The World of Price Psychology

13.07.2016 |

Episode #10 of the course Price psychology by Andy Luttrell

 

Thanks for taking this 10-day journey with me through the world of price psychology! Hopefully you were able to see the many surprising ways in which people can be lured to make a purchase because of simple aspects of an item’s price.

We started by seeing how the 99-cent effect is real. When researchers had the chance to create two versions of a real mail-order catalog, they found that people spent more money when the prices were 99-ending prices ($29.99) than when they were 00-ending prices ($30.00).

But that was only getting us started. We then saw how people think prices are bigger when they have a comma in them because it gets people to internally pronounce the “thousand” in the price’s number (vs. thinking of it as “hundred”). We also saw how people are more likely to buy when a price presents the base price and a single lump surcharge.

Then we looked at discounts and how they can seem like an even better deal when the sale price is in small font (compared to the regular price) and when it’s pretty easy to calculate the savings.

Finally, we saw how something as goofy as matching a price to a person’s name or birthday can make it seem more appealing.

Some of these are practical pricing strategies that you can use if you have something to sell. Some of them—like the birthday and name effects—aren’t quite so practical, but they reveal fascinating insights about the human mind.

This may seem like a lot, but there are so many psychological pricing tricks! I mentioned at the start of this 10-day course that I developed a full video course—Smart Marketing with Price Psychology. It covers all of these many tricks in a simple video format.

Price psychologists have discovered many ways in which a price’s number is important (e.g., .99 versus .00), a price’s presentation is important (e.g., commas or no commas), the way a price is framed is important (e.g., the order in which they’re listed), the way a discount is presented is important (e.g., small vs. large font), and the way fees are added is important (e.g., consolidated surcharges).

For example, there are times when it’s actually better to have a 00-ending price. And there are times when the color a price is listed in matters. The prices of other options can even affect your choice to buy.

So check out Smart Marketing with Price Psychology if you’re interested, or simply keep up with my blog and video stream for more social psychology.

Keep your eyes on the price!

-Andy

 


Download the Free PDF: 5 Amazing Psychology Experiments

Download


 

Recommended book

“Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing” by Douglas Van Praet

 

Share with friends