Best Practice Marketing

On a plane from Orlando to New York, I sat beside a meeting planner for PricewaterhouseCoopers. She told me a story that bears repeating.

The meting planner had asked the catering department at Disney World to prepare an event for the partners.

Disney’s caterer priced the affair at $50,000. But the meeting planner’s budget was $35,000. Disney dropped its price.

Later during the event, the meeting planner noticed that every item in the original event was included in the program.

She mentioned this, with great appreciation and astonishment, to the Disney caterer. His reply was, “We may reduce our price, but we will never reduce our service.”

Having different prices for different clients create two big problems:

1. You might have to decrease your service level and then run the risk of getting a bad image.
2. If you have been paying full price and then find out that you have been over priced, a natural reaction is to find another company to do business with.

So how do you avoid this kind of conflict when a good customer stand in front of you and tell their maximum budget?

I have always tried to create the best service in the most cost efficient way in all the business I have been involved in. Therefore there is no reason for customers to go anywhere else, because there is nowhere else that give the same value for money.

The main problem is that you also have to cut the marketing budget and unproductive communication with potential clients, so it can be difficult for new client to find you.

The good thing is that you don’t lose any client and the one that venture away come running back.

How much would you pay for the next meting arranged by Disney? 30 000..25 000?

Disclaim: All names and events are made up.