A low-cost provider seeks to sell its products at the lowest price it can, while still making a profit so that it can draw customers to the market. This is the broad version of the low-cost strategy because such companies try to appeal to a broad market.
What is Low Cost Provider Strategy?
Low cost provider seeks to produce a product that no other company will and offer the lowest price in the market for the product; however, this can be incredibly difficult due to the unique nature of the low-cost provider. They must be able to shift from being a low-cost provider to the leader in the market and even a luxury provider for the industry. This requires them to be flexible and innovative, so that they can make the change to a higher-paying market without losing their footing in the market.
Why is it a good business strategy?
A low cost provider strategy has a number of merits. It usually takes less money to start a low-cost provider to begin with, so that it is easy to start in the market. In order to be successful, you must focus on the customer and how you can serve them and how you can help them fill the standard needs that they have in the market. The low cost provider focuses on the need and basic value of the customer — what they will pay for a product and what they will accept.
The low cost provider is unique in the market because it can change into a variety of different types of providers and succeed. A low cost provider is able to produce a product for a low price and sell it cheaply to the customer, but a high-end provider can up their prices in order to ensure that they have enough money to stay in business. The low-cost provider can then change to match the market and offer a luxury product as well. This strategy is good in the long term, because it allows the company to adapt to the market situation and mold itself into a company that can take advantage of developments in the marketplace with ease.
Who uses the strategy?
The strategy is used by a variety of different companies. The focus of sustainability is one of the most important aspects of the strategy, and it appeals to the largest number of companies in the world today. Being green, minimising energy use, water use, pollution, and other forms of waste are all appealing to the market, and the low-cost provider is the best way to meet these conditions and ensure that the environment is protected in the long term. Minimising pollution and waste also has the side benefit of saving money for the low cost provider, and he can then pass these savings onto the customer in the form of a lower price for the product.
Low-cost providers are a style of business that appeals to many companies. It is unique and innovative, and it offers a completely different strategy to the marketplace. Instead of appealing to the broad market, the low-cost provider appeals to the specific niche needs of the customer on a broad scale. It is successful and flexible and is an innovative strategy that appeals to many.
Advantages of being low cost providers
- Focus on the customer;
- No need to raise prices;
- Customer’s trust and loyalty can be created;
- Complete control of the market;
- New business can be easily incorporated
- Drawbacks Of being a low cost provider
- The low-cost provider does not appeal to the entire market;
- You have to keep up with the trends if you want to be a low-cost provider;
- You have to be unique in order to be a low-cost provider
How to use Low Cost Provider Strategy
First of all select the product you want to sell. Please do not sell the product that other companies already have. This is one of the main reasons for a low-cost provider to fail: they sell in a space that is already dominated by other companies. Make sure you have a differentiating point that differentiates you from the other companies. Make sure you do this as soon as possible after the site goes online- so that you catch the attention of your customers.
After you select the product you want to sell, you must decide how much you want to reduce the price. First concentrate on your market. How much will the customer pay? What can they afford? What would they be willing to part with their money for?
It is not a common occurrence for a customer to pay more for the product rather than less. This is where innovativeness comes into play.
When you have a customer who is willing to pay more:
- Make the product better;
- Offer extra services;
- Add more value;
- Make the product unique and well researched.
If you do all this, it will allow the customer to pay more for what you offer. The product must be unique. Think outside the box. If you do all this your product will be the best in the market. The price will be higher but it will be worth it. Even if you sell fewer products, you will have more customers.
Once you have established how much you want to reduce the price, you must focus on the marketing. You will have to advertise your product on the internet, on television, in the news paper and with billboards. There are many ways to advertise the product. But very few of those would actually be effective. You need to be able to reach your customers.
What a low cost provider does is that it markets the product in such a manner that it reaches as many people as possible in order to create a buzz. Once it creates the buzz it can continue with the sale. This is usually what happens. You can specialise in a niche market rather than trying to reach out to the entire global market.
Advertising is a must for any company. Whether it is online or off line it is very important. But the main thing to remember here is how you will do it. Would you make use of the internet by creating an account on social media websites such as Facebook?
You need to have a web page that advertises or market the product. We are not saying that you should sell the product online. You can put up a website or open up a Facebook account or any other social media to advertise the product and to attract customers.
There are some proven ways to advertise the product. But we are not going into it in the article. The main point is to get customers and to be able to sell them the product. Once you do that you will be able to make a lot of money in a short time.
Once you have marketed the product, you need to concentrate on the quality. You have to make sure that the product is of the highest quality. This is because the customers will ask questions. They will be more than happy to ask you the questions directly. If you provide them reasons, they will believe and trust you.
But if you do not have the best product and they do come to know about the same, they will not trust you. This could result in you losing the business. It will not look good on the image of the company as we had discussed earlier. This is a scenario that you want to avoid as much as possible.
Once you set the standards to the next level, it will help maintain your business. This is because you will not have to regret about the fact that you could have done better. You will always be at your best. It will be inevitable to maintain standards for you. It will be natural.
The best way is to provide the product at the best price that the customers are willing to spend. Giving value to the customer is a must.
The real understanding of a low cost provider is to make a customer really happy with the product at the lowest possible price. This is a strategy that is used by many companies. It is not only customers who buy the product but they are also the marketing channel for the low cost provider.
Useful Resources
Being a low cost provider requires intelligent and innovative strategies and concepts in order to keep your business viable. Many companies understand this and are opening up to the fact that operating as a low cost provider is important. It is only through a combination of intelligent strategy and innovative concepts that the status quo can be broken down. For companies that have already been working in this field, it is wise to evaluate how effective your methods are. Can the low cost provider strategy be improved? And if it can, where should you start? This is the only path to longevity.
Without the intelligence to understand the business and how to move it forward, you will not survive. So whether you are a highly experienced low cost provider or a novice in the business, there are some typical issues that you will probably face. These include the following:
- Many customers will not trust you. This is fine to begin with because it is important to start building a loyal customer base. And if they are not willing to actually try out the product, this will be a good base for the future. But as you grow in size, you need to be more selective about the type of customer that you try to attract . The way that you market your product will be important as you try to draw in new customers. You need to be able to differentiate between customers who are only going to be a pain for you in the long term. If you can get rid of them, then it is better for you. High quality customers will stick to you – and this is what you want.
- The ability to deliver the products correctly at the right time. It is not out of place to say that you will need to show your customer that your business is highly efficient. This is not only important because it gives you a good reputation, but it also shows them that you are prepared to go the extra mile to get them a high quality product. Without meeting the deadlines, you will be putting the future of your business in jeopardy. And high quality customers will know that you have not met your deadlines. We would recommend you to at least try to deliver your product a day ahead of the deadline. This will give them a peace of mind and this is imperative if you want to get a chance to build a customer base that is willing to do business with you in the long term.
- A lot of people that reach out to you for help will not be genuine. This is because they will not treat you as a brand that they want to associate themselves with. Instead, they will see you as someone they can exploit. These are some unavoidable facts of life. But the main thing you should focus on is to weed out the fakes from the real ones. When someone is pretending to be a customer, they will be offensive in some way. They will probably ask you for something that has nothing to do with your business. What you get from these freaks is a lot of frustration and attention that you really don’t need.
How to solve this problem is by making sure that your level of service is such that it makes it impossible for them to be offensive. You’ll be surprised how effective this can be. This is because if your customer is not treated with respect, they will know that you are not someone to be trusted.
- Your prices will have to stay low because if you start hiking them up, the customers will just go to your competitors. During your startup days, you are going to have to figure out the right prices, and you do not always know whether they will be ideal or not. It depends on the market that you are operating in. But once you know how to price the product, then you will need to make sure that they are actually selling for those prices. Of course, you cannot price them high. In fact, at times, you need to make them lower than what you designed them for.
That is why it is important to figure out what is the market worth of the product that you are selling. And you can do this by going on a bit of research and by asking around. Ultimately, your aim is to reach that price point when you can start selling the product profitably.