.. Does God have the lowest price or does He/She Value Price ?...

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:44:00 GMT

Scott Adams in his blog today makes a passing point abt "competitive strategies", and I quote:

"And what’s up with the people who pray for material things? If you believe that God answers prayers for merchandise, it means the gap between the Almighty creator of the universe and Walmart is closing.

God still has the lowest prices and widest selection, but how long can that last?"

Now to this assertion (That I do not really agree is true) and I have a question:

Why is God not Value-Pricing??

I know the one in Thirumala-Tirupathi (that I was taken to this summer when I was in India) does. Here is a wiki article about the temple for background:

"Hindus believe that this richest Hindu temple is the second most visited religious center after Vatican City. About 60,000 to 150,000 devotees visit the temple complex every day donating nearly $2 million every month (This number is NOT adjusted for PPP* Purchasing power parity). Complex queueing theories and emerging technologies have been evaluated and implemented to manage the large and unmanageable crowds by the TTD. The deity has also over 1000 kg of gold and diamond jewellery, making it one of the richest temple treasures."

Now back to the question - why is God not value pricing? At Tirupathi it is a working example of how value pricing works:

Sarvadarsanam (Visit for all): FREE as it is open for 50,000 ppl a day!!
Special Darshan Queues: For about $1-$1.5 (Token queuing system)
Morning Sevas (offerings): $3 (for batches of 200 ppl)
Special Morning seva: $5 (for batches of 1000 ppl)
Various levels of other (about 15) sevas: $25-$300 (for batches of 5-10 people)

Obviously for higher prices, the queue is shorter, quicker and the "time" in front of the main deity is longer. When I Was there we were on the $150 ticket which still meant we had to wait 4 hrs in a queue standing barefoot in Indian summer to get our time in the main idol, wherein the actual "viewtime" was about 30 seconds. If thatz for a top tier $150 ticket - go figure what it is like for the FREE crowd where 50,000 ppl queue at 70% humidity on a 120 degrees Indian summer!

*That* is Value pricing. And God does it excellently. Atleast in Tirupathi!

So Scott, I am not sure God has the lowest prices, but She/He defnitely does value price for a really vast portfolio.

The IKEA Effect meets the HelloKitty Frenzy.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:38:00 GMT

Two words Heather - Marketing Power. That's my answer to Heather's "Does not Get it" question when she focuses her attention on IKEA and its maniacal shoppers. Allow me to respond with an even better example of MarketingPower that drove customer buying maniacal-frenzy of an even more scarier order.

Back during the millenium 6 years ago when I was in Singapore - the McDonald’s chain in Singapore introduced a series of 6 wedding costumed Hello Kitty dolls with the purchase of Happy Meals. Licensed to McDonald’s for its promotion by Sanrio, customers buying a Happy Meal were entitled to buy either a Hello Kitty or a Dear Daniel (her lesser known male counterpart) that came in matching wedding outfits at S$4.50 each. For each of the 6 weeks, a new pair of these dolls was introduced, each featuring a different wedding costume. The first saw the space age wedding outfits to celebrate the new millennium, culminating with the Chinese wedding. Wedding outfits from other nationalities such as Korean, Malay and even Indian were also featured. For each design, 400,000 pairs of Kitty and Daniel were produced. Each store received an average of 2,000 pairs to sell, depending on sales volume. Yes! Math geniuses - thats abt 200 McDonalds in the island of Singapore.

Did the IKEA-Effect happen? Well Yeaaah - only worse!

A Case study here describes this catfight in detail - "Demand for the dolls was unprecedented. People stood in endless queues overnight just to buy a pair. It was reported that some 250,000 people were waiting in queues even before the outlets were opened. Reports streamed in about fights, unruly behavior, and even molest as people queued for these dolls. Although the police were called in to control the crowd, jostling in the queues resulted in several fights. A glass door at a McDonald’s outlet shattered under the weight of the pushing crowd, injuring several customers. Several people were arrested in the process of purchasing the coveted dolls, while others were fined. There were also instances of fainting while queuing for the dolls. Some of the McDonald’s outlets were also forced to close to break the crowd. Besides such rowdiness among people in the queue, the long queues also created massive traffic jams."

"There were also some civic embarrassments. Singaporeans were more interested in the dolls than in the Extra Value Meals. Thousands of the hamburgers were strewn on the roads. People were not interested in eating them. They queued only for the dolls and threw away the meal set that had to be bought to buy the doll. The mindless throwing away of food fit for eating enraged the community. After the first five wedding sets were introduced in the first month, McDonald’s had raked in S$20 million from the meal-and-kitty set. A total of 2.8 million dolls were sold, and 12,000 meals were donated to charities by customers who were more interested in the dolls than in the meals."

This was Marketing Power on an overdrive which sold the product of Sanrio in a Channel of McDonalds with a really unique bundling to get an insanely frenzy demand that had only to be seen to be believed. The social consequences these had in relationships especially when you are in college (which I was then) was a great seat to view and understand this.

I do NOT think the IKEA effect comes close to mirror Hello Kitty. Wont you agree Heather ;)

Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Strategy and Marketing

.. Does God have the lowest price or does He/She Value Price ?...

The IKEA Effect meets the HelloKitty Frenzy.