Understanding Market Pricing:

Market pricing is often considered the most vital component of marketing strategy. One of the 4 Ps (or cost if going by the 4 Cs) of marketing, there is no doubt that market pricing has one of the largest impacts on a buyers journey. Regardless of what you have to offer, it generally comes down to price in the end – right? Actually, some modern marketing strategists might tell you that market price is irrelevant. That’s because most consumers compare price, but purchase based on value. But what if your offering is so different that no price-comparison can be made?

We often like to assess those “specialty items” and as a creative exercise take the time to identify market pricing extremes. Let’s use bottled water for a familiar example. One of the most expensive bottles of water is the Acqua di Cristallo “Tributo a Modigliani” – a 24 karat gold encrusted bottle, design-inspired by the Italian artist Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The water itself is nothing more than a mix of Fiji, France and glacier water mixed with a little gold-dust. The damage per bottle? $60k.

Would you pay $60,000 for a bottle of water?

At a much lower, but still premium level, there’s Kona Nigari water. In contrast, the design of the bottle is bland and the water? A special desalinated sea water collected a few thousand feet below sea-level off the cost of Hawaii. Branded to provide stress-relief, weight loss, and increase skin quality, each bottle will set you back a heavy $402. If you care to study the bottled water market in depth, you will find water in all price levels. But when we start thinking about the pricing conversation for bottled water, why do most of us start off with “how much should a bottle of water cost?” We think that’s the wrong question. The right question should be, how much does YOUR bottle of water cost?