Charge what the market won’t bear
Back when our dollar was worth less than the neighbours, a model of printing two prices on magazine covers was normal. We accepted that our funny money got us less when it came to trading it for those fancy monthly collections of, well, everything fit to read. We all accepted the reality, and we paid a premium.
When the dollar reached parity, we knew that the days of two prices were soon to end. After all, once the “new issues” were printed, the marketing people would have passed the news along to the printing people, and only one price tag would be needed. And so we waited. Patiently and politely; after all, we are Canadian.
Never underestimate the gullibility of a Canuck, or the greed of a magazine publisher. Sure enough, one of the largest publishers now only prints one price on magazines destined for sale in the new “dollar at par” Canada. A made-for-Canada price. A higher than the neighbour price, just like before. After all, someone who reads for pleasure would never notice a tiny detail like that.
In a pig’s eye we wouldn’t notice! Fool me once, etc. The marketing choice of charging more than the market will bear is not one taught in most Business 101 courses, but who says that these people ever studied anything so reality based. Instead, they’ve made a choice that gets me where I will notice, and I can probably do without their overpriced goods. That newfangled Internet thingie has taught me where to find all kinds of content; more than I have time to read. If Hearst publications no longer wants my business, so be it.
A funny thing happened on the way to the bank. The music industry is learning to live with it, and the book and magazine industry may have to do the same. The right to intellectual property goes hand in hand with intellectual responsibility. If you don’t have one, you may lose the profit from the other.
