What do you do? Help those children whose parents can afford it, and forget about the others? What if the vast majority of adolescent suicides can potentially be avoided if all of these children would receive help?
Is it ethical to only help those who can afford your product? Hans Dekkers, CEO of Dynaread does not think so, and choose to introduce a flexible ethical pricing model.
Five to ten percent of the nation’s school population are struggling readers and have dyslexia. A fairly high number, but nothing when compared to the broader impact dyslexia has on society as a whole. Research evidences that 50-70% of inmates in Juvenile Detention Centers fall in the struggling reader category.
Research into nearly 300 adolescent suicides demonstrates that a shocking 89% had wrestled with dyslexia. No less than 80% of all learning disabilities demonstrate a comorbidity with reading struggles, raising an interesting “which came first: the chicken or the egg” question for learning disabilities that center around behavioral issues.
The Midlands Region in South Caroline recently completed a cost study into this issue of illiteracy. Their findings?
The State misses out on $54 million of tax income due to low income averages of illiterates. If dropout could be averted for only one extra year in school, regional productivity would rise by 8.5%. Crime would drop to the extent that it would save the region $488 million per year.
These are stunning figures.
Hans Dekkers: “The bottom-line in pricing is profitability. But the bottom-line in genuinely trying to do something about illiteracy is reaching as many children with dyslexia as possible with quality treatment.
These two objectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive. When we started our dyslexia treatment venture, we made the strategic choice to go the commercial route.
Nothing drives quality upward faster than free market pressures. But we quickly discovered that a significant portion of our free online dyslexia test users had budgets that could not handle our pricing.”
Though outwardly, Dynaread’s flexible pricing model may look a bit like Priceline.com’s Name-your-own-Price, Dynaread’s set up is fundamentally different.
Priceline’s power lies in the creation of additional sales channels for the seller. These sellers are able to monetize otherwise unused seat capacity on their flights, rooms in their hotels, or cars in their rental car fleet.
In contrast, Dynaread’s model is more of an honor system. This works because there is already a significant amount of customer/Dynaread loyalty prior to the purchase, thanks to Dynaread’s quality of follow-up on the child’s free online reading test.
Is it a risk? Hans Dekkers: “It is more math than risk. We precisely track and measure purchase history. We can raise or lower base pricing as well as adjust the levels of instantly available discount percentages.
We periodically tweak things to keep riding the optimum. What we’re after is a pricing model that leaves no child behind, whilst delivering sustainable profitability.
The last thing you want is price-competition, so simply going cut throat pricing is a very bad idea for everybody.
Such an approach would erode quality and would ultimately come at a high cost for the dyslexia community. We believe our approach allows for responsible pricing, whilst making it possible to truly leave no child behind: and that is exciting!”
With dyslexia awareness and activism on the rise, dyslexia seems poised to be the next blind corner in child health and education to be exposed and dealt with.
Initiatives like Dynaread’s flexible pricing lower the threshold to proper treatment.
Dynaread welcomes investor interest from those who share their passion and are interested in helping Dynaread move faster into other language regions.
For more information, go to https://Dynaread.com.
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