UGG Australia Pricing & Distribution

UGG's Pricing Strategies:

Currently, UGG uses marketing-skimming pricing for their new arrivals. They are setting a very high price for their new summer arrivals, to attract the target markets that will agree to buy these products at the prices. http://www.uggaustralia.com/ProductsList.aspx?gID=w&categoryID=451&page=1 
With their regular UGG boots, I personally know that they used a market-penetration price when they first got to be in bigger demand, to attract a larger amount of markets that will buy the products at the price. Recently though, they have raised the prices of the boots, and a few other of their footwear products.
In other countries, for example, their prices are much higher for their footwear than they are over here. I would have to say this may be because they sell them in more "expensive" countries, and they have larger markets in the U.K. When I converted the euros to U.S. dollars, they came out to be much more expensive than they are sold for here. (http://www.translatum.gr/converter/currency.htm?texaccept=site+operator+accepts+conditions+at+http://cconv.textor.com&val1=149.99&cur1=1.000000&cur2=0.760648) 

UGG also uses value-bases pricing because everybody who has owned a pair of UGGs before knows they live up to their expectations, and they are worth the price that they are buying for them. I think that this is a good strategy for UGG because it will keep their large target market that they have acquired to this point in time, because these customers know they are getting the right value for the higher prices of the products. They also use psychological pricing, because again, the target market they have set and loyal customers know that the product is worth it, and the people who don't normally buy UGG products will see the higher prices, and know that they are a higher-end footwear company. They use geographical pricing as well, as I mentioned earlier, they set a higher price for their footwear in other countries than they do in the U.S. I think they do this because they know the prices that other people in countries will buy, so they can make a larger profit. Lastly, they use captive-product pricing. UGG sells different care products for their footwear, including replacement insoles, and spray to protect the outside sheepskin from getting damaged. http://www.uggaustralia.com/ProductsList.aspx?gID=w&categoryID=173&page=1

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=365

In this article, they discuss how much UGG's profits went up for their footwear over just a few years, which goes to show that even though they do set higher prices for their products, they are now a well known company that can be trusted with their products. 

UGG's Distribution:

UGG has grown throughout the past 11 years, distributing to more and more places. UGG first started out just distributing on the shores of California, and grew through cities in the U.S. to New York. Once they became a hit in New York, they kept growing to large cities throughout Europe and other countries. (http://www.uggaustralia.com/experience/history.aspx?p=ex)  
UGG footwear has many places that it has authorized to be sold in, which include online retailers, flagship stores, and just regular stores that can be found in most malls. You can find all of these authorized stores on their website, http://www.uggaustralia.com/customerService/dealerLocator.aspx?store=retailer, which you can search where the closest store is to your town.
At first, UGG Australia used selective distribution, selling mostly only in Nordstrom stores, until they started to advertise more and the demand went up for the product. Since UGG does only authorize certain stores to sell their footwear, and sell in more stores other than just Nordstrom, they now use exclusive distribution. I think that this type of distribution is great for the company because since they are a high-end brand of footwear, they only sell it in stores where they will sell it for their going price, and where the demand is highest for the products.