ImagesMagUK_November_2021

Increase value without excess effort Erich Campbell drills down into the embroiderer’s holy grail – how to get more for your work without ramping up the sweat levels or hours worked O nce a radical concept, value-based pricing has become commonplace in conversations on how you prepare, market and price your goods. Although pricing requires an understanding of the costs of production, it’s increasingly accepted that a product’s value isn’t solely defined by the numbers plugged into a spreadsheet. Decorators have begun to understand that price does not have to rise or fall in direct relation to the cost of the goods and supplies used or the labour required to produce it. A customer’s willingness to pay premium prices relies heavily on their perception of your product and the way you operate. In short, you know that the value a customer places on work you have delivered determines the price you can demand. Merch magnification Perception of value varies greatly depending on the context, marketing, positioning, or the trending popularity of a product’s style or decoration. Anyone who is a fan of a famous content creator – or lives with such a fan – can easily attest to this disconnect between product and price. Simple hooded sweatshirts, tees, patches and pins, often direct from manufacturers we know well, when emblazoned with art from a cherished YouTuber or podcaster can fetch prices at multiples of what we’d usually expect from retail sales. The ‘blessing’ of a favourite creator, the sense of belonging imparted by in-joke references in the decoration, the exclusivity of small runs, and the ability to signify one’s tastes and affiliations to others of a selected ‘tribe’ – all of these things make what are sometimes unremarkable decorations into something inherently desirable. Even those of us who aren’t in these digital tribes have at some point purchased merch, perhaps from a concert or a destination we particularly enjoyed, at When a promotional product company sent me this box, it was hard to ignore. Consisting of a full-colour print wrap, this covering demanded attention. Customers and end-users alike would find it hard to overlook your work if you made your packaging this eye-catching Value-added packaging doesn't always need to be pretty to be effective. In this case, packaging individuals’ orders from a larger group order makes for easy distribution for B2B customers. Purchasers love never needing to second-guess and, in the current climate, you can step it up by offering direct- to-employee fulfilment of welcome gifts, employee apparel, and more for home-based workers a premium price. We must ask ourselves, was it the value of the blank good or time spent on the decoration that made us pay so much? Chances are your perception was coloured by the situation, experience or novelty of the item more than your appreciation of the work that went into it. Setting (yourself apart from) the standard Although associations such as those mentioned above can drive value, the flood of ‘brands’ created by this merch revolution has started to demand the kind of details that help set products apart from other entries in their category. Whether it’s from your usual customers who now have increased awareness or newly minted content creators looking to monetise merch, there’s an increased desire for something ‘more’. From KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT www.images-magazine.com 74 images NOVEMBER 2021