Presented at the 2015 ASAE Membership, Marketing & Communications Conference. This session looks at pricing strategies in today's association and the need for more research.

1. Is The Price Right?
Monday, June 1, 2015
10:15-11:15
Suzanne Carawan
Chief Marketing Officer
HighRoad Solution

2. What We’ll Cover
• Pricing in Associations
• Selected Pricing Strategies
• Cultural, Social & Technological Effects on
Pricing
• Practice of Pricing
• Top Areas to Develop for Associations*

3. 2014 State of Digital Marketing in
Associations Research Report

4. Emotions of Pricing
• Directly affects revenue
• Seen as wrong v. right
• Seen as one time shot at getting the price
right
• Fear/pressure/lack of time & research
• Lack of skill /structure

5. Logic of Pricing
• Product marketing
• Profit & loss responsibilities
• Continuous experimentation
• Methodology:
– Decide strategy
– Decide target market(s)
– Set price
– Set timeframes
– Test & reset

6. Basics of Association Pricing
1) COGS + Margin (20-40%)
2) Look at what competitors are doing
3) Pick a price & end with a 5 or a 9
4) Charge $59 per webinar

7. (Some) Pricing
Strategies

8. Pricing Strategies
Captive Strategies

9. Is This You?
• Low introductory price that
is often a loss leader
(membership)
• Assumption that user can’t
go anywhere else for a
period of time to get what
you offer
• Assumption that you “have”
the user for a specified
period of time
• Assumption that now you
have them, you can sell
more and they will be more
willing to buy additional
products & services
Pros: Short-term loyalty, short-term cash
Negatives: Undermine brand, zero trust

10. Full Price or Skim Strategy

11. Is This You?
• Used for specialty products
or exclusive markets
• Brand & user experience are
key factors
• Aim is lower volume of sales
at high margins
• Focus on differentiation
with less monitoring of the
market
• Discounting is used for
repeat purchase and to
instill loyalty
Pros: Long-term loyalty, high margins
Negatives: Harder to differentiate, lower volume

12. Competitive Pricing Strategy

13. Competitive Pricing Strategy
• Used for a specific market purpose
• Enter the market
• Disrupt a competitor
• End of life for a product
• Reward desired behavior (large
quantity purchases, repeat
purchases)
Pros: Short-term cash, disruption, brand awareness
Negatives: Race to the bottom, commoditization, training of users

14. Early Bird v. Reward the Worm

15. Cultural, Social &
Technological
Effects on Pricing

16. What Should the Price Be?
Willingness to Pay

17. Media, Generations, Pricing

18. The Research Consumer

19. What is Normal?

20. The Mobile Consumer

22. Sample Before Commitment

23. Have it My Way

24. Continuous Bundled Plans

25. Monthly Options

26. Understanding of Market

27. How Millennials Shop

28. Understanding Motivators

29. Practice of Pricing

30. Warning! Before Pricing
• Do you have the products & services that:
– People want
– Are truly marketable
– Can be offered in a way that resonates with
current buying behaviors

31. Understanding of Market

32. Personas and Pricing
http://www.sensiblemarketing.com/blog/bid/156636/22-Questions-
to-Ask-When-Creating-Buyer-Personas

33. What’s Worth the Investment?

34. How/When Can You Fit In?

35. Check & Test Assumptions
1) Students don’t have money & won’t invest
2) Everyone is retiring & won’t attend conferences
anymore
3) People will register earlier if we discount
4) Virtual events will cannibalize our offerings
5) Digital advertising will undermine print
6) Technology or paper form required us to have
too much transparency of pricing & couldn’t test
effectively

36. Decide Your Strategy
• Go-to-Market (GTM)?
– Need to recoup investment costs?
– New need to introduce?
– Level of demand?
• Competitive?
• Quick Cash?
• Reset Behavior?

37. Setting Pricing
• Competitive Research
• Persona Research
• Guesstimate on Willingness to Pay
• Consumer Panel/Advisory Persona Board
Feedback
• Test Market
• Full Roll-Out to Target Audiences

38. Variable Pricing: Landing Pages

39. Price Testing Tips:Go with 3

40. Price Testing Tips
• Define a timeframe of price testing
• Continuous market feedback from those who
did buy and those that abandoned cart
• Exert discipline
• Modify pricing at end of testing period
• Be scientific

41. Top Areas to Develop
in Association Digital
Pricing

42. Banner Ads
http://www.labnol.org/internet/best-banner-
sizes-for-adsense/11541/

43. Banner Ads
Bundles or Separates:
• Email Newsletters
• Blog(s)
• Website(s)
• Blog Email
Notifications
• SMS
• Facebook/Twitter
• Instagram
• Mobile App
• Communities
• Community
Notifications

44. Webinars
• Is It Really the Live Event?
• Member/Non-Member?
• Per Webinar?
• On Demand
• Sponsors
• Continuous Access

45. Virtual Events
• Live
attendance
• Virtual
attendance
• On-demand
attendance
• Repeats

46. Event Content
• Livestream
• Record
• Edit & Improve
• Append
• Track
• Analyze
• Bundle
• Price
Photos | Videos | Testimonials | Awards &
Certificates | Transcripts | Selfie Packages |
Proceedings as eBooks | Curated Resources

47. Native Advertising

48. Native Advertising Revenue Streams
• Social Media Coverage
• Blog Posts/Series
• Webinar Content
• Articles
• Interview Panels within an Article
• Videos
• White Papers
• eBooks/Books
• Panel Discussions/Roundtables

49. Call for Research
• 2015 State of Digital Marketing in Associations
pages.highroadsolution.com/take2015report
• Pricing—especially digital!

50. Pricing Resources
• Small Business Chronicle
• National Federation of Independent Business
• ASAE’s New Product Development Framework
• Pragmatic Marketing
• Avenue M

51. Questions? Contact us!
Suzanne Carawan
Chief Marketing Officer
HighRoad Solution
scarawan@highroadsolution.com
LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare: /suzannecarawan