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On Value and Cost – part 1

Did you know that by banging your head against the wall you burn about 150 calories per hour? However, there are more effective and less painful ways to exercise (no surprise there). Personally, I like an early morning walk and playing some Wii games around lunch time.

Most companies aim towards high(er) value offerings, sold at a higher price, so that their margin increases. Right?
But what they’re actually doing is desperately trying to outrun their own high (and escalating) cost structure. I ask you this: why should a client have to pay for inefficiencies in a provider’s organisation? Also, why says that a higher value offering needs to a) be priced higher and b) have a higher profit margin?

This is not the unavoidable way of things, but the reason it’s the usual is that you can’t just decide to change one aspect (such as a higher value offering), yet keep the way the company is run the same, and then still make enough profit to feed the hungry monster. It won’t jive, and that’s simple economics.

Are more expensive products and services always better quality? Of course not. The question is, does the pricing work through into the quality of the product or service, the profit margin of the provider, or does it just feed the hungry monster…. it could be a combination, and quite often you can actually work this out by looking the company in question: how they present themselves on the net, at events, their sales behaviour, advertising, and last but not least what others say about them.

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1 thought on “On Value and Cost – part 1

  1. Karl Marx did very well when he distinguished between “exchange value” (the dollar and cents value of a good or service) and “use value” (the utility you actually get out of it).

    (OK, there is actually a slight difference between exchange value and price, but it’s not really worth getting in to..)

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