Bullitt Group Ltd is an international mobile phone and consumer electronics business.
Founded in 2009, Bullitt designs, manufactures, markets and sells consumer electronic devices in partnership with global brands. It is the worldwide licensee of Caterpillar Inc. and Land Rover. Its products are sold in more than 75 countries and the company has a presence in key markets around the world including China, the UK and the USA.
The Challenge
Bullitt needed to investigate the optimal pricing strategies for the launch of a new range of smartphones, in the Cat phone and Land Rover branded ranges.
One of the key decisions that needs to be made with the launch of any product is to identify the right pricing strategy. Set the price too high and it can damage sales volumes; too low and margins can suffer needlessly.
Here entered Savanta: we were appointed to provide expert advice and a data driven approach to optimise Bullitt’s product pricing strategy.
Our approach
To kick things off, we needed to define the research objectives.
In order to establish the optimum pricing, we first had to profile the target market for the new product and then establish the likely market reaction to different pricing levels.
We designed surveys for Bullitt brands to target niche consumer audiences. Ultimately the end users of these phones were vastly different to traditional smartphone users, and so required a different approach. This saw us reaching out across diverse international markets such as the USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia and the Czech Republic.
To elicit the data we needed, we deployed a variety of different pricing techniques designed to match the situation of the particular product(s) concerned, including Van Westendorp and Gabor Granger methods, which provided a clear picture of what the ideal price range would be for each new product.
The outcome
Bullitt was able to view the potential impact of different pricing levels on its products in terms of sales volumes and margins and adjust these forecasts using our data to perform various “what if” analyses at different pricing levels.
Subsequently, Bullitt has used the resulting insight extensively to drive its pricing strategy for different rugged smartphones across its product portfolio.
Bullitt has repeatedly called on Savanta to help gauge market reception for new product concepts, and crucially to establish the impact of pricing adjustments on prospective customers’ interest in a product proposition. This work has yielded valuable results that have allowed us to better plan our product portfolio of Caterpillar and Land Rover branded rugged smartphones, and to ensure that we are addressing price points that are not prohibitive to key target customer groups. Savanta has always been highly professional and produced high quality analysis. What’s more, they’ve often been able to turn around urgent research projects in compressed time frames.
Tim Shepperd, Senior Director, Applications and Product Marketing