Creating ‘the Premium’

Marketing & product managers are constantly striving to attain Premium positioning for their brand and product/s.

So what is ‘the Premium’ positioning? Is a Merc premium or a Maruti’s Dezire car? Is side by side refrigerator premium or a 270 L frost free? Is fully automatic washing machine premium or a semiautomatic? Is split air conditioner premium or a metal body air cooler?

Another question comes here is – are ‘the Premium’ and ‘Aspirational’ different from each other?

Generally, one understands ‘the Premium’ as a price positioning, which can be paid by only select few – Rich & affluent. Therefore, Merc, Side by Side ref, fully automatic washing machine and split air conditioner – all are ‘the Premium’. Individually, a person having lots of money to buy expensive is a Premium customer.

Wait! It is not exactly like that. Let’s understand meaning of ‘the Premium’. It is ‘Extra’. Paying ‘Extra’ for a product or a service because that product or service gives ‘Extra Values’ then regular. Correct! Isn’t it?

Oh, great, life has become simpler for marketing & product managers with this understanding. Offer extra value in ur product or service and charge Premium – attain ‘the Premium’. A caution here – aesthetics alone don’t fetch Premium & it certainly has to be accompanied extra functional benefits. ‘Pricing for aesthetics’ is very tricky. The delta for aesthetics premium has to be determined quite carefully.

Therefore, in general, I don’t agree that Merc is ‘the Premium’ over a Maruti Dezire car and so on (refer above examples). Dezire shall certainly be ‘the Premium’ for a person who drives a Nano or 800.  A two wheeler shall certainly be ‘the Premium’ for person who currently uses a bicycle or public transport.

Further, being ‘the Premium’ & ‘Aspirational’ are not same. ‘Aspiration’ is a step ahead/ next level over ‘the Premium’. So taking above analogy further, for a person who drives a two wheeler, Dezire shall be ‘the Premium’ but an SUV or a Cross over shall be ‘Aspirational’ & a Merc shall be day dreaming.

Hey, am I becoming too teachee types, oops! Thanks for being a wonderful reader thus far.

Summary is that each product or a service that we offer has to be treated as ‘the Premium’ & ‘ Aspirational’ and accordingly value adds to be made in each of these whatever may be the TG – SEC D,C,B or A (all 12 types).

As an individual let’s make ourselves ‘the Premium’ by offering ‘added values’ in whatever we do every day in and day out, this way we our ‘shelf life’ shall increase and growth shall seed in.

Keep Creating ‘the Premium’.