How to Devalue a Thing and Why.

The Trappings of Value and What it Is: Part 7

To begin…

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

Oscar Wilde said that.  And you know, the guy knew what he was talking about.  He was speaking to an overemphasis on material possessions, and a lack of ability or desire…

…to look beyond to the true heart of what something is worth.  It’s intangible value, so to speak.  At least that’s how I’ve always taken that quote.

I’ve written several articles now about value, and this will be my seventh.  But today I want to talk about something a little different.  

I want to speak on the subject of devaluing a thing and why.

Two Parts…

First, I want to divide this essay into two parts.  A tale of two cities, if you will. 

On the one hand, there are times when we devalue a thing by complete accident.

It’s not what we meant to do, and we don’t understand how it happened. I’d like to add some clarity to that and help you avoid doing it.

On the other hand, there are times when we strategically seek to lower the value of a thing on purpose.  And that might sound weird to you, but I promise, there are times when it is necessary to do it, and we’ll get into that today.

Lastly, I just want to mention, the various ways I discuss here with you are not exhaustive.  They are but a sampling of the ways and situations in which you can devalue a thing.  

But they are the major ones I’ve dealt with personally.

And without further ado, let’s go ahead and get deeper into this.

5 Ways You Would Devalue a Thing by Mistake:

One) Never take a thing off the market

Some people are in love with the idea of an evergreen product.  However, the problem with an evergreen product that never comes off the market is that it gets old.

People grow used to it, and the idea that the price of this thing continues to stay the same month in and month out, year after year, is ridiculous.  It fundamentally defies the laws of nature.

As human beings, we grow older over the years and what happens?  We are devalued in the eyes of the world.  It might not be fair, it might not even be admitted but it happens.  We have a shelf life for usefulness.

Items we own, generally lose their value over time.  We perceive them as not as valuable.  Of course there are exceptions, real estate and classic cars, for example.  But think about that for a second.

Why does real estate retain and even go up in value?  Scarcity. It is one of a kind.

Why do classic cars tend to rise in value?  Scarcity.  Their numbers diminish and people want them.

Most things though, tend to decrease in value over time.  So to think that you would leave a product on the market for years and expect it to not diminish in perceived value is foolish.

This is why you must retire products and update them.  To maintain the value of a thing.

Let’s move on to the next way people inadvertently lower the value of a thing…

Two) Never talk about a thing 

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind?”  It’s true.  When you put out a new product, run a successful launch and then sit that product on the market to collect trickle in sales…

…what you will notice is that over time, if you are moving on to the next new things all the time, the trickle in sales will dry up and people will stop seeking your product out.

After a few months it might as well be like that product isn’t on the market at all.  Like it’s completely cold product.

There is no faster way to devalue a product than to stop talking about it because you are always on to the next new thing you are doing.

It’s important to circle back around to the products you have on the market, in your promotional calendar.  Or at the very least have content out there in the market, in the form of YouTube videos or articles or podcasts…

…something…that will send some traffic to those products regularly.

If you don’t do that, the value of that thing will pretty much drop to zero quickly as it ages and as it lies dormant, out of sight and out of mind.

Three) Not enough time in-between sales

Putting things on sale too often will essentially permanently alter the perceived value of a thing.  

For example, let’s say I have a $50 special report.  But every month for 4 days I take the price down to $10.  Well guess what?

The perceived value of that thing is $10.  And that’s how people see it.  They don’t see it as a $50 item that sometimes goes on sale for $10 and it’s an extremely good deal anymore.

They instead see it as a $10 item that they need to make sure they buy at the right time.  It’s a fundamental difference in how they look at your thing.  And it’s caused by running sales on that product way too close together.

When you run a sale on a thing, you need to let it cool off for a while.  Reset the perceived value to the original price.  

That’s why it’s important to build infrastructure for your  business, so you have lots of different things to actually put on sale regularly.

Four) Running sales too long

Similar to running sales too often, is running sales for too long.  I’ll see people leave something on sale permanently.  

How many times have you seen an information product that says it’s regular price is like $3,999 but it’s on sale for $27.  So it’s a 4k product that’s been reduced to $27.  Wow, that's already weird…

…but then you come back to check on that thing next month, and you see it’s the same thing.  This thing just sits at $27 all the time.  It’s like some kind of PERMA SALE!

Well, that’s not a sale anymore to people.  The perceived value has shifted to the lowest price they have seen it selling at.  And you have done it by running your sales too long.

It’s important to take things off sale and let them cool off. Let the perceived value of the thing reset to the regular price.

Okay, one more…

Five) Leaving topical products on market too long

This one is a subcategory of our first one, “Never leave a thing on the market,” but it’s nuanced here.  With this one I’m talking about products you put out on the market that have a topical flavor to them.

For example, a few years ago everyone and their brother was talking about NFTs.  I know I put out a couple products about NFTs at that time.  It was what people were interested in…

…and I had a few things to say about it that was helpful to people.  However, as I write this to you now?  Nobody really cares about NFTs anymore.  

I mean, I’m sure some people do, but most people aren’t talking about it anymore.  The world has moved on from that topical subject.  So it was a hot hand, and then it cooled off.

Well, when you leave products on the market that are not only getting older, but also cover topical subjects that the world has moved on from?

Just understand that you have devalued the product.  It’s devalued as soon as the world at large doesn’t care that much about it anymore.  Remember, value is very much related to perception.

If the subject is perceived as “yesterday’s news” then your product on said subject has lost value.  Time to take it off the market, if you ask me.  It can always be brought back out of retirement, with an update…

…if the subject gets hot again.

Alright, so that’s 5 ways you can inadvertently lower the value of a thing.  Now let’s move on to strategically devaluing a thing, and before I even get into them…

…I should probably answer this burning question:

Why the hell?

Why the hell would I want to devalue a thing on purpose?

Well, it’s a great question because usually you wouldn’t.  But sometimes you would.  I’ve done it for 2 reasons, personally…

One) Expansion - I’ve done it when I wanted to expand my funnel of a thing.  I’ll explain more about what I mean in a minute.

Or…

Two) Change - I’ve done it when I was getting ready to make changes and I wanted to bring attention to a thing.  Let me explain below…

Five Ways To Strategically Lower the Value of a Thing and Why:

One) Break it apart

One reason you might devalue a thing is because you want something to sell in front of your product.  Something you could use as a low ticket or free product and then upsell them to your actual thing.

For example,  last year I was selling a 5 Day A.I. Email Marketing Workshop for $197.  

I pulled just a small part of the information in that workshop to create a free ebook called “12 Secrets” that revealed 12 really cool, yet little known A.I. resources.

The free 12 Secrets eBook was a devalued form of my workshop, but I did it strategically to attract potential targeted buyers to the actual workshop.

Let’s move on…

Two) Talk about it being outdated

A very simple way to quickly devalue a thing, is to talk about it being outdated.  People hate to deal with information or tech or anything else that has this label of “being outdated.”

That’s why people are so eager to make sure their software is “updated.”

But you might wonder, WHY would I talk about my thing being outdated?  Why would I want to devalue my product like that?

Easy.  Because it will get attention, and because you are getting ready to update it.  You’re talking about it being outdated, because you are planning or in the process of updating it.

Complaining about a product being outdated is an excellent reason to run a sale.  Simple little 4 day sale because the product is too outdated and it’s coming off the market for a couple weeks for you to update it.  And when you do bring it back it will be more expensive.

But for the people who buy it now, on sale, they’ll be getting the updated version, free of charge.

In this way, you are devaluing your thing on purpose as an excuse to run a sale and talk about the updated version which will be more expensive.

Three) Bonus fodder

Another way to devalue your thing quickly is to start using it as a bonus product regularly when people buy something else of yours, or as an affiliate bonus when they buy an affiliate offer that you are promoting.

And you might think, again, why would anyone do this?

The answer is the same as the previous.  You plan to update it in the near future and put it back on the market at a higher price.  This is essentially a more subtle way of devaluing the product than just running a sale on it.

They’ll both have a devaluing effect on it though.  When people constantly see your product as a bonus that you are offering when they buy something else…

…the perceived value of the product drops to “free as a bonus.”  That’s a lot different than anything you were charging before, trust me.  And it doesn't take too many times doing it either. 

Offer that sucker as a bonus 3 or 4 promotions in a row, and  quickly the perceived value of that product will be at “FREE as a bonus,” which is about as close to free as you can get.

And this is a useful, subtle way to indicate a product is older, and devalued…but at the same time, it will start putting the product in people's minds, because they will be seeing the name pop up over and over.

This is great, and sets you up perfectly to bring it out with an update at a higher price.

Okay moving on…

Four) A change in vision

This is not something I suggest doing very often, if ever.  But sometimes, you might have a situation where you just want to lower the price of a thing.

I did this a few years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.  I lowered my $47 a month membership club to $10.80 a month.  I felt that people were having a hard time financially because of all the unrest, so I lowered the price.

It was a change in vision.

So I lowered the price and then I ran a 4-day campaign to talk about it.

Again, this is not something I would do very often.  In fact, I think this is the only time I’ve ever done it.

Why?

Because there is no reason to permanently devalue my assets.  If I feel like they are too expensive for some reason, I’ll just run a sale, and then raise the price right back up.

But again, sometimes you have a change of vision, and you need to just permanently lower the price.  That will obviously devalue the product.

Alright, one more…

Five) Change the format

The final way that you can devalue a product strategically is to change the format to something different.

For example, Jeff Walker runs a workshop every year called Product Launch Formula and this costs about $2000 to attend.

But Jeff Walker also put out a $15 eBook on Amazon called Launch: How to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams.

It’s basically the eBook version of Product Launch Formula.  How do I know that?

Because I’ve been through the actual Product Launch Formula, and I’ve read the $15 eBook, Launch as well.

So Jeff Walker essentially took the whole $2,000 workshop and asked himself, what would the $15 eBook version of my workshop look like?

So the eBook represents a devalued version of the workshop, and at the same time it is a useful tool to expose people to the world of Jeff Walker, and upselling them on the actual Product Launch Formula.

And that is five ways to devalue a thing and why you would do it.

Finally…

Whew…that was a lot of information.  I hope it was helpful.  As I write this to you now, it’s about 1:26 AM eastern time here in the great state of Ohio…

…and I’m getting a little sleepy.  SO it’s about time to wrap this article…essay…post…chapter…

…whatever this is…it’s time to bring it to a close.  I’ll see you in the next one!

Kam