#17 Lunch and Learn: How to justify the price of your handmade product, elegantly

Today’s recipe is inspired by this video “The Secrets of the Little Black Jacket by Chanel”.

I freely admit that owning a Chanel Jacket is on my bucket list. But that’s not the reason I liked this video. Rather, it’s because it shows the exquisite detail that goes into the making of the jacket.

If you’ve ever wondered why Chanel Jackets are so expensive, this video might just give you the answer.

What it is:

An elegant way to explain, or at least rationalise, the price of your handmade product.

Why it works:

As anyone who has ever made and sold their craft knows (and I use the ‘craft’ word to cover anything from homemade jam and dinners through to toys, jewellry, art etc etc), it’s mightily hard to price your product so that you get paid fairly for the effort you put in.

We customers just never seem to understand the effort you have gone to!

So how can you can explain it?

Well how about via a short and fun video.

That way you get to explain the magnitude of the process (without, um, sounding needy or desperate) and your customer gets a fun insight into the  story behind their purchase.

What you do:

Quite simply you take a leaf out of Karl Lagerfeld’s book and put together a short video which encapsulates the work involved in putting together your product.

The three points that I think are most important to get across are:

1. The number of different phases involved in bringing your product to life. So you want to show the drafting, designing, mock up, production, packaging and distribution of the product.
2. The amount of time it takes. So although you want to put together a short video, you want to give the impression that the product takes a certain amount of time to produce. I’m sure you can do this in an understated way with a clock or calendar in the background.
3. A customer using (and enjoying) the finished product. Not in a cheesy way of course, but I think you can show the product in situ, or in use, to make it compelling for potential customers.

 

I don’t think you need an incredibly professional looking video (unless you are pricing at the Chanel end of town) but I do think you want to put it together as a compelling story rather than a mechanical process.

Then, just pop the video on your website (and Youtube) and if you have a retail store or gallery have it showing there too.

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