Compare with Prototype & Copycat Brands

In “partially comparative pricing,” you announce price comparisons with other stores for some, but not all, of your products. Researchers at Florida International University, State University of New York-Fredonia, and University of Louisville have called the practice “a double-edged sword.” Partially comparative pricing leaves most consumers with the impression that pricing on all items which belong to the same categories will also be priced competitively. That’s good. However, the consumers are also often left with the impression that you’ll be making up for the discounts by charging more for items in the other categories. That’s bad.
     The good part of this is best when the comparisons you feature are for prototype brands. A prototype brand on your store shelves or racks carries the name and label design best known by consumers in your target markets in that product or service category. For peanut butter, the prototype might be Skippy. Prototype electronics brands include Apple and Samsung. From the geographical angle, the prototype brand of laundry detergent might be Tide in Milwaukee, All Free in San Francisco, and Ala in Buenos Aries. For beer, it would be Budweiser in America and Heineken in the Netherlands.
     Ease the bad part of partially comparative pricing by advertising favorable price comparisons on prototype brands across the range of product categories your store carries.
     There’s reason to believe you also can achieve the good and ease the bad by substituting “copycat brands” for prototype brands as long as you show illustrations of the copycat brands in the ad. A copycat brand aims to imitate the appearance of the prototype brand.
     Copycat brands can sell well. However, researchers at University of Cologne and Tilburg University find that the type of copycat you carry should be based on the proximity of the prototype brand. The researchers distinguished among low, moderate, and high similarity copycats, depending on how much the package design and brand name resembled the prototype’s.
     If you don’t carry the prototype brand in your store, have high similarity copycats. If you stock the prototype brand adjacent to the copycat, carry moderate similarity copycats so customers don’t conclude you’re trying to mislead them.
     From a shopper psychology perspective, the second strategy is better:

• By stocking both the prototype and copycat, you offer variety. And variety attracts shoppers. 
• When the copycat is physically close to the prototype, the shopper’s mind attributes positive characteristics of the prototype to the copycat. 

Click below for more: 
Orient Shoppers to Appreciate Discounts 
Copycat Based on Leader Brand Proximity 
Compare Unknown Brands to Best-Known Brands