One of the blogs I follow is written by Sam Meers, it’s a blog dedicated to insights in advertising. He wrote a blog post regarding the topic of Brand Value and how companies can mistakenly focus on how a product should be priced VS. discussions revolve around “How do we add value in order to justify the price?” He gave an example of how a friend was purchasing a new kitchen and the companies she shopped failed to differentiate themselves from one another other than just providing a price of their goods.

Given this scenario, Sam’s recommendation in regards to Brand Value was:

“Your company has a story to tell. And within that story you have small bits of information that set you apart from your competitors. But you must tell the story. And you must tell it in a compelling manner. Otherwise, you will only have price upon which to build your business. And there is always someone who can make it and sell it cheaper than you.”

After reading his blog post, I personally posted the following comment:

“I totally get the concept of ‘illustrate your value’. But, in your friend’s situation how do you tell your story? If the interaction with the customer is just “give me your price for X” how do you inject your brand story? How do you sell it’s value. I suppose you can try to give your “pitch”, but how do you do that without coming off like a used car salesman?”

Sam posted a great response in regards to my comment (above). He describes, “The basic answer is this: If you wait until the customer is interacting with the sales person to begin telling your brand story, then it’s too late. Sales people need marketing people to lay the appropriate groundwork in the marketplace so people are prepared to purchase when they walk in the door. If the brand story has been well articulated, then the customer knows why they’re there — and they’re ready to buy — and their purchase will not be based on price, but value.”

» Read the full blog post here