“Price” is only one of the classic Four Ps of Marketing (the other three are “Product”, “Placement”, and “Promotion”). But it’s sure getting most of the focus right now, as businesses figure out how to brace for tariff impact.
Some brands like Black & Decker have already started raising pricing. Others like P&G and Hasbro have signaled that price increases are coming. Many like Adidas are waiting for their competitors to raise prices first.
Albertsons, one of the largest US grocery chains, gave notice to brands that “we aren’t accepting price increases.” Amazon was in the news last week for apparently considering and then abandoning a tariff line item at checkout. Others like Bare Necessities are having overt “Pre-Tariff Sales” to convince shoppers to stock up early.
Katherine Black at Kearney, who advises retailers on pricing strategy, had an interesting insight in the NYT a few days ago:
“The Great Recession was really a demand problem. Covid in a lot of cases was largely a supply problem — this is both.”
Running this gauntlet takes full attention. And yet this is a time for all the tools in the marketing toolkit. In times of chaos, brands play an important role to their customers in how they communicate and show up.
My favorite example comes from luggage company BÉIS. They’re using plain talk and a sense of humor to connect with their shoppers like fellow humans:
“Let’s skip the corporate-speak: This tariff situation is a complete dumpster fire, and we’re all getting burned. Here’s the situation: Costs are up, and unfortunately, our prices will have to follow suit. And no, we can’t just stuff these extra costs in an overhead bin and pretend they don’t exist.
“You’re probably wondering what this means for your cart. Unfortunately, so are we. Honestly, we’re just as confused as everyone else. But changes are coming. What kind of changes? Don’t know. When? Could be tomorrow or … ok we don’t know that either…
“We promise we’re fighting these increases with every trick in our playbook. Our finance team hasn’t slept in days, our spreadsheets have spreadsheets, and we’ve considered everything from company-wide ramen diets to asking our CEO to start an OnlyFans …
“Thanks for sticking with us through whatever economy plot twist comes next.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
