Your customers aren’t buying on price. They never were.
Let me be blunt. Price barely registers when the context is right. People will hand over £30 for something worth 41p and walk away grinning. Happens every day, in every arcade in the country.
Most business owners never figure this out. They slash margins, cut prices, and wonder why they’re knackered and broke.
The No Bullshit Version
- Customers don’t buy on price. They buy on context.
- Context = emotion, convenience, status, speed, relief, nostalgia.
- A 41p plastic toy can sell for £30 if the context is right.
- Find your context and tap into it. Stop competing on price.
Lads On Tour
Except this was Barney’s (my son’s) rugby tour.
So the “lads” were 12 and 13.
Which meant, unfortunately for them, their parents came too.
Cue a lot of Brummie accents in a caravan park in Wales.
Many lessons were learned.
Firstly, it always rains in Wales.
Always.
Lesson two, boys are idiots.
They will charge into the freezing Irish Sea.
And they will enjoy it, even when they’re slowly turning blue.
Lesson three?
Going to play against some of the best rugby sides in the country after two nights in a feral caravan park…
With no rules… no bedtime… and a diet consisting of chips and e-numbers…
Does not create peak athletic performance.
It creates the wooden spoon.
And frankly, we were lucky to get that.
But the big lesson? The one that matters to you?
Price is elastic.
Very elastic.
There we were, your classic caravan site: beach, booze, kids running feral.
And in the distance, the “diiiing-diiiiing-diiiing” of kid heaven…
The Arcade.
After rinsing me for at least £30, Barney proudly announces he and his mate Monty have won 100 tokens.
They rock up to the prize counter like conquering heroes.
Their spoils?
Some knock-off plastic Super Mario tat.
Cost price, about 41p, on a good day.
And here’s the thing… nobody cared.
Every parent in that arcade knew exactly what was happening.
And we all let it happen. Why?
Because the kids were happy.
Because it bought us 20 minutes of peace.
Because it felt nostalgic.
Remember, folks never buy based on price alone.
They buy based on context.
Emotion. Convenience. Status. Speed. Relief. Nostalgia. Whatever.
Find your context and tap in.
And suddenly your “41p plastic tat” becomes worth £30.
Make More. Provide More. Be More.
Charlie Hutton
FAQ
Why do customers haggle on price?
Because you haven’t given them a reason to pay more. Haggling isn’t about your price being too high. It’s about your context being too weak. Get the context right – emotion, convenience, status, relief, nostalgia, whatever – and the haggling stops. The mass mediocre majority compete on price because they’ve got nothing else to sell.
How can I charge more without losing customers?
Stop selling the product. Start selling the context around it. A 41p toy sells for £30 in an arcade because the context is “my kid is happy and I’ve bought myself 20 minutes of peace.” Nobody’s buying the plastic. They’re buying the relief. Find what your customer is actually buying, then charge for that.
What does “price is elastic” mean in business?
It means the same product can sell at wildly different prices depending on the context you wrap around it. A bottle of water is 30p in Tesco and £4 at a festival. Same water. Different context. Price isn’t fixed by what something costs to make. It’s fixed by what the customer feels in the moment of buying.
Why don’t people buy on price alone?
Because nobody actually buys things. They buy what the thing does for them. Emotion. Convenience. Status. Speed. Relief. Nostalgia. Price comes into it last, not first. If you’re selling on price, you’re competing in the cheapest part of the market against people who don’t care if they go bust.
How do you stop competing on price?
Stop selling features. Stop selling specifications. Start selling the feeling your customer gets when they hand over the money. The arcade isn’t selling 41p of plastic. It’s selling 20 minutes of peace and a happy child. Find the version of that in your business and the price conversation disappears.
What To Do Next
You’re not evil for wanting to replace jobs with profit. You’re running a business, not a crèche. If you want the full playbook – the exact method hundreds of UK men have used to hit £1 million without a payroll dragging them under – start with my best-selling book. It’s here on Amazon
