support). However, that is not suited as a long-term pricing strategy.

It’s instead a good long-term strategy only for those products not requiring many updates over time (digital products, one-time services).

Auction: the winner takes it all

In an auction pricing strategy, two or more people bid on a product, and the product gets sold to the bidder who offers the most.

As highlighted on eBay’s website:

In an auction-style listing, sellers name a starting price and you bid against other buyers. You can watch the item to see how the bidding is going. When the listing ends, the highest bidder wins the item and completes the purchase.

The auction makes sense in eBay’s case as the company is a marketplace (or platform business model) that succeeds in turning a revenue when sellers and buyers can close the bidding successfully.

Auction can be a good pricing strategy in a few circumstances:

• Fast-changing inventory: the bidding system is successful as it enables a quick turnover of inventories, which in turn can drive more people on the platform as they are always on the look for new, exciting stuff.
• Curated goods: this sort of system might also be very suited for platforms enabling transactions of goods which are harder to find anywhere else.
• Maximized value: when the platform is highly curated and the items are well selected, the transaction value can be driven up by the fact that buyers are willing to pay more for those objectives they are looking for (collectors are willing to pay more).

Thus, in this scenario, this sort of system would work. In other cases, though, if the platform sells regular stuff, available anywhere else, it might make less sense.

Bundled: more for less

Bundling consists of grouping a set of products and services, more conveniently priced, of if they were priced singularly. Thus in the bundle, they cost more than the single product, yet overall way more convenient. For instance, a single pen sells at $1. A bundled package of ten pens, each with a different color, can be bundled and sold at just $5. The customers pay more in absolute number, yet less in relative number, and they can get more variety.

Your margins are reduced, yet you also make the ofer more attractive, and you can sell more based on volume. Thus, the advantages of bundilg are:

• Amplify the reach of the product.
• Expand the customer base.
• Make the product more accessible.
• Test pricing variations of otherwise products sold singularly.
• Experiment with product variety.
• Use best selling product to push otherwise ignored products.
• Create higher-ticket, yet convenient offers.

Therefore, bundling can be a powerful pricing strategy. Yet, it needs to be tested carefully, as the risk is to dilute the product offering.

Consumption-based: pay what you consume

In a consumption-based model, customers only pay when the product gets used. This is usually well suited for those services or products that require continuous usage. For isntance, cloud services are primarily charged on a consumption-basis. This pricing model is the oppositve of a recurring model where certain resources are comprised indipendently from their usage.

For insance, you pay your Netflix subscription whether or not you watch it. Yet you also pay a convenient price if you do watch it as you could potentially wath the full library of content.

Customers usually like consumption-based, especially on a B2B side, as this doesn’t create lock-in, and businesses only get charged if they do use it.

Couponized: discounted as default

In a “couponized” scenario, the platform acts as a sort of deal platform, where you can find as default continuous discounts. For instance, e-learning platforms like Udemy leverage n aggressive coupon strategies to enable a large number of people to join in. Also, a platform like Groupon built a whole business model on matching people with businesses offering coupons for the services offered.

While coupons can be a great way to attract more customers (we all like to save or feel like we’re saving money), and you can build a whole business model around coupons. Companies that offer a wide variety of products, or connecting a large number of sellers and services with potential buyers, coupons can be effective.

Fixed-price: the safe price

In a fixed-pricing pricing strategy, the company “promises” to keep the same pricing level forever, thus assuring customers about the potential future market fluctuations.

While fixed-pricing can be great to attract a larger number of customers, at the same time, it might not scale well. Indeed, fixed pricing is just the opposite of a dynamic pricing strategy where pricing can vary according to demand and offer and the company, or the players offering and demanding those services can adjust accordingly.

Pay-as-you-go: charge it up and go

In a pay-as-you-go pricing strategy you can enable customers to prepay for a cerain level of service, to be used at their discretion. In this sort of pricing model, flexibilty is the key advantage for the customers, as the service can be used within a time frame.

Pay as you want: customer-made pricing

In a pay-as-you-want model, customers make the price. This sort of strategy can be useful when launching a service that can have highly variable pricing, given its low marginal costs, thus making it possible to make an informed guest (driven by customers’ feedback) on whats the best pricing for that product. in short, rather than guessing you can just see what most customers pay for that product and price accordingly.

Platformed: get a cut on one or both sides

In a platform business model, you can make money either by charging a single side of the platform (LinkedIn charges recruiters) or by collecting a fee from both (Airbnb earns a commission from both hosts and guests). When you develop a successful platform, where people can transact with each other, you have the potential to charge on both sides or perhaps evaluate which side is willing or able to Austin the cost of the transaction in exchange for a continuous stream of customers.

Psychological pricing: change the product’s perception

In a psychological pricing strategy, rather than caning the nature of the product offered you can leverage on psychological elements to carve the perception around your product. Some examples are time constraints (offers for a limited time), others are based on using the “9” at the end (for instance, use $1.99 rather than $2, as it might give the perception of a less expensive option). More than a pricing strategy this is a tactic to be used whatever pricing option you choose as it can help you change the perception of your product by using only psychology. The key here is experimentation also based on what psychological tactics are been used by others. Model after them and test.

SaaSified: transform a product into a service

In the SaaS industry, most software are sold as subscription services. This model proved viable as it enabled those companies to keep investing in continuous updates of the software, bug fixes, and the willingness to keep improving the product thanks to customers’ feedback.

With a bit of thinking and tweaking, almost any product can be transformed into service. The advantage is that of creating a continuous relationship with customers while creating a more stable revenue stream. Of course, continuous service requires an important investment in product development. And a great customer support team.

Subsidized: let the rich pay for the poor

In a subsidized pricing strategy, there is a set of customers who pay for all else. This sort of pricing strategy makes the product free for most customers, while the premium for others. It can take the form of various revenue streams from freemiums (where only a small percentage pays for the premium service, while most users will pick the basic, free service) to sponsorships (where a small number of sponsors pay to make the service available to a large segment of people who don’t pay for it).

Uberized: dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is the practice of having multiple price points based on several factors, such as customers segments, peak times of service and time-based consumption that allow the company applying dynamic pricing to make the transactions on the platform more scalable.

In deed, with dynamic pricing, demand and supply can adjust accordingly. For instance, if suddenly there is way more demand for a ride at a time of the day where less drivers are available, the price surges, thus making it possible for the few drivers left to accept the ride, as they can gain more.

This pricing strategy then can work pretty well in case of a service offered that can go through high volatility in terms of demand and offer, thus making it possible to scale revenues even when the volume of transactions grow exponentially.

Unbundled: let them get what they want

In an unbundled scenario, rather than trying to lock in with a higher-priced product bundle, the company can make available the only product people want the most. For instance, Apple iTunes undeluded CDs, by enabling people to purchase single songs, which finally gave people the option to get only what they wanted, rather than purchasing the whole CD.

Other resources:

• What Is Business Model Innovation
• Growth Strategies To Expand, Extend, Or Reinvent Your Business Model
• What Is a Business Model
• What Is Business Strategy
• What is Blitzscaling
• What Is Market Segmentation
• What Is a Marketing Strategy
• What is Growth Hacking
• Speed-Reversibility Matrix
• Ansoff Matrix
• Innovation Matrix
• Digital Growth Matrix

The post Pricing Strategies And Models To Enable Your Business Model appeared first on FourWeekMBA.