Eng
Eng
Every morning my child starts the morning with a milk breakfast. Of course, when purchasing dairy products, I try to make the best choice, no matter how much they cost.
Well, in the evening, when purchasing repair materials for the house, I often give preference to those markets where there are various preferential promotions and where the price is acceptable to me. This is the best choice for me.
When buying, there are often cases when we physically or mentally sort the desired product by price and thus come to the optimal choice. Therefore, the price of a product is an important lever that a business can control.
Price, in addition to determining the market value of a product, is used as the primary means of communication in today's rapidly changing business environment. Depending on how the price is relevant to the solvency of the segment, brands interact with customers, "befriend" or, conversely, build a "wall" between the product/service and the customer.
Now, in times of war, inflation, and post-pandemic, price and related communications are becoming increasingly important for the modern market, as prices are constantly changing along with the global agenda. Prices are rising for everything: bread, fuel, gold, both basic necessities and luxuries, goods and services.
However, according to the latest market research conducted by ACT, in many industries, price is the leading factor for consumers. For example, if we look at the pharmaceutical market, then a quarter of its buyers (24-26%) decide to choose a pharmacy that offers an acceptable price. Thus, for almost a third of consumers in the retail market, price is the most important factor when making a purchase decision.
Price changes, of course, often lead to negative/critical feedback from the consumer, which business in Georgia, as well as in the world, in some cases tries to neutralize with well-known marketing "tricks":
These tactics are worn out in today's market and can be said to be "deciphered" by the user. For brands seeking to connect emotionally with customers, transparent and timely pricing information must be the key link.
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Offer value, not price. The cost repeats the brand and its identity. The customer needs an idea, status, or emotional benefit that he will receive in exchange for paying a certain amount. Businesses that sell a product/service sell the benefits that the end-user will receive through it. Depending on the value of the product/service, brands tell customers what they can become the owners of after purchasing their product/service. This means that when buying Apple products, we buy status, when buying Nike boots, we buy victory and energy, and Reiban glasses for us are a journey and a good mood. When stating the price, we must emphasize what life/everyday problem the consumer will solve with it. At the same time, in branding and communications, the emphasis on values increases the consumer's resistance to possible price changes, making the segment more emotionally attached to the product/service. For example, Coca-Cola is a happiness/family holiday, do you remember its price?
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Find out the best price for your customers. To achieve this goal, price elasticity research is effective, which gives the business information about what price will be acceptable/optimal for its audience, in other words, in which case they buy a product/service. Research is critical:
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Remember the communication triangle. Price communication is just as important as the end-user:
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Tell the cause, not just the result. Now, with constant changes in public life, the economy, everyday life, and a sense of instability, price changes can be perceived by consumers more painfully than business thinks. In the event that a business changes its price/sets a new price, it is important for healthy communication to provide the customer with a reason for the new price. It is understood that the audience is interested in why the price is changing, will it change again? Because of what? This gives him emotional comfort and readiness. In order for communication to be as transparent as possible for him, the business should try to imagine that price communication is not a monologue of the brand, but a dialogue with the buyer. Follow the rules of the dialogue:
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Finally, it is important for businesses to be prepared for any feedback, since the audience, among other characteristics, is distinguished by its loyalty and degree of price stability. However, the dialogue should be ongoing and the next steps the brand should determine in addition to other important metrics based on the feedback received. Thus, price is an important communication channel. As a result of dialogue with customers, the business receives information for improvement, and this process is continuous and iterative.
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Our new reality is very much alike if you get up 15 minutes earlier to work day, go to “home office”, work, mix personal and work time, head over to your own kitchen during lunch, come across with shopping list when working on projects and mostly spend your weekends on the balcony. New reality makes our behavior and work principles homogenous. In the environment where homes are turned into offices a circle is formed where routine is repeated every day for everyone. How is it possible under these circumstances to keep your work motivation or even increase it?
When speaking about motivation, we most definitely need to mention Abraham Maslow, founder of motivation theory, whose pyramid cannot be avoided by any organization. On initial stage of keeping employees motivated, Maslow considers basic needs: physical environment and safety, following level is taken by psychological needs: belonging, love, recognition and finally, he sees the need of achieving one’s full potential and self-actualization.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy, organizations that fully meet employees’ needs from basic needs to top level, significantly increase their motivation. However, this classic model was altered by the pandemic. Now, employees who had their physical environment covered in terms of basic needs, have an upside down situation: they make stocks of food, pile up hygiene and medical products, stay at home and take care of their own and family member’s health. Under these changes, pyramid is completely altered and it becomes necessary to discuss changed tactics of employees’ motivation.
In Georgian reality, “upside down” pyramid appeared to be most simply adaptable for those companies whose organizational strengths became transferable into remote service as they already had digital processes well-established. To motivate employees, these and other companies had to make decisions based on the stage where large portion of their employees were at.
We are sharing an example of our organization – ACT, how it manages to preserve the bottom level of pyramid so that based on the central part, it supports lower and upper levels and respectively, increases employees’ motivation.
Love, friendship, family, belonging – central part of the pyramid, psychological factors largely affect motivation of employees. As far as ACT’s management follows direct, consistent communication, uses open, free, less bureaucratic approaches, acceptance of their decisions is already quite high. In addition to this, the majority of employees has long history of working for the company, thus, the feeling of love and belonging, supporting each other stands high on psychological level. A feeling of belonging is enhanced during a crisis, when people love to be united, to be in the same boat, this strengthens them mentally and simplifies acceptance of novelties, new initiatives. Being united against the problem from the company’s perspective is perceived as ultimate motivator, while being united around the idea is a powerful tool in the pursue to achieving goal.
Physical environment – new fears emerged in terms of physical level: preserving a job, salary, mobilization of finances for meeting basic needs, physical place to effectively do your job. These fears compromise lower level and to terminate this, organization needs to have timely and right communication with employees. To address this problem, ACT made certain changes in terms of staff/salary, which resulted in preserving jobs for every employee. This decision, on one side eliminated fears in terms of safety and physical environment and on the other side, on central level, built level of basic needs on membership of one big family. Employees became motivated to create safe working environment for them and their colleagues, thus, the company shortly became entirely digitalized.
Self-actualization – some of ACT’s employees were on the level of meeting the need of self-actualization, while part of them, with right allocation of resources, were given a chance to show off their “hidden” skills during the crisis. Opportunity to demonstrate their potential additionally motivated people to receive recognition from colleagues and level up to the last step of pyramid where by fully realizing their skills, they could turn the challenge into an opportunity. Clear demonstration of this is a new consulting platform of ACT – www.act-strategist.ge formed with the idea of supporting other businesses under corporate responsibility.
When evaluating the steps we made, organization was able to obtain a larger picture through a feedback tool (internal study), based on which motivation of employees has remained the same for 57% during crisis considering the decisions made by management while motivation increased for 33% of employees. Inquired staff members also believe that changes will not affect company’s work: on expectation level, they perceived that company would work in regular regime, while they feel optimistic towards the future operation of ACT. As verified by this example, if psychological needs are met, organization culture and feeling of being united is in place, building values on them becomes quite easy, which is particularly important during crisis.