Can your Brand afford to buy cheap?

 

 

How is this helping the Brand?

 

"I'm fairly sure I can get that cheaper!" This is an exclamation we occasionally get. We had it more than occasionally at the height of the recession that the country seems to just be crawling out of. The consequences of actions based on this premise on Brand image are now becoming apparent.

To examine the circumstances of how we get to this type of exclamation we need to look at 2 things. The business driver’s for it and then the personalities behind it.

For the personalities, although there are grades from one end of the spectrum (not paying whatever you tell me even if it’s below what I’m willing to pay) through to the other (yep, that’s fine) the difficulties are at the former end of the spectrum but, more time, explanation and effort goes into the latter as people don’t want to abuse trust at this end! At the ‘won’t pay that’ end, then no explanation for the differences in pricing will win the day, even if not measuring like-for-like.

Both these personalities exist in Small companies and large corporations alike and, we all work for and with them all.

 

This is just not getting the Brand message across I'm afraid!

The business driver’s are a little different.

In the good times, that is any time not in recession, purchase decisions are made on quality, price and delivery. Delivery being not just a time issue but the going about it to make life easier for the client and the ability to get it right first time.

These are given, more or less, equal weighting.

So, in bad times, these weightings are changed so that quality is sacrificed at the Alter of price, and delivery is left alone (you might think). Clients like to kid themselves they’re getting exactly the same and will tell us so but we and, more importantly they, know this is not so!

If it were so, why would they come back to us when they can see good times ahead?

So, if the image of your Brand can afford to take a dip in the bad times, then please do buy cheap. If it can’t, then apply your own Brand values to the purchasing decision.

One of our longest standing Charity client's favourite phrases is “We can’t afford to buy cheap”. That’s a very strong statement when you’ve got a finite budget!

 

So if you want real Brand value for money, have a look at our banners and Branding Solutions.