How to deal with price increases
Like night follows day eventually we all have to put our asking price up ... the question when and by how much?
Go talk to your accountan and she/he will tell you the best way to get
an instant increased in profitability is to put up your price.
Small to medium sized business operators know how hard it is to win a
new customer and how easy it is for regulars to stop buying, so
naturally they want to be very cautious with price rises.
But your costs steadily rise, little by little they eat away at your
profitability and probably more importantly the implicit value you have
built in your business.
I am a coffee snob (well I am a bit of an all round food, wine and
other beverage snob if the truth be known), so I take an avid interest
in Starbucks fortunes since its grand plans for coffee dominance came
crashing down in 2008 with the closure of 61 of its 85 Australian
stores and divorce of 685 partners (Starbuck euphemism for employees).
With 22 stores left in Oz when I checked this morning (2 stores must
have been closed on top of those announced in 2008) Starbucks Australia
still lost $4,580,000 last year selling coffee. That’s a whopping
average loss of $208,118 per store.
To gloat, 15 years ago I managed to convince a very large conglomerate
not to buy the right to own and operate Starbucks in Oz. My other
blue-suited pals within the company said it was “very brave advice”
(translated .. are you completely mad!.. must avoid being seen around
this one too much!). The company MD then went to the USA, got on the
turps, and ended up buying “Denney’s” instead. Go figure!
Now, I have set up quite a few coffee operations in my time and I tell
you there is real big money in coffee. But not for Starbucks in Oz...
this story will have to wait for another time, because I am here to
babble about increasing prices.
Conventional micro economic thinking is, when hard times hit cut back on expenses and cut your prices to keep the customers.
Starbucks in the midst of US recession did this. It also increased prices. Both things worked.
For number lovers see junk in box below;
Starbucks Score Card
Fiscal First Quarter 2010
* Consolidated net revenues increased 4% to $2.7 billion.
* Comparable store sales increased 4% driven by 1% increase in traffic and a 4% increase in average ticket.
* U.S. operating margin significantly improved to 17.3% from 5.8% in Q1 FY09.
* International operating margin improved to 7.4% from 2.6% in Q1 FY09.
What did they do?
Howard Schultz, chairman, president and ceo said
“Continued innovation, the successful enhancement of the customer
experience and a transformed, more-efficient cost structure have
brought Starbucks to a significant milestone---a return to profitable
growth,”
But he is just joshing us. He got away with increasing his prices in a
terrible recession by lowering those for which he had direct aggressive
competition and increasing signature items.
Worked for Starbucks: store sales up 4%, 1% more customers and 4% increase in average spend.
The biggest selling stuff which has direct competition from MacDougal’s got lowered prices.
Their signature items, you know the ones with funny names, went up by 8%.
Note for all restaurateurs, pub owners and club operators.
Your “specials” need to be more expensive than your normal big demand
items; otherwise we customers think you are just trying to shift old
stuff or to address purchasing mistakes.
Try regular high volume stuff cheap and specialty stuff expensive.
Loyal customers are price sensitive. Howard (hope he won’t mind if I
call him by his first name) gave a present to his price conscious
regular users by decreasing their prices. They thanked him by staying
with his enterprise. Mental note; do not read the popular book ‘The
Loyalty Effect”, do give the regulars “mates rates” and they will keep
coming back.
An unnamed Australian company spokesman said at end 2009 Starbucks “now
believes that it is well positioned for future growth and will support
the remaining 23 (sic now 22) Australian stores.”
I doubt it. But I have been wrong before –see Bledisloe Cup 2002 in
Christchurch, even paid for an airfare to see us (Wallabies) beat them
(whatever) at their place for the first time. As I said I have been
wrong before but gosh that was a fun trip. Again, a story for another
time.
Give some thoughts to Starbucking your products prices.
Time for another coffee
Seamus O’Brien
Small Fish Business Coach
For your free e copy of “The loyalty effect: the hidden force behind
growth, profits, and lasting value” by Frederick F. Reichheld and
Thomas Teal, cut and paste this into your favourite search engine.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=JzkD_ooCNlYC&dq=the+loyalty+effect&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=MN2mS6GgK4rg7AOMlcGQCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false
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Difference between Focusing on Problems (Challenges) and Focusing on Solutions
The following cases show the difference between focusing on problems (challenges) and focusing on solutions.
Case 1
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out
that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the
writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and
$12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside
down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal and in a
temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.
Case 2
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the
case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan's biggest
cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer
had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities
isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the
packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one
soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its
engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard
to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two
people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make
sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked
fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so. But when a rank-and-file
employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not
get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with
another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and
pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each
soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.
Moral : Always look for simple solutions.
Why focus on solutions rather than problems? Because you will always
get what you focus on. If you focus on problems you will only get more
of them. For a simple example, let's say you are driving along in your
car and there is a big hole in front of you. If you focus on the hole,
guess what! You will no doubt hit it because that is what you are
focusing on . The trick is to look past the hole, that way you will
avoid it.
I am the President of The Entrance Chamber of Commerce and am amazed at
how many problems people seem to find when making a decision. What if
this happens? What if that happens?
If the decision is based on what is best for The Entrance then surely
that is the solution. Any problem on the way will simply be a milestone
to achieve and guide us on our way.
If we keep putting problems in the way then nothing will get done.
Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems
Always focus on solutions and not on problems
Bill Annesley
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.us
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