Get blog by email
My bookmarks
LinkedIn profile
Facebook profile
Not as cheap…
Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Hello - welcome to my website.
On my blog I write about marketing, public relations and digital communications. To keep up-to-date with my posts you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign-up to receive blog posts by email.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you find my site useful.
Spotted this on my travels earlier this week in Faversham:
I think the banner proclaiming “we’re not as cheap as Wetherspoons” is great.
All too often marketers can get stuck in the discounting trap, seeing price as the most effective part of the marketing mix to attract customers.
The Railway Hotel is turning price competition from the nearby Wetherspoons pub on its head by shouting that they’re not as cheap.
The implication, of course, is that by not being as cheap the Railway Hotel is in fact better.
Even in a market driven by price, there’s always a different angle for differentiation that will attract new customer. It’s the marketers job to find it.
I didn’t actually make it into either hostelry, so can’t comment on the accuracy of either claim, although the menu outside the Railway Hotel did look pretty good!
Tags: Advertising, commoditisation, commoditization, differentiation, faversham, Marketing, price+competition, railway+hotel+faversham
Comments on “Not as cheap…”
Leave your comment
Latest links 
Links to interesting information I've spotted recently on the web:
- Councils told: embrace social networks
- Communications: Some lessons from the New Deal for Communities Programme - Communities and neighbourhoods - Communities and Local Government
- e-Published: my e-book, Brands in Networks...
- Research brief links engagement, business improvement to internal use of Web 2.0
- AskPeople: Easy, quick & simple online feedback surveys, polls and questionnaire forms
- What is Social Media? eBook on Mashable
- Cook & Hopkins Social Media Report - 3rd Edition
- What does really advanced IC look like?
- Trust, the Media & the public sector
Latest bookmarks
My most recent bookmarks from del.icio.us:
- Welcome to Where I Live | Where I Live
- Utilising Web 2.0 in local government
- MySpace and Facebook Fast Becoming the Leading Mobile Social Networks
- searching for the impact of empowerment report - MORI
- Demos | Publications | State of Trust
- Pew Internet: Teens, Video Games and Civics
- Advance » Blog Archive » Homepage redesign harder than it looks
- Final Report Available - Youth Work and Social Networking Research Project
- How are young people using social media?
- RSS plugin for WordPress » :: TechBlog ::
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
That’s great, Simon. The word cheap has a powerful stigma attached to it, with the implication of poor quality as strong as the claim that it is inexpensive.
I remember being amused when a member of my family once complained about a free gift they’d got (eg, with a magazine). They said: “It (the gift) was free, but it was only cheap.”
That said, this is the first time I’ve seen somebody actually use it to their advantage in such a subtly clever way.
PLUS it serves Shepherd Neame. It must be good.
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I’m with you and Chris on this one. It’s a great bit of marketing and reminds me of the Stella Artois ‘reassuringly expensive’ strapline.
I’m sure The Railway will also feature far fewer punch ups too!
Happy 2008,
Andy
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Yes, it’s elegantly done. It reminded me of another piece of clever copy (a strapline actually), which DID use a low price strategy unlike this example. It was for Sekonda watches, which were very cheap Russian watches, just as the Swatch phenomenon hit. They used the line ‘Beware of expensive imitations’, which managed to communicate they were low cost yet still desirable.
I was on your site, Simon, because I’m interested in using Wordpress as a platform for a Parish Council website and needless to say there are no funds! Thanks for the info you share on it.