Do you want to hit a home run with your Mortgage application? Here are 8 actions you can take that will help.

Price offers a fast and direct way to communicate to any buyer the basis of comparison between brands.

When consumers cannot easily evaluate the quality of a product eg; perfume or a high end alcohol beverage, price can be used as a signal of the products value. The importance of convincing your demographic is establishing why your product  is superior compared to other brands. Do not rely on consumer’s to automatically think that your product is high end due to all the zeros in the price tag.

How do we do this? Quality packaging, advertising, exclusiveness, dependability, reliability of product and service can all be used to state why this is a high end product.

A lot of first time businesses try to sell their products at the high end of the market, only for the consumer to discover that the product breaks, dissolves, rusts, rips, melts or fades, faster than a similar product that is 1/10th of the price. This is the perfect way to scare off any return business.

How do you know you have a high end product?

Have you tested what the consumer needs or wants to pay for your product? A good way to do this is to see how much people are paying for a similar product on auction websites, like Trademe or Ebay.

Why High?

Maybe you are selling to a niche market where there is some or no competition. Possibly you have such a unique product; there is no set bar as to what the price should be.

Personally I like to deal with fewer consumers, depending on the product. Selling to a niche market eliminates hours each day of answering my phone or replying to potential buyers who are just curios. With a high end product, I can sell fewer quantities, and still make more profit than my other mid range price products.

Tim Ferris author of “The four hour work week”, makes mention in his book about eliminating workload such as this when selling a high end product, I highly recommend this book.

I want to position my brand and my product as high end value, but how?

Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product.  There are alternative ways to build your brand as a high end, we will look at multimedia advertising:

High end celebrity endorsement

Understanding your demographic helps you to decide who the right celebrity would be to endorse your product. Google ‘celebrity endorsement’ and you will find dozens of celebrity endorsement websites where you can find and contact the celebrity agents to negotiate deals. 

Product photos and catalogues

Spend a little more on your product(s) photo shoot so that it looks like it came out of a designer catalogue. You can shop around to find the right graphic design studio that can transform your product to look and feel like a high end product.

Advertising

Advertise in premium areas where your demographic will most likely notice you such as demographically specific websites, magazines, posters and billboards.  If you choose to advertise in a magazine make sure you get a full page or double spread so as to make it appear that you can afford an expensive advertising campaign. If you choose to advertise online make sure your ad banner is stationed above the fold, (top half of the website).

Sponsorship

 Sponsor an event so that it looks like your brand is associated with the particular event that your chosen demographic would attend.

You are probably thinking, hold on, this is getting too expensive to advertise, well there is a reason why your prices are premium right? Having done your maths and knowing what your total fixed costs are, use a high mark up so that you can put the profit from your sales into to paying for your advertisements.

In recent years I have learnt that advertising in certain magazines, or websites is not as expensive as you believe, and don’t forget you are targeting directly to your target market! Make sure you evaluate the amount of orders or sales leads you are receiving from the advertising you are spending. Was the advertising worth it? If the answer is yes, go again, and penetrate your market with your brand.

Money has an arduous reputation for being the bad guy, held responsible on numerous occasions for the destruction of good men and seen as ‘the root of all evils’. While money is a fine catalyst to these things, it is not the reason for it. We take a look at some of the theories behind money and speculate on a few money fears.

Although it is very true that ‘money can’t buy happiness’, it is also true that money helps bring to life dreams and create wealth. Held in the hands of the right person, money can be used as a resource and foundation for great good. Think of Mother Teresa and Oprah Winfrey who have both achieved great wealth for the good of man kind. Mother Teresa raised millions of dollars to build 610 missionaries of charity in over 123 countries and Oprah has given ‘an estimated $303 million’ to charities and other socially beneficial causes (www.wikipedia.com).

So what makes us different from the average millionaire and what can you do to get your hands on some? While this article isn’t a quick fix to all your money problems, it does pose some interesting philosophies. Read on.

Where did money come from?

Around 9,000 BC, before money was created, people used to barter by exchanging one possession of value for another.  Common items of trade were vegetables and animal stock.

What are its ancient/spiritual/original beliefs?

Spiritual believers see money as a form of energy and love. They believe that the universe gives in abundance and conspires to meet that which you desire and focus on. Focus on having ‘no money’ and you will be granted ‘no money’. Focus on having money and you will be granted with having money. “Money is just another physical form of the spirit, another way that the universe gives to you. “The energy of spirit takes on many forms in the physical world: like love, time, space, and nature to name a few” – money is also one of these (www.healpastlives.com).  

What stops people from getting their share?

A new age approach to the topic of money reveals that most people are poor or broke because they fear being rich. You may not think this is true but if you sit down and think about it I’m sure you can probably relate to one or two of the following beliefs:

• Most rich people become rich at the expense of the poor
• Too much money makes me selfish
• Most rich people become corrupted by their riches
• I have to work really hard for my money
• I don’t deserve to be rich
• Having lots of money is bad
• Poor people are more honest than rich people
• Poor people are more spiritual

Whether you have noticed it or not, there is a lot of social taboo around having money. Most of societies ‘average’ earners are only ‘average’ earners due to their strong and underlying negative outlook on being a ‘rich’ person. It may not have been something you were aware of until now, and if you feel that you are one of those people (which if you are not already rich then you probably are) who believes that money is ultimately an evil, fear not. You can change the way you feel about money simply by the way you think.

How do I ‘attract’ money into my life?

There have been numerous studies carried out into interrogating the minds and behaviours of ‘rich’ people. What makes them more prone to success? How are they different from everyone else? Do they posses certain characteristics and personality traits? All of these questions and many more have been on the list of ‘success’ seekers and researchers. Interesting enough the results have shown many times over that the difference is in the way that they think.

Successful people focus on the positive and have tapped into a healthy and empowering thought pattern that enables them to attract and connect with wealth. Not only do they focus on the positive and having money but they full heartedly believe that they deserve it and have the confidence that they can achieve it.

The trick is inevitably in the theory behind the ‘law of attraction’. Rich people have learnt to automatically trigger repetitive thought patterns that encourage wealth. They are constantly thinking thoughts such as:

• Money is good
• I deserve to be rich
• I will do great and good things with my money
• Spiritual people are rich people too
• I can achieve anything that I put my mind to
• Having money will enable me to live out my dreams
• Having money is healthy
• There is plenty of money for everyone and I am going to have my share

As wise men say:

It’s the love of money that is the root of all evil. Money does not destroy on its own accord; it destroys via the hands of greedy men. As William Durant, founder of General Motors and Chevrolet will tell you, “Money is only loaned to a man. He comes into the world with nothing and he leaves with nothing”.

Recommended Reading:

Think and Grow Rich

“Think and Grow Rich is a timeless classic and should be read by students of business, people with entrepreneurial spirit, and anybody who is interested in furthering their lives and reaching their goals. This book will guided many to success, and has sold millions of copies for nearly three quarters of a century”.