|
想象一下你在一家超市，正准备把你从货架上挑选的一样物品放进购物篮，一个店员模样的人走上前来，问你这样物品多少钱。你知道吗？
|
Body:
Imagine you are in a supermarket and are just about to drop an item you
have selected from the shelves into your shopping basket. Someone who
looks like a store employee steps forward and asks you how how much the
item costs. Would you know?
|
|
如果你怀疑自己不知道，那你有伴了。佛罗里达国际大学彼得•迪克松(Peter
Dickson)和佛罗里达大学阿兰•索耶(Alan Sawyer)领导的一项研究发现，当受到装扮成商店盘点员的研究人员询问时，知道自己刚挑选物品价格的顾客还不到一半。大多数购物者低估了自己所取物品的价格。有高达20%的人甚至没有信心去猜一下。
|
If
you doubt that you would, you are not alone. A study led by Peter Dickson
of Florida International University and Alan Sawyer of the University of
Florida found that fewer than half of customers knew the price of the
article they had just selected when they were asked by researchers posing
as store stock-takers. Most shoppers under-estimated the prices of their
products. As many as 20 per cent did not even have the confidence to
venture a guess.
|
|
一些评论家认为，出售商品的范围扩大，以及沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)之类折扣零售商的兴起，已使消费者比以往更留心价格。
|
Some
commentators believe the increasing range of goods on offer, and the rise
of cut-price retailers such as Wal-Mart, have made consumers more price
conscious than ever.
|
|
互联网使快速的价格比较更加容易，因而愈发让一些人认为，当今消费者不会多付钱。但佛罗里达研究指出，消费者对待价格的态度仍同以往一样错综复杂。2003年9月期《哈佛商业评论》中有篇文章援引了这份研究。
|
The
internet, which has made quick price comparisons even easier, has added to
the view that consumers these days will not overpay. But the Florida
study, cited in an article in the September 2003 edition of the Harvard
Business Review, indicates that consumer attitudes to price remain as
complicated as ever.
|
|
以价格和品质间的取舍为例。一些过去出手阔绰的人，现在已不准备大手大脚购买某些商品和服务。这不假，举例来说，短途航空旅行就是这样。美国西南航空(Southwest)以及欧洲的瑞安(Ryanair)和EasyJet等低成本航空公司正在吸引商务旅客，换作从前，这些人可能会搭乘一家票价更贵的航空公司的飞机。即使在人们继续花钱购买汽车等高档商品时，他们也常常货比三家，以求最理想的价格。
|
Take
the trade-off between price and quality. Some who were previously high
spenders are no longer prepared to pay large sums for certain goods and
services. This is true, for example, of short airline trips. The low-cost
airlines, such as Southwest in the US and Ryanair and EasyJet in Europe,
attract business travellers who would previously have flown on one of the
more expensive carriers. Even when people continue to invest in
top-of-the-range products, such as cars, they often shop around for the
best price.
|
|
但珠宝之类的奢侈品情况又如何呢？西北大学凯洛格商学院访问助理教授埃里克•安德松(Eric
Anderson)与麻省理工学院斯隆商学院副教授邓肯•西梅斯特(Duncan
Simester)是上述《哈佛商业评论》文章的作者。他们发现，珠宝买家未必喜欢低价。“顾客往往把折扣解读为需求疲软的信号，这可能引起他们对质量的怀疑，”他们表示。
|
But
what about luxury goods such as jewellery? The authors of the Harvard
Business Review article Eric Anderson, a visiting assistant professor at
Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Duncan Simester,
an associate professor at MIT Sloan School of Management found that
jewellery buyers did not necessarily like low prices. "Customers
often interpret discounts as a signal of weak demand, which may raise
doubts about quality," they say.
|
|
研究人员对一家销售高档礼品和珠宝的公司进行了研究。这家公司正考虑允许顾客分期付款购买其商品，而且不对分期付款加收费用。来自其它零售部门的证据显示，这样做会增加销售。
|
The
researchers conducted a study with a company that sells high-quality gifts
and jewellery. The company was considering allowing customers to pay for
its products in instalments, without incurring financing charges. Evidence
from other retailing sectors suggested this would increase sales.
|
|
为了验证同样的情况是否会发生自己的销售上，这家礼品珠宝公司向其1000名顾客发送了一份提供分期付款的商品目录。公司还向另1000名顾客发送了不提供分期付款的商品目录。哪批顾客定购珠宝更多呢？是收到没有分期付款商品目录的顾客。这些被要求以现金全额付款的顾客定购的珠宝要多13%。原因何在？一位顾客告诉研究人员，提供分期付款方案使这家珠宝公司显得“俗气”。
|
To
test whether the same would happen to its sales, the company sent 1,000 of
its customers a catalogue containing the interest-free instalments offer.
They sent another 1,000 customers catalogues without the instalment offer.
Which customers ordered more jewellery? The ones who did not receive the
instalment offer. The customers who were asked to pay cash, in full,
ordered 13 per cent more jewellery. Why? One customer told the researchers
that offering the instalment plan made the jewellery company look
"tacky".
|
|
除此之外，还有哪些领域人们建议公司不要降价？《哈佛商业评论》的作者以激光眼部外科手术为例，称用折扣方式推广这种服务是不明智的。一位眼科大夫说：“好药从不贱卖。”
|
Where
else would companies not be advised to cut prices? The Harvard Business
Review writers cite laser eye surgery as an example of a service where it
would be unwise to advertise discount sales. One eye surgeon said:
"Good medicine never goes on sale."
|
|
作者补充说，亚特兰大一家女装专卖店也是出于类似原因，而不使用“削价”标记来促销其新款产品。店家担心，对于带有“削价”标记的衣服，顾客要么会把它们视为先前季节的剩货，要么会看作其他顾客认定不适合自己的新款式。
|
They
add that a speciality women's clothing store in Atlanta offered similar
reasons for not using "sale" signs to promote new items. She
feared customers would see clothes with "sale" signs on them
either as leftovers from previous seasons or as new designs that other
customers had decided were not for them.
|
|
因此，尽管一些奢侈品和服务容易受到价格战的影响，比如航空旅行和汽车，但其它商品和服务则不同。但对公司来说，说服顾客花钱买了东西并不就等于就完事了，公司还应当确保顾客使用买来的东西。
|
So
while some luxury products and services, such as air travel and cars, are
susceptible to price competition, others are not. But persuading customers
to part with their cash is not the end of the affair; companies should
make sure they make use of their purchases too.
|
|
为什么呢？对卖家来说，货款到手（最好是全额提前获得）不就够了？不完全是。说服客户消费自己买来的东西，往往是说服他们再次购买，以及向朋友推荐这种产品或服务的关键。
|
Why?
Surely it is enough for sellers to get their hands on the money,
preferably in full and upfront? Not always. Persuading customers to
consume what they have bought is often the key to persuading them to make
repeat purchases and to recommend the goods or services to their friends.
|
|
这就是从前《哈佛商业评论》上一篇文章的核心观点，这篇文章题为《定价和消费心理》，作者是哈佛商学院的约翰•古维尔(John
Gourville)和香港科技大学商学院的迪利普•索曼(Dilip
Soman)。在这篇发表于2002年9月的文章中，作者认为，买来产品后并不使用的通常都是些短期顾客。
|
This
was the central argument of an earlier Harvard Business Review article,
"Pricing and the Psychology of Consumption", by John Gourville
of Harvard Business School and Dilip Soman of the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology's business school. In the article, published in
September 2002, the authors argue that people who fail to make use of
their purchases are often short-term customers.
|
|
作者指出，大多数杂志的续订率仅为60%或更少；每年仅有一半的健身俱乐部会员续签会员资格。这不仅是因为把握现有客户比搜寻新客户更便宜。企业也可以劝说现有客户购买升级服务。“例如在软件业，企业销售升级产品赚的钱通常要比出售初始版本更多，”作者写道。
|
Most
magazines, they say, achieve renewal rates of only 60 per cent, or less.
Only half of health club members renew their subscriptions each year. It
is not just that it is cheaper to hang on to existing customers than going
hunting for new ones. Companies can also persuade existing customers to
buy upgrades. "In the software business, for example, companies often
make more money selling upgrades than selling the initial
application," the writers say.
|
|
企业怎样才能劝说现有客户不离开呢？有关实验已经反复证明，人们为某样东西花费越多，人们就越有可能使用它。因此，一个花500美元预定滑雪假期的人，比一个花100美元预定滑雪假期的人因生病而取消活动的可能性要小。
|
How
can companies persuade existing customers to stay on? Experiments have
repeatedly established that the more people pay for something, the more
likely they are to use it. So, someone who has paid $500 for a skiing
holiday is less likely to cancel it if they fall ill than someone who has
paid $100.
|
|
当某人花了，比如说，600美元获得一年的健身俱乐部会员资格，他在开始几个星期肯定会经常去那里健身，但在此之后，他去的次数通常会越来越少。
|
When
someone pays, say, $600 for a yearly health club membership, they will
certainly go to the gym for the first few weeks. But after that, their
attendance often tails off.
|
|
到了要续签会员资格的时候，上次付出的600美元已成为遥远的记忆。在这种情况下，如果鼓励会员每月付费50美元，这或许更有可能使他们成为长期客户。每个月付费会使他们更有可能在年底续签会员资格。
|
By
the time their membership comes up for renewal, that $600 is a distant
memory. In cases such as these, encouraging members to pay $50 a month may
make them more likely to become long-term customers. Each month that they
pay will make them more likely to keep coming in renewing their membership
at the end of the year.
|
|
对珠宝购买者来说，分期付款方式可能行不通，但对于其它相对昂贵服务的购买者来说，这也许能留住。
|
While
instalment plans might not work for jewellery buyers, it can be a useful
way of hanging on to purchasers of other relatively expensive services.
|
|
作者简介：迈克•斯卡平克尔(Michael
Skapinker)是《金融时报》的管理专栏主编编辑。他在管理和组织研究问题上论著述颇丰。他经常赴美国和欧洲就管理和与商业专题发表演讲。他曾担任美国哥伦比亚广播公司驻雅典记者。之后，他加盟《金融时报》并担任一系列职务，其中包括管理记者、电子业作家、娱乐业记者和航天航空记者。在此期间，他对许多行业获得了深刻独到的见解。迈克•斯卡平克尔毕业于剑桥大学。
|
|
|
译者/张征
|
