Here’s a thought. Say you really want to break into a new engineering market (characterization, dynamic simulation, flow assurance). Business sense might dictate that in order to get recognised, you have to win jobs in that market (business sense hah, try common sense).
Problem is, to win those jobs and gain goodwill, you might have to lower your cost, sometimes much below that of the jobs you do in your current market, while maintaining the same quality of product. Your plan is to raise your rates once you have established yourself as a provider of world-class product, and command fees to boot.
An alternate case is that your new clients are only interested in cost only, and as soon as you raise your rates, it’s bye-bye time. You may also have spoiled your core business, as word spreads that you can be got at lower prices as long as the other parties stick to their guns.
Here’s a solution. Seek out these new fields using the name of another company, one you don’t mind associating with low cost. For example, your boutique is called MAS, and your budget line is called Firefly. After you convince your clients that they really want MAS services, close down Firefly (or stop responding to invitation to bids), and tell them that MAS will provide the services they value so highly, which comes with a price.
At least MAS is still seen as a boutique.
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
jabba reckons MAS is as bad as firefly, if not worst.
Better analogy, druglord offers drugs for free. once the guy gets hook they either pay you whatever you want, or they get cold turkey.
quite a few motor vehicle company used the boutique/budget model… but the intention is more towards to win a better spread of market segment (initially they only able to win the low to mid income group… then the higher income group thru intro of flagship brand name). Good example would be toyota with its lexus flagship.
or crappy fiat vs flashy ferrari
Boba, know how many consultant companies use the model in KL? Where would the Trident / Germanischer Lloyd buyout mean? Will Trident reposition itself, and price itself out of its current market?
do you mean ;
trident = indonesian alpukat (1kg = RM10)
GL = australian alpukat (1 biji = RM5)
same thing for different price?
for the non initiated, alpukat = avocado.
alpukat with liquid chocolate is one of the many national drink in indonesia which jabba is trying to understand.
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation 🙂 Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Castilian!!!!