Value Pricing for Cafes | Singapore
We all know that things are sold at different prices at different locations. For example, a can of Coca Cola will cost more if you buy it in a cafe versus a coffee shop in Singapore.
So is the cafe trying to scam you? Will you buy?
The fact is: you will still drink coke
in a café. You know it is more expensive for a variety of reasons: the better
ambience, the higher level of service or even the location. You are paying more
for the additional value added by the café to your coke drink.
Of course in an ideal situation, if you had set up a particular concept or themed cafe, you will likely not just sell Coca Cola. You will need to have an offering that is unique.
This will allow you to price your products at the correct values and your customers will feel good paying for them. It is very important for consumers to feel good after buying your products. The perceived value of your product is actually more important that the face value of it!
Think for a moment, why would you pay $9 or more for a siphon coffee when you know that the actual cost of the coffee is probably less than a dollar?
The reasons might be that it’s “cool” to drink coffee that had been brewed with the complex siphon process or the “instagrammable food” factor and of course, you look forward to learning something more about siphon coffee after tasting it.
All these values are what you perceived, it is neither written nor marketed.
To begin thinking about your pricing, it is good practice to have a strong grasp of your coffee shop value proposition. Have a look at this article for more information.
You will feel good when you received
this value, so much so that the taste of the coffee might not matter that
much.
And one of the reason why some cafes in Singapore are closing down is because while trying to meet their top line (sales), they totally ignored this factor of value pricing.
Value pricing helps to build up your positioning and of course your branding. Otherwise, you become a commodity. As we all know, when we shop for commodities - always go for the lowest price.
At the time of this article, Bread Talk Singapore has ceased their sales of Soya Bean drinks. They did this because of a Facebook post sharing that their Soya Bean drinks are not freshly made in-house but poured from a RTD Soya bean drink.
If you had read the article, you would have noticed that the main bug bear that got people to share and shame this company is not so much about using RTD (Ready to drink) format, but why they are charging so much for it.
I bring you to two points:
1. BreadTalk’s position of Fresh Soya Bean drinks enables them to use value-based pricing and sell the drinks at a higher price.
2. Consumer must feel good about paying for it.
I do not think that there is any issue with Bread Talk charging more for the soya bean drinks but because of some miscommunication, consumers felt cheated.
And this is what I meant by perceived value is not being satisfied.
So, do not feel bad about value pricing your product but augment it such that your customers feel good paying for it.
About the Author:
Ebenezer Heng runs a community that reaches out to 0.5 million people daily (Oncoffeemakers.com’s digital assets). Lectures in a Singapore Tertiary Institution and advises digital marketing for organisations such as Chinese Chamber of Commerce, National Sports Association, Constituencies.
Resources For Cafe/F&B Owners
F&B Demand/Competition Research
Have you done your research? Do you know
1. How many people are looking for your
products?
2. Who are your main competitors?
3. What are the things (terms) consumers are looking for?
To run a coffee shop, you need to take into consideration, the location proximity advantage, your competitor's activities, your buyer persona and many others. To start off everything, do you know if running a coffee shop is even profitable?
Here is a Research Case Study and our take on the profitability of the coffee shop industry:
Case Study: Are Coffee Shops Profitable?
More Case Studies on Demand and Competition coming your way.
F&B Planning
From years of training coffee shop owners, our principal consultant, Ebenezer Heng noticed that most aspiring cafe owners are obsesses with their coffee shop layout or and the interior design of their outlet.
While that is important, we all know that for business to thrive, there is only one critical variable - customers.
Understanding all the marketing elements that can drive traffic to your coffee shop are the drivers that will generate extra sales for you.
After the research, we will customize a marketing plan for your company.
Here is a breakdown on the most current marketing strategy for coffee shops.
Case Study: Digital Marketing for Coffee Shops
More Case Studies on marketing coming your way.
F&B Strategies
To plan and implement your coffee shop strategies, you need to know your environment, your competitor and your target audience.
Thus, a key contributor to a successful strategy is insights nad indepth knowledge of the industry - Industry analysis.
Here is a coffee shop analysis done for the Singapore Coffee market.
Case Study: Coffee Shop Industry Analysis.
More Case Studies on strategies and analysis coming your way.
More Resources
Learn how to start a coffee shop with this free coffee shop
business plan
More Food Services Information and articles
About US | OCM Profile
OCM (OnCoffeeMakers.com) was started in 2007 with the first webpage about coffee machines. And for a number of years, we focused on helping people find their desired coffee machine (we still are helping folks with that! So, if you are looking for coffee machines for office or restaurants - check out the link).
In 2010, we started getting enquiries on restaurant marketing and we start to help food and beverage brands with their marketing. Below are campaigns and events that we have done over the years:
OCM's campaigns: F&B Marketing Ideas by OCM
OCM's Events: F&B Industry events by or with OCM
Check out this restaurant marketing guide to learn more about the many campaigns and companies we have worked with.
Since then, we have also created many marketing workshops and classes for the F&B industry. Many of these modules are still running in tertiary institutions such as Temasek Polytechnic Skillsfuture Academy and also ITE College East COC classes, below are some snippets of our lectures and workshops:
OCM’s F&B workshops: Food and Beverage Marketing Lectures | Workshops - click to watch classes on customer journey map, JTBD and more.
So, if you are looking for industry practitioners to help you scale your coffee or F&B businesses, do drop us a message or book an appointment. Do also check out our various social media platforms on regular F&B and coffee market updates:
For regular coffee (F&B) related videos: OCM Youtube
For Daily Coffee Inspiration (fun coffee content): OCM IG
For insights into the coffee (F&B) industry: OCM LinkedIN
PS: For the coffee lovers, we continue to share coffee articles (and videos) and have also started a free coffee class section (with free online coffee training supported by coffee partners).
