Home › Blogs › Eric Jennings's blog

Is Our Pricing Too Complex?

Mon, 01/11/2010 - 09:25 — Eric Jennings

I sometimes think our class pricing is overly complicated. The easiest way to simplify would be to eliminate the least popular class cards but when I do a review of sales there aren't any cards that don't sell as well as any of the others. Clearly people like having a wide range of class cards to choose from but we often have to help people figure out what their best purchase option is due to there being so many choices.

I wonder if it would be feasible to do something as simple as this:

$XX for an introductory trial period
$XX per single class
$XX per class if you buy 10 at a time
$XX per month for unlimited attendance
XX% discount for students, seniors, members

Please use the comment feature to tell us what you think.

Comments

Sun, 01/24/2010 - 05:08 — Anonymous

Bigger class cards

How about a class card for 40 or 50 classes? I would think an expiration of one year should be enough for those. Maybe 500 for 40 and/or 600 for 50? Not sure of the math on these choices commits the yogi to a bigger commitment yet larger value. But the studio makes a nice chunk of change quickly. The membership deal doesn't seem to be very encouraging financially. I would like to become a member of this great BYD but don't get the benefit of membership to a once or twice a weeker like me. I do like how this studio seems to try to stick to the "Bikram way" and especially since this is soon to be the only Bikram studio inside the perimeter.

Sun, 01/24/2010 - 18:37 — Eric Jennings
Eric Jennings's picture

Not what I had in mind, but...

I was thinking about reducing the options but you suggest adding one more... while it's not what I had in mind, it's also not a bad suggestion. I'll give it some thought.

Mon, 01/18/2010 - 03:32 — Anonymous

Yes, yes, yes!

I love your classes and would love to "save" by buying in "bulk" (10 or 20 classes at a time). But I travel more than 50% of the time, so I find that my class cards expire in every city before I can use them all. I would love a simplified pass that I can bank on with a more lenient (or no) expiration date. Thanks! - Erin

Mon, 01/18/2010 - 18:55 — Eric Jennings
Eric Jennings's picture

I sure do know how to make more work for myself...

Hi Erin, Thanks for the feedback.

I'm keeping the idea of simplified pricing on my long term "to do" list but since we're not getting a lot of response to my query we aren't likely to be making any significant changes to our pricing any time soon.

Also, from my perspective, your response actually reads like an argument for keeping things the way they are. I'll explain:

There are two reasons for class card expiration dates. The first is to help us maintain a certain level of cash flow. Any business needs a steady stream of income in order to meet their monthly financial obligations like rent, utilities, salaries, etc. The second is to encourage people who purchase classes to maintain a regular practice -- "use 'em or lose 'em" being a pretty effective motivation. Even if we did simplify our prices, we would still need to have expiration dates on class purchases.

Discounts for bulk purchase are mutually beneficial. We get an increase in cash flow and the student get's a better price per class. That's why a 20 Class card costs less per class than a 3, 5 or 10. Specifically we've got 3 "per class" prices: $16 (drop-ins), $14 (3, 5 & 10 class cards) and $13 (20 class cards). We actually offer further discounts but these rates serve to illustrate my point. The reason we have the 3, 5 and 10 class card options are exactly for someone like you. You still get a discount even though you aren't buying a lot of classes up front.

I will also point out that with any of our numbered class cards (3, 5, 10 or 20) you only need to attend class once every nine days in order to use all the classes before the card expires. If you were only in town for a couple weeks at a time you could still easily work through a 3 or 5 class card before reaching the expiration date.

If you're asking to be able to buy a 20 class card at the $13 rate but not to have an expiration date then there is no longer a cash flow benefit for us.

If none of the above options work for you I would consider working out a compromise. If you're willing to pay $14 for a 20 class card I would be willing to extend the expiration date from 6 to 9 months.

Tue, 01/12/2010 - 13:44 — Anonymous

I personally like the 20

I personally like the 20 class card. I don't always get to come to class 3x a week to make the unlimited worth it and I come too frequently for the 10.

I don't think your pricing is too complicated. If you find yourself explaining it over and over, maybe a sheet that outlines how you evaluate the options would solve this problem?

Tue, 01/12/2010 - 11:42 — Anonymous

Yes and Yes :-)

Your proposed change would be a good one.

~jada