What's Noticeable and What's Not?

For a marketeer understanding of the concept of just noticeable difference is extremely crucial to the success of his offering. What exactly is jnd???

Just Noticeable Difference is the maximum amount by which a marketeer can alter any attribute of an offering without the consumer or the target market coming to know of the change. This is crucial to marketing.

When one has to increase the quality of an offering or a product, the marketeer must be careful that the increase in quality is felt by the consumer and that leads to a direct impact on the sales. For this to happen, the increase must be higher than the just noticeable difference, below which the consumer would be inert to any change. Similarly, while increasing the price of a commodity, the increase should be based on the jnd concept. The increase should be such that the consumer doesn't notice it, i.e, just below the just noticeable difference.

For example, take a pen that costs Rs. 10. Suppose reasearch shows that the just noticeable difference for it is Rs. 2. Now, the marketeer should be smart enough to hike the price to Rs. 11.99 and exploit the jnd. Anything above it would be noticed by the customer. Anything below it would qualify as lost revenues.

The problem arises when the marketeer contemplates a second hike, i.e, from Rs. 11.99 above. Many say that the jnd would come down now to say something like Rs. 1.50 and that the marketeer should not hike it beyond Rs. 13.48 (11.99+1.49). The jnd continues to come down progressively beyond this.

Now here is where the problem lies. Isn't the jnd a percentage of the actual cost? And if that is so, shouldn't it rise every next time? Possible. Especially when the product is a costly or premium one and there is enough gap between the two hikes. For example, a premium car.
Even for other products if the jnd progressively comes down, wouldn't it boil down to zero?
What then?

Another point is that if the hike in price is accompanied by a raise in quality, how would the jnd be affected then?
Things to be thought over possibly!

Khel Ratna? Who's Playing with It?

First things First. I am an ardent Dhoni fan. I like his cool nature, the way he paces his innings, the way he shows no signs of nerve even when things are going wrong. He exemplifies everything that a captain or a leader must be.

Having said that, I also feel that the authorities have gone just a bit overboard by conferring the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the highest honour for sporting excellence. That its given for exceptional performance in a single year and not over a period is also taken. But conferring the highest needs to be much more, right? Sachin Tendulkar got the award in 1998. That was by far his best year in cricket. But he was also at his best or atleast the national best in 1996 and 1997. He had to wait for 9 years for it.

I definitely feel Dravid must be feeling robbed. Just rewind to his exceptional performances in 1999, 2002,2003,2004. He was just unbeatable. As captain he won around 15 matches on the trot. These were performances that are unmatchable. Anil Kumble, the old-warhorse, is another person who has been overlooked. The number of matches he has won single-handedly is not matched even by Tendulkar. Even Ganguly was at the prime of his captaincy and form in 2000-01.

Having won the 20-20 World Cup is an achievement but it doesnt stand taller in front of the above mentioned ones. Captain Dhoni,in fact, grew from that victory itself. It was a collective effort.

I would like to take a cue from a marketing concept here. For a premium product, its essential that for every person who buys it, there must be thousand others who want to buy it but can't afford it. Khel Ratna is definitely premium. For every person who gets it there must be many more who want it but can't get it because its not easy. That would be value for the Award. There should be something exclusive and hard to get nature about it. A single year's performance must not define it.

If next year Robin Uthappa comes up with exceptional performance, would he too be given a Khel Ratna?
I don' t think so.
But according to the standards set, I think, he should be.