The 7p Valentines Day Card

With just a couple of weeks until Valentine’s Day, many shops are going into overdrive with the displays of flowers, hearts, chocolates etc… It’s a lucrative time of year to charge top prices for certain products that might have a very inelastic PED (depending on how late you leave it to purchase!) and many firms see this as a good opportunity for business - I know plenty of Young Enterprise teams in schools all over the country who see it this way as well.

But what about the other end of the market? Is there a market for the very cheap cards and gifts as people look to cut back on their excess spending? This offer from Asda made me smile - is this a product on which they expect to make a lot of profit? (On a side note why do you think they have priced it at 7p?) Is it an example of a ‘loss-leader’ as consumers pick up the chocolates/flowers etc… at the same time? Is it a just for a bit of viral marketing? Lots to discuss.

Whichever way it’s a good example of a firm spotting and taking advantage of a business opportunity – who said romance was dead?

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