Hi there 
This week’s article is going to be brief! It’s been created in relation to one of our reader’s comments on last week’s article about perception determining your paycheck. It also relates to a recent struggle I had when making a decision about pricing for a product I’m about to launch, and how I ended up making the final decision.
You can view last week’s article here:
One of our readers commented about pricing and its relationship to perception. The comment referenced how we can lower people’s perception of our product or service if we’re always competing on price:
“We all know perception is important to determine value. The price of your product or service is another element that can affect how its value is perceived. Contrary to what some may advise, pricing something too low can lead [to] a perception of low quality [...] .” – Web Designer, London.
Is Lowering The Price Lowering Perceived Value?
This is the exact tussle I had with myself recently in relation to an upcoming Amazon book launch. My friend Anthony, who is helping me with navigating the Amazon upload and launch process was advising me to sell my book for a minimum amount to begin with – around $3.
I really struggled with this for a while, as it seemed so contrary to everything else I knew about perceived value and lowering people’s perceptions about the value of the book. After learning more about the way to successfully launch a book on Amazon, Anthony’s advice makes a lot more sense to me now.
Why I’m Selling My Product For $3
Apparently, it’s all about moving big numbers of books in the first week or so of launching it onto Amazon. Amazon has it’s own ranking system, and my book will be monitored and ranked by Amazon depending on the number of sales and customer reviews left.
I initially cringed at the idea of selling my book for a few bucks and risking people perceiving it to be of low value. Now I can see the bigger picture: how moving as many books as possible during the early launch phase is critical to keeping the book visible and ranked well in Amazon’s listings. I’m competing with millions of books, so working this the right way is going to be the deciding factor on whether my book disappears among the millions of others or not.
The Bigger Picture
This was a valuable learning experience for me, sometimes lowering my price is going to be more beneficial to me in the long run. It really all depends on what I’m trying to accomplish and understanding how the bigger picture will influence my decision.
Next week I’ll be interviewing a friend of mine, James Kloblasa who is a product launch expert and he will share his insider tips, so stay tuned for some great insights.
For more information on choosing the best pricing policy, one of our writers, Dee Kumar, published a brilliant article with a variety of great strategies to try.
See you next week.
Cheers, Neroli.