You paid… how much?

The keys to charge premium prices and have people pay them happily and come back for more.

“You paid how much… for a piece of sponge?” were the exact words my husband uttered when he mistakenly opened an Amazon brown box that contained a small makeup sponge.

And yes. I had paid almost 50 bucks for that piece of plastic. Plus, I was excited about my purchase like I hadn’t been in a long time.

Disclosure: I like beautiful thing and I’m not much of a shopper. I appreciate things when I see them but I don’t feel the compulsion to own them.

But this sponge was different.

I’ll go over the 5 keys that allow this company to charge super premium prices for a commodity like a sponge as a reminder to self and service professionals that provide premium, unique services and want to be paid premium, unique prices for them.


1. The promise
This sponge promises a perfect complexion. That is a powerful promise for women who want that.


2. Positioning
I obviously did a quick check to see other people were as impressed as I was. That quick research placed that brand on the top of the pyramid plus it dissuaded me from wasting my time and money buying a knock-off.

Remember that positioning is the place your product or service occupies in your market’s mind. It is not about saying that you are “unique”, “premium” or “authentic” but it’s about people giving you that space in their mind.


3. Leading Authority
The definition of authority we’ll use here is to show the way; to be the advocate for the success of your market place.

This company (and their raving fans) did a great job to educate the market place on how to use the sponge to apply flawless makeup. I felt they knew me, they
understood me and they cared about my problem and that I could achieve the promised result.


4. Real Proof
Testimonial after testimonial, review after review, video after video showed the exact results I was looking for.


5. Inspiration & Hope
I had lost hope that my problem could even be solved. Seeing the enthusiasm of people who tried it renewed my hope to try something once again. (After a terrible car accident my face was left with lots of scars and I was losing hope that there would be any solution for that).

Your market place is in the same spot: they have tried so many times and got disappointed so many times that they don’t want to be disappointed again.


Bonus key – Premium Price
The price certainly got my attention. I know the theory that if something is expensive we believe it is valuable. In our case, for people like us who serve greatly with our work, the important part is not to kill our market’s hopes by choosing a very low price point. The message is: it must not be so unique or so premium or I’ll get disappointed again so it’s OK not to have hope ever again.


Next step

Identify the most powerful action you can take and go and do it (or get it done). Is it in your promise, in your positioning? What can move your business forward the most the fastest?



Till next time… remember your awesomeness is portable. You can take it with you anywhere.
With love
Ana