Some people say that pricing power is a yardstick for judging the pros and cons of a company. If you have the ability to raise prices without losing customers, you are a good company; if your legs tremble even if you raise prices by 10%, you need to reflect on yourself.
When it comes to pricing power, many people think that it is something that big companies that have the best execution industry need to worry about. In fact, small companies can also have pricing power. There is an enterprise in Fujian Province, China. The scale is not large, and the industry is also traditional-bamboo and wood products processing. There are hundreds of such resource-based enterprises in the local area. However, despite the general operating difficulties and even closure of the industry, the company's performance has increased year by year, with a tax of more than 3 million yuan last year. What's more valuable is that the product is exported to Japan, but the pricing power is in its own hands. Since 2008, prices have risen by more than 200%.
Is the product technology particularly high? Actually not, what they produce is just bamboo skewers for skewers. Why are you so awesome with a small bamboo stick? The answer is only two words: quality.
The production technology of bbq bamboo sticks is low, but where can the quality be high? Before 2008, the boss of this company also thought so. That year, he was encountering a development bottleneck: a bunch of peers entered this field and started a price war. "I feel so tired, but I don't know how to change it." In the end, it was the Japanese customer's words that reminded him: "With us, the company first considers quality, secondly technology, and finally price. Why do you always Should we talk about the price first?"
"Quality first, price later" allowed this small company to find room for improvement and embark on a different path of development. There is a bottom line for price drops, but there is limitless room for quality improvement. A small bamboo stick, they finally made a big article. At least there are more than 10 processes, more than 360 varieties have been developed, which can be specially tailored for a variety of ingredients, and it can also prevent slippage and increase. Incense and other functions. Not only that, they also have the same quality requirements for the 20 upstream raw material factories, and even the requirements for each bamboo are so detailed that they must be completed within a week after being felled, as small as each batch of products is loaded and shipped. The weather conditions at the time are recorded.
It is precisely because of this pursuit of quality that their bbq bamboo sticks have become the designated accessories for Japanese customers. They not only have pricing power, but also become an important link in the industrial supply chain. Once, a domestic food company also received an order from this Japanese company, requesting to use their bamboo sticks, but because the price was too expensive, they privately replaced them with other products. After the results were found, not only the entire batch of orders was returned, but the supply relationship was even cancelled in the end. "Let's put it this way, in the world's top food industries, almost all of them use our bamboo sticks, so we have the right to set prices."
Why do small businesses win their market position? Can only speak with quality. Do a good job in quality management, even if there is no cutting-edge and complex technology, we can always continue to innovate in response to customer needs. For most companies that are difficult to win by scale, this craftsmanship is even more important than advanced technology in the practice of corporate development and innovation. Attentively improving every production link, making good use of products to achieve good prices, and winning market pricing power and development initiative are not only viable options for small enterprises, but also the only way for China's economic transformation and upgrading.
"The 20th century is the century of productivity, and the 21st century is the century of quality." No product with poor quality and cheap prices can survive for a long time in the world. From material shortage to great abundance, we rely on learning and imitation; from low-price advantage to quality advantage, we need innovation and diligence. This is the experience and direction that a small bamboo stick tells us.
