marketing

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Running Head; AMERICAN GREETINGS

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AMERICAN GREETINGS

American Greetings

Student Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

American Greetings

Pricing strategies adopted by American Greetings has been the key to the increased sales of the company. American Greetings headquarters are located in Westlake, with the company producing products such as greeting cards, thanksgiving cards, gift wrap papers, and birthday cards. The company sells quality products at affordable prices to beat its competitors and maximize its sales. The affordable prices create a good reputation for the company as customers can spread the good news about the company's quality and customer service at lower prices. This, in turn, results in increased and repeated purchases of the company products, which results in higher sales. The company pricing strategy also involves black Friday sales with coupons and promotion codes available (Liu & Chen, 2019). This is periodical deals where the company puts most of its products on offer reducing up to forty percent. This discount acts as a catalyst as customers are appealed to by the reduced prices and purchase products in bulk before the offer declines.

The company's pricing strategy also allows for a forty percent discount off any order for new American Greeting customers (Otmar & Regnier, 2020). Through the advertisement of the company products by digital means, most of the customer target is aware of the discount offered, and this has led to a large number of orders buy new customers. Also, for any existing customer referral, promotion codes are given for redemption when purchasing the company's product. Customers want to take any advantage available to them, which reduces their cost of spending. This strategy is vital for the company in gaining a competitive advantage as the number of referred customers is increasing daily. Sales discount offered by the company leads to repeated purchase by the customers, which create customer loyalty. Most customers are attracted by lower prices and better quality of products and services, and when provided creates loyalty as they will keep on coming for the same product as long as the quality is maintained and prices are relatively affordable.

Another pricing strategy of the company is the odd-even pricing strategy. It is a psychological pricing model where the company pricing its products in different product ranges, such as a birthday card worth $3.00 priced at $2.99. Customers perceive this to be in the range of $2.00 and not $3.00, which makes the company's product appear cheaper than they are. The customer also comprehends as if they are being given a larger discount, which leads to more purchases of the company's products.

Customers love promotional, and reduced pricing on the company products and discounts are a big influence on customers buying behaviors, and it explains customers spending patterns. Discounts also attract new customers to the business and encourage them to try out the company's products growing revenue and profitability in the process (Topilow, 2020). The company prices its products by benchmarking their competitors' prices. The company offers its products at a considerably lower price than its competitors drawing more and new customers.

The company's pricing strategy also includes company ambassadors located in different states in the Country. Company ambassador helps promote the product as they communicate about the quality and the affordable prices of the company's product which creates awareness of the products. The ambassador connects with the customers that the company cannot reach, thus resulting in more sales. They also help in unearthing new markets as they have information about their region's demand, prices they are willing to purchase, and the quality of the products demanded. Comment by Microsoft Office User: What embasaddor? Which ones?

Pricing strategy is all the several ways that businesses use to price their goods and services and includes the market conditions, consumer ability to pay, production and distribution cost, and variable costs involved. Pricing strategies are different for companies and will help the company maximize its profit margin. The company sets their cost of goods sold at lower prices to maintain a hold on market share and prevent competitors from intruding in the companies' territories. By doing this, the company will keep hold of its customers due to low and attractive prices for its products and this helps the company to meet its cost of production with low prices and numerous sales. The company uses pricing for market penetration where the company prices its products lower than the price of its competitors on all its products. This means that the company will take loss on sale compared to its competitors. This type of pricing is vital to the company as it draws attention away from the competitors of the company and helps to increase the company.'

Another pricing strategy used by the company is economy pricing. This involves the company minimizing its marketing and production expenses as low as possible. This aims to attract the most conscious consumers as the company's low cost of production and low marketing expenses will allow the company to set its prices as low as possible and still make a profit. This pricing strategy is vital to the company since it has a variety of products such as Ecards, birthday candles, stickers, cups, and the target customer of the company is high.

American greetings have also aligned itself with digital technology in order to sell its products. Since American Greetings is one of the leading in the production of greeting cards and other products, the company offers membership of both ecards and printables, which can be purchased for $19.99 yearly or just for $29.99 for two years and only $4.99 each month. Every new member is eligible for seven days of a free trial. This boosts the company sales as more consumers will be willing to purchase the membership as it is cheaper since the company's products are used in daily activities. This increases the company's sales with a larger margin since in today's world, most people are digitalized, and there is a need for online transactions, which reduces both the customer and company's burden. Bundle pricing is also used by the company. This gives the consumers discounts when purchasing several products as it would cost to purchase a single item every time. This enables the company to make more sales as consumers will be purchasing in large numbers aiming to hit maximum discounts. These discounts also result in customer loyalty and increased new customers.

Once the company has determined its pricing strategy, the profit margin could increase, and the company should make sure to use appropriate and accurate software to keep a trail of important data such as QuickBooks as it makes it easy for the company to monitor the important sales data and manage cash flow.

References

Liu, J., Zhai, X., & Chen, L. (2019). Optimal pricing strategy under trade-in program in the presence of strategic consumers. Omega, 84, 1-17.

Otmar, R. A. U., & Regnier, B. (2020). U.S. Patent Application No. 29/598,972.

Topilow, E. (2019). It is in the Cards: an analysis of greeting card selection through identity and personality.

It suupossed to have company-owned sources and 3rd party research sources.

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