Dial-4U-Marketing  

Dial-4U-Marketing is a an outbound call service for businesses that want to reach more customers. The service is very affordable and offers even better pricing if Clarence Nappier serves as your financial services advisor.  Clarence can be reached at (888) 824-6919 or, via email, at clarence@dial4umarketing.com.

Enjoying my first cup of coffee this morning at 10am (PST). My son returned home from Idaho on his first military leave since enlisting. He drove from Idaho to Sacramento (almost 600 miles at age 19). I am so proud of him.

Sitting at the Cirby Ave and Sunrise Ave Starbucks in Roseville, California. Roseville is one of the few communities that did not do too bad in the housing crisis.  It boasts of having one of the lowest crime rates in California.  Close to the coffee house is a hair salon that just dropped its price for haircuts to $4.99 from $15.00.

What is the message that this salon is sending to consumers?  First, it's desperate for customers. Five dollar hair cuts, ten dollar oil changes tell customers that these business owners will do anything for the business...and in any manner.  Second, poor service or poor workmanship is the first suspicion consumers have with severely discounted prices.

Business owners, mistakenly, based their pricing on the laws of supply and demand. Meaning, by lowering prices, business will see more customers.  Although the principle of price and demand may be mathematically or graphically true, consumers have a built-in value detector and sense that they may receive a less quality product or poor service in return for an extremely low price.

Business owners may also be unaware of the effects of severely discounted pricing.  In business, there are fixed costs that cannot be eliminated.  By lowering prices that produce profits that barely cover fixed costs or have less than desirable returns on investment, the business may be on its way to closing its doors.

The morale of the story is business should only reduce prices if it can still earn a profit far above fixed costs and consumers perceive the products or services as good values.