How to charge €50 for a bag of M&M’s?

Reading time: 4 mins.

I recently visited the M&M’s World store in London and accidentally paid 46 GBP (around €53) for two small bags of color-coordinated M&M’s candies. The supermarket next to me sells a pack of M&M’s for €2.39. But it’s not as fun.

The M&M’s World store I visited has four floors, spanning 3,250 sq meters (35,000 sq ft), dedicated to all things M&M’s: from backpacks to pajamas, pens to key holders, pillows and mugs, not to mention candies packaged in teddy bear, heart, or flower-shaped boxes. You can even print your face on M&M’s candy but my favorite part of the store is the candy dispensers! It's a genius way to get customers to accidentally overpay for your product.

It’s so ridiculously fun that I can hardly resist going inside every time I pass by. I am not the only one – the store was filled with people.

I am passionate about bringing fun back to shopping, especially if the product you’re selling is not essential. In most cases, people don’t need your product - your job is to make them want it. That’s what M&M’s and many other successful stores do very well.

You can do so by making your product or customer experience exciting, ideally both. What is “exciting”? Different people are motivated by different reasons, so you really need to understand your customer first. What is their motivation to buy from you?

Here are a few examples:

Premium Clothing: Your customer wants to look good and leave a lasting impression. Their pain points might include not understanding how to style themselves properly or clothing showing signs of wear too soon. Solve their problems by focusing not just on how good they will look in your cardigans, but also on how to style them for different body shapes/occasions and how to care for the items. Sell them the full look and the products needed to take care of their sweaters, so they last longer: detergents, fabric shavers, and anything relevant.


High-end Jewelry: Your customer wants to feel and look rich and stand out. Create a shopping experience that makes them feel extra special so they come to you every time they have a bad day and push for the more expensive products by appealing to their values. If they are eyeing jewelry for investment purposes, then you have to trigger completely different values to close the sale.


Furniture: If your customers are decorating a new home, they want quality items that last for years and often have a tight budget. Educate them on how to care for their furniture and sell the products needed. If they bought a light-colored sofa, which gets dirty faster, can you offer a deal for sofa replacement covers six months later or partner with a cleaning company?


Productivity Apps: If you’re selling a productivity app with both free and premium versions, educate your customers on how to use the app with short, sweet daily messages so every member clearly understands the benefits of subscribing to a more expensive plan.


As you can see, in all cases, leveraging your expertise to upsell to your customers is key. From a customer’s perspective, it is exciting to have problems solved and receive advice from a trusted expert, especially personalized advice. Try to add fun and warm elements to the entire customer experience. Humans always want to interact with humans, even in B2B sales - there’s more to it than just showing up as an expert.

Now, to find the best value for your customers, you first need to understand them well. Don’t just think of the target customer you have in your head - get to know the customers you already have. If you’re selling a physical product, spend some time in the store where your products are sold. Partner with your retailers and work with them on the floor for a day. You will learn A LOT.

If you’re selling a digital product or anything online, spend a few hours analyzing your customers by checking who’s buying from your store or following you on social media. I have checked my customers’ LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter profiles and googled them to better understand their age, family situation, work, style preferences, hobbies. Just don’t be weird – do so in incognito mode.

Now that you understand your customer, go through the elements of value for both B2B and B2C customers and assess how on-point your value proposition is. See if you can target any extra values that your clients would love and that competitors are not targeting.

That’s how you can charge your customers more and keep them happy while you're doing it.

Actionable Tip of the Week: Analyze your customers, their needs, and see if you can add any new elements of value to your offer. Don’t be boring, try to think of new, creative ways to engage your customers.

Coming up in next Monday’s newsletter: The one thing you must be selling to get orders faster.

P.S.: If you can think of a couple of people who would gain value from reading this newsletter, I would highly appreciate if you could share it with them 🙏