Investigate the rates of PR consultancies for working on a retainer for crisis communications, and consulting rates for bespoke PR campaigns
The research conducted took into consideration secondary data as well as primary data. Both of that combined suggested to us that PR consultation service should not to be suggested by competition prices, when choosing pricing strategy. Because in this line of business there is too many variables that can change and can play part in each of the projects. Some of the variables are:
Complexity of the project/campaign - maintain a simple social media strategy can be done from as little as £150 per month by freelance consultants, however , example of University of California who paid to crisis communications consultant $375 per hour and $100000 in total for their service when assisting when the campus coped with fallout from the pepper-spraying of protesters. Distance that consultants have to travel- serving local businesses that are just in corner can be more profitable then serving a big company which requires the consultants to travel between their premises often being in different countries Experience of the consultants- freelance PR consultants that just graduates university can be available from as little as £10ph on many freelance websites. On the other side of the extreme are communication specialists who working for Pharmaceutical or Oil conglomerates can receive compensation of over £3 million. However UK average for this sector is £50k a year.
Clients profile – dependently on who is the client some of the PR consultants adjust their fees. So the fee is usually increased if the client is a big profitable organization, where as it is lowered if the client is either start-up or non-profit organization.
Those are a few factors that should be considered when trying to think of the best pricing strategy. Above data is from freelancers that get back to us and from research on the internet. Unfortunately many of more reputable companies didn’t get back to us yet or refused to provide pricing.
It is important to remember about the basics of successful pricing which is supply and demand.
Finding out that equilibrium requires a very insightful research into the market and services that company wants to provide. To help companies to appropriately price their products 5C’s of pricing can be used:
1. Customer – Determine what needs from which clients you’re trying to satisfy. A few areas to research would be the market segments, benefits the customer wants, if the value of the benefits outweigh the costs, frequency of purchases, quantity of purchases, retail channel, and needs based on trends over time.
2. Company – Determine if your company can meet those customer needs. For example, does your company have the right product line and/or technical expertise? A good tool to help determine your company’s strengths and weaknesses is “SWOT” analysis. This stands for Strengths such as innovative products, expertise, great processes and procedures, Weaknesses such as the lack of knowledgeable technical support or poor product quality, Opportunities such as a new international market or a market led by a weak competitor, and Threats such as a new competitor or price war. This is a very good tool to analyze the internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats.
3. Competition – Determine who competes with your company in meeting the customer’s needs. Is it an active competitor or a potential threat? What are their products exactly? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
4. Collaborators – Determine if there is any outside source that can help the company such as distributors, suppliers, etc.
5. Context – Determine if