As any good marketer should I keep a close eye on what our competitors are doing with regards to products, pricing and promotion and after nearly 4 years working within web hosting I have noticed that many web hosts are reaching a point where the current over reliance on promotional prices to cover up the lack of product innovation must surely be reaching end game.
The same promotions (3 months free, 50% off…) using the same tactics to create an artificial sense of urgency (offer ends soon, offer ends in 7 days, offer extended due to popular demand!…) are coming up time and time again. Sometimes they are packaged differently (e.g. 50% off for the first 6 months), but more often than not they are the same stuff, different day.
Although saving some cash certainly nice for any customer, what these price promotions do is cover up a large problem within the hosting industry which has seen very little product innovation in terms of the core product or the features associated with them.
When an industry is not focusing resources on improving the product it enters a viscous cycle whereby development and marketing resources are so focused on the next promotion they have no time to do anything else. This results in outdated products that can’t be used as a selling point, which means they need another price promotion to drive sales, but this takes away resources from developing products… and so on. A year or two of this and the work required to get the product back up to speed is so big, guess what, it’s time for more price promotions.
At Heart Internet we believe the most stable approach to any business and most satisfying to customers is the exactly the same as all the major supermarkets have adopted; provide Every Day Low prices to customers and ensure the products are not left to become stale. If you compare our products and none promotional price points to our competitors we feel they have some work to catch up with us as it is, and that is if we stand still (which we won’t).
Nice to see Heart Internet creating a market foothold without the hype. Sites that do include the “hype” keep me from clicking. Its the simple little details that make all the sifference. As a customer of Heart I appreciate the attention to details like that.
Nice ethos Heart – Glad to be part of your ongoing success.