Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010.
The small as a selling point decade has officially begun.
As I read the Life section of today’s USA Today, I see an article by Brian Mansfield in which he’s doing a great job of riffing about Blake Shelton’s new ‘Six Pak’, which happens to be an Album titled Hiillbilly Bone, which happens to contain just six songs.
I’m sure other people, other artists, other companies, other content providers, whatever, had started doing this before now, but me and this article have to start somewhere, don’t we?
Will people buy more often if the entire album is only six songs and is priced at $4.99 to $6.00? We’ll soon find out, as I’m sure there will more of these on the market very, very soon.
The only way to find out if it works for you and your market is to do just what they did, which is put it out there and test.
Same thing for you and your products. Are you still at the top of the food chain, price wise? Does your market have a way to test your product without committing to more than they’re willing to spend?
Only you know that.
Personally, I’m more likely to buy the entire album, off iTunes, if it’s priced at $4.99, rather than $9.99.
If the entire album goes for $9.99 to $12.99, I’m more likely to just buy the one, two or three singles that make the radio airwaves.
What about you as a content provider or product developer? Have you created an entry-level or starter kit size offering for your audience?
If you haven’t, you probably should, because the effects of this recession will last for a decade, if not more, as it pertains to peoples buying habits.
Special reports may outsell complete books or ebooks.
6 module courses may outsell 12 module courses.
3 part audio series may outsell 5 part audio series.
You can’t just take this test as gospel, you have to test the market’s waters with your own feet.
Every market and sub-market will react differently.
If ever there were a time to become a marketing geek and learn the intracasies of product creation and testing, this is it.
Otherwise, you may not be around for the next boom market.
As I’m not omnipotent, I invite your comments, additions and thoughts in the comment section below.
What? You didn’t know that I didn’t know everything? Me neither, til now and it’s been a startling revelation to say the least.
Pray that my pain is minimal and subsides soon. Thanks!
Related Articles:
- Selling, Telling And Interesting People I hate aptitude tests. I hate college educated human resources...
Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to our RSS Feed or sign up for our e-mail updates (in the sidebar). To leave a comment, click on the post title, then scroll down to the bottom. Thanks!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think with a downturned economy you will see these types of creative pricing strategies and personally I think it will work.
I would love to know the stats of how many buy just their faviourite 2-5 songs on a standard album vs buying the whole album. My guess is more people purchase the few songs they like than pay $10 or 12 for a whole album when they won’t listen to half the songs – isn’t that what everyone loves about itunes and the ability to buy one song at a time. So why make 12 songs and only sell 3-4 and very few whole albums. Make 6 great songs and make more money on the 6 than the 3-4 they would have bought. Less work and more revenue… personally I think it’s smart.
This philosophy recently showed up at Arby’s. I tried to order one of my personal addictions yesterday (Jalapeno Bites) and was told they no longer have them. The girl told me they have Onion Rings instead.
Like that’s a perfectly viable exchange?!
Apparently, it’s all part of their effort to make things cheaper.
They did.
Hi Mike, I’ve just come across this (excellent) post (late I know). I think this is really interesting (and powerful) with clearly a lot of potential elsewhere. Although, it can clearly only be used for discrete purchases. It wouldn’t work for example with books (ie buy first 6 chapters for $4.99!).
Although it could work for upsells. Basic product being cheap with extras sold separately.
Lots to think about….
I agree small is a selling point for albums, but for a different reason entirely:
Each song is a different entity the listener has to bond with and become emotionally attached to.
Most people are unaware of the musical bonding process. We don’t love the song on the 1st listen, 99% of the time. It usually takes 4-5 or more listens for any given song, if we become attached at all.
The more songs there are, the longer this takes, the harder it is, and the more likely the listener is to say “screw it,” I just like this 1 or these 2 songs.
They either don’t remember the rest or didn’t even bother to listen to the entire album in the first place. More songs = more work = more overwhelm.
In the 90s, “Bonus Tracks” were all the rage because it was assumed that if you throw more crap on the album, people will assume it’s worth more and therefore pay more for it.
But it backfired: if your target market only has the attention span to read short stories and you give them War and Peace, there’s a disconnect.
Or if you’re in a Mastermind group, for instance, obviously you want more than 1 person, but if once it hits 7-8 people, then sub-cliques start to develop and you’re not going to be that close with everybody.
Same with an album, IMO.
My 2 cents.
Nice take on the issue Eddie. I never thought of it like that, until now, but I agree with your take on it.
Thanks for taking time to lay it out there for us.
Come back soon!