This document discusses the trend of "sympathetic pricing", where brands offer flexible discounts to help ease consumer pain points, lend assistance during difficult times, or support shared values. It provides examples of brands that have implemented sympathetic pricing strategies, such as Uber offering discounts during transportation disruptions, hotels providing discounts if it rains, and airlines offering cheaper flights to support causes like gay rights. The document argues that sympathetic pricing can help brands prove to skeptical consumers that they truly care about people's challenges and shared problems.
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trendwatching.com's SYMPATHETIC PRICING
1. SYMPATHETIC
PRICING
Get ready for a wave of imaginative
discounts that relieve lifestyle pain
points, offer a helping hand in difficult
times, or support a shared value.
GLOBAL TREND BRIEFING
June 2014
2. Brands are constantly
telling consumers that
they care.
Most consumers don’t believe them.
When brands claim to care about people and their everyday
challenges, or about the shared problems we all face
– sustainability, social responsibility, and more – most
consumers think they’re just saying that.
Sure, that’s a simple characterisation of a complex issue, and
it doesn’t apply to all consumers and every brand.
But countless surveys, reports and statistics (the below
being just one example) all point in the same direction: when
it comes to truly caring about consumers, owning a higher
purpose and generally being a more HUMAN BRAND, most
people think that most brands still don’t get it.
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 2www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
3. Just 5% of consumers in the UK and US
believe big businesses are very transparent
and honest.
COHN & WOLFE, OCTOBER 2013
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 3www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
4. Now consumers will
challenge brands to put
their money where their
mouth is.
After all, if brands really do care, then
there’s a simple way to prove it ;)
Amid their deep skepticism, consumers still yearn for
HUMAN BRANDS.
Now, they’re embracing the few brands that are already
trying a bold new approach in the quest to become more
HUMAN. One that’s visible, straighforward, and directed at
a truly meaningful target: pricing.
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 4www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
5. SYMPATHETIC PRICING
Flexible and imaginative
discounts that help ease
lifestyle pain points, lend a
helping hand in difficult times,
or support a shared value.
DEFINITION
1. MESSAGE SATURATION
2. NEW WORLD, NEW EXPECTATIONS
1. PAINKILLER PRICING
2. COMPASSIONATE PRICING
3. PURPOSEFUL PRICING
WHY NOW?
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 5www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
6. 1. Message Saturation
Consumers have tuned out the white
noise issued by a multitude of brands
on how much they care about people,
society and the planet.
Deep skepticism among many consumers still exists
after years of brand campaigns, initiatives, and programs
intended to demonstrate that the brands in question really
care.
Often these ‘long-term goals’ and vague promises become
white noise: consumers have learned to tune them out, or
simply take them as a given.
Now, consumers are keen to see brand care and purpose
expressed where it really counts.
So if brands really are lifestyle assistants, or if they really
do care about the Big Problems we face as global citizens,
shouldn’t their (flexible) pricing reflect this?
WHY NOW?
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 6www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
7. According to EUR and US consumers, only 5%
and 9% respectively of brands make a meaningful
difference in people’s lives. Poll global consumers
and that figure rises – to 20%.
HAVAS, JUNE 2013
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 7www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
8. 2. New World, New
Expectations
The online world has primed consumers
to EXPECT flexible pricing. And a host of
agile startups are both willing and able
to deliver.
Online, pricing is different. Ultra-flexible, dynamic,
personalized and transparent. Now, the online space has
primed consumers to bring those expectations with them
everywhere.
Meanwhile, a new generation of startup CLEAN SLATE
BRANDS – lacking the legacy infrastructure of their
established competitors – are more able to roll out flexible
pricing in an (near) instant.
It’s a short walk from consumer expectation of more
flexible pricing, to consumer embrace of SYMPATHETIC
PRICING.
Now check out the Featured Innovations that follow, divided
into three categories of SYMPATHY.
WHY NOW?
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 8www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
9. 1. PAINKILLER PRICING
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Discounts that target lifestyle pain points.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 9www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
10. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Uber
Taxi app gives discounts to travelers hit by
transport disruption in London and Boston
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 10www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
11. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Brahma #Movimento11
Discounts help Brazilian football fans watch
the start of the World Cup
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 11www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
12. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Noosa International Resort
Hotel room discount if it rains on Australia’s
‘Sunshine Coast’
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 12www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
13. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
The Wolf & I
Free drinks for patrons with parking tickets
in Melbourne
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 13www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
14. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
BGH
Discounts on air conditioning for hot
apartments in Argentina
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 14www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
15. PAINKILLER PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Otasuke
Japanese pub offers discounts to balding
customers
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 15www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
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17. 2. COMPASSIONATE PRICING
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Discounts that offer a helping hand at a difficult time.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 17www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
18. COMPASSIONATE PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Community Shop
Discounted products for less affluent British
consumers
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 18www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
19. COMPASSIONATE PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Pressfolios
Service goes free for laid off New Jersey
journalists
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 19www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
20. COMPASSIONATE PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Lowe’s Canada
Free trees for consumers hit by destructive
storm
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 20www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
21. COMPASSIONATE PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Tienda Amiga
Shops in Madrid give discounts to the
unemployed
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 21www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
22. COMPASSIONATE PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Groupon
Discounted onions in response to high onion
prices in India
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 22www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
23. 3. PURPOSEFUL PRICING
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Discounts in support of a shared value or belief.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 23www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
24. PURPOSEFUL PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Corendon
Dutch airline offers cheaper flights to Russia
for gay rights activists
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 24www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
25. PURPOSEFUL PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
RATP
Free public transport in Paris to combat
poor air quality
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 25www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
26. PURPOSEFUL PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
Easy Taxi
Discounts for solo Filipino women highlight
physical assaults
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 26www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
27. PURPOSEFUL PRICING: FEATURED INNOVATIONS
AnchorFree
App to route around internet blocks goes
free in Venezuela
SYMPATHETIC PRICING 27www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
28. NEXT
What does SYMPATHETIC PRICING mean for brands?
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 28www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
29. 1. Event Tie-ups
A SYMPATHETIC PRICING play is the
perfect opportunity to tie-up with a big
event: think sports, TV shows, national
holidays and more.
Which brand will be first this summer to
offer a discount to consumers whose
team has just been knocked out of the
World Cup?
NEXT
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 29www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
30. NEXT
2. Data Driven
Sympathy
Rising numbers of consumers now
measure a range of personal metrics,
from steps walked to mood.
That opens the door to personalized
SYMPATHETIC discounts for
consumers having a bad day, or
struggling to meet personal goals.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 30www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
31. NEXT
3. Internal Sympathy
In March 2014 Japanese electronics
firm Panasonic said it would pay
workers in China more to compensate
for high pollution levels.
Truly forward-thinking brands will be as
SYMPATHETIC to their staff as they are
to their customers.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 31www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
32. NEXT
4. Currencies Of
Change
Of course, discounts aren’t effective
only when it comes to pain points or
shared values.
Another HUMAN play on flexible
pricing? Discounts or rewards for
positive lifestyle change.
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 32www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
33. NEXT
5. [Insert your own]
Pricing
The La Petite Syrah cafe in France
charges customers less if they say
‘please’: POLITENESS PRICING.
Go ahead – invent your own HUMAN
pricing play!
CONSUMER TREND CANVAS 33www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
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SYMPATHETIC PRICING 34www.trendwatching.com/trends/sympathetic-pricing
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