#54 Funny little pricing tip that really works

We can put a man on the moon, transplant a heart, discover the Higgs Boson
particle, and be taken in by this funny little pricing quirk. Isn’t the
human brain tricky to fathom?

According to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology  the more syllables in a price, the higher a customer thinks it is. This includes commas, zeros and syllables in each number.

So let’s say you price your product at $1,199.00. Customers will perceive:

$1,199.00 as higher than $1,199 and $1,199 as higher than $1199 (no comma). Weird huh?

Customers also see the ‘$’ sign as pain so taking that away too makes the price even more appealing.

So just 1199 then.

If you think that looks odd, have you been in an upmarket restaurant
recently? If so you may have seen this used on the menus. It’s all done
to psychologically trick us into thinking we’re not paying real money
for the food!

So what should you do with this info? Don’t change the way you calculate
your prices. The price is the price is the price. But you might want to
think about the way you design your price lists – on your website,
brochure or menu – to take advantage of our funny, quirky human brain.

Inspired by this blogpost from Neuroscience marketing

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