The Apprentice: Final | Congratulations Yasmina

I'll do my best not to brag, but I told you all.  Yasmina, my pick for the crown, picked up the Apprenticeship from Sir Alan in last nights final.  My predictions usually flop quite badly (for instance I once tipped Google to fall from its perch before their IPO) so I'm rather smug this morning.  The girl did good.

Ok, gloating aside.  The final two, Yasmina and Kate, were tasked with creating a new chocolate with the help of some of their fellow contestants.  Yasmina went with Howard, Lorraine, James and Philip (who was scorned by Kate), whilst Kate sided with Ben, Debra, Kimberly and a thoroughly miserable looking Rocky.  It was so nice to see both teams working collectively and getting behind their leaders for a change, and it has to be said that both teams came up with very fine products.  After some rocky moments with the concept, Yasmina put together a nice brand (albeit with pretty awful sounding chocolates), whilst Kate and team had a super idea that was unfortunately priced too high.  Both could feasibly have won, but Sir Alan followed his gut instinct and opted for Yasmina.  Breaking with tradition, in this edition of The Apprentice blog I'm going to look at what Yasmina did right.

Pricing to win

Before we get onto pricing I feel I should give an honourable mention to one other element of the traditional marketing mix, the product.  I feel it's probably the nature of the show that leads to short-term thinking but it has to be pointed out that whilst Yasmina has triumphed in part to her budget pricing, her food has been pretty ropey, and ignoring product quality to such an extent may deliver some excellent short-term results it's a recipe for long-term disaster.

With that aside however here are some tips on how to price your product accordingly.

1. Determine your strategy -  There are various pricing strategies available depending on your aims.  If a substantial competitive advantage exists then you could adopt premium pricing (take note Kate).  Yasmina clearly went for the opposite end of the spectrum with a budget pricing strategy.
2. Knowing the difference between cost and value - The cost of producing their chocolates were clear but where Yasmina trumped Kate was in the value they assigned to their chocolates.  To determine value you need to find out things such as the benefits customers gain from your product, the criteria they use for their buying decisions and the value customers place on the benefits you offer.
3. Covering your costs - Seems an obvious one but the Apprentice showed this time and time again.  Sandalwood taught Yasmina a valuable lesson but Kate let costs get away from her, which forced her box out of the £8 range that may well have seen her win into the uncompetitive £13 premium price bracket.

There are various things that are required post-launch such as your pricing tactics (ie whether the product is a loss leader etc.) but I feel for the task last night Yasmina covered the previous three elements pretty well.

3 Must Do CMI Pricing Tips

1. Determine your strategy
2. Gauge your market
3. Know your costs

And with that we reach the end of our coverage of this years Apprentice.  I must say that it's been a blast and great fun getting feedback from you all on the antics each week.  I'm sure we'll be returning next year but in the meantime if you have anything you'd like us to cover do get in touch.