We don't genuinely know what products should cost as consumers. It's possible to pay $7.99 for a jar of fresh peppers at an organic grocery shop, only to discover that the jar's usual shelf price is $5.99 elsewhere.
Pricing can often be used as a marketing tactic, or even as a means of enhancing customers perception of your products overall quality. In certain cases, it is even already ingrained into a brand's ethos. Pricing, particularly the concept of psychological pricing, can actually drastically affect your consumers' purchasing decisions. Therefore it must be viewed as much more than just a basic calculation.
We'll talk about psychological pricing, how it works as a marketing tactic, and how to use price techniques, to your advantage, in your company.
So What is Psychological Pricing?
In simplest terms Psychological Pricing is a methodology that utilizes estimations to impact a client's spending or shopping propensities, in order to make more, or higher worth, deals.
The objective is to meet a client's mental requirement for something, whether that is setting aside cash, putting resources into the best products, or getting a "reasonable discount" on their order.
Why is Psychological Pricing So Powerful?
Psychological Pricing plays on the known facts, that shoppers seldom understand what something "should" cost. Most frequently the way we're ready to decide whether something is a decent bargain or not, is by getting it for a lower cost than regularly recorded or by contrasting it with comparable items of a similar class.
In fact, in William Poundstones Book entitled "Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value" They discuss the Marketing efforts of Sales Teams "back in the heyday of mail order," and how it was common to print up many different versions of a product catalog, and even flyers, in order to test the effect of pricing strategies on their customers. Stating that "Marketers and salespeople alike, knew far too well that what a customer was willing to pay for just about any item, was entirely interchangeable. But most importantly, that there was money to be made from that fact.”
Similarly, Psychological Pricing depends on very simple and straight forward changes that fool the mind of the purchasing party. One of the most widely known techniques to this day, is called "charm pricing." Something that we literally see every day, regardless of knowing the term for it or not. Which is the old and famous trick of rounding a dollar figure down by just 1 cent. In order to trick the brain into thinking that $19.99 is actually $19, not $20.
Customers have a need to feel as if they are outdoing something, one way or another. Whether it's getting the best price, the best quality, or even just the greatest overall bang for their buck. No matter how you look at it, Psychological Pricing steers true toward that thought. Using the price of an item as a method of conveying the correct messages toward a client, in order for them to feel as if they "got the last laugh."
The 6 Different Types of Psychological Pricing
However, if using the old .99 trick doesn't go well with the overall image of your Brand, then don't fret. Because there are still plenty of other ways that Psychological Pricing can be conveyed within your Marketing Strategies. Such as...
- Odd-Even Pricing
- Slashing of the MSRP or Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price
- Using Artificial Time Constraints
- Innumeracy
- Appearance of The Price (literally)
- Flat-Rate Biases
1. Charm Pricing and/or Odd-Even Pricing Strategies
It's no secret that the most often used Psychological Pricing Technique, is charm pricing. We see it every day. Subtracting one cent from an item's rounded dollar price in order to deceive the brain into believing it actually is cheaper. As a result, $4 is now $3.99, and the customer sees and recalls the 3 instead of the 4.
However, Odd-Even Pricing, while still very similar, is just a little bit different. According to various studies, people are more likely to buy products whose price or even part numbers end in odd numbers, than in even numbers. It's also interesting to note that 70% of the prices on Amazon Fresh end in the number 9. Which was actually discovered in a study on Psychological Pricing of online food retail. Additionally, items like treats or special purchases were more likely to have prices that ended in 9 than essential groceries like fruits and vegetables.
2. Slashing of the MSRP
Manufacturers typically set a MSRP, or Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, for things that will be sold across a wide range of online or retail locations. This is the cost you'll frequently see on a standard sticker price for a book or most notable when purchasing a vehicle. A few organizations might decide to sell right at the MSRP, yet others show the MSRP close to the lower cost they're actually selling that item for. This is a strategy regularly utilized in discount shops. A shop could run a 40%-off the MSRP deal and proposition an extra 30% off specific things, so a handbag recorded of having an MSRP Price of $298, all of a sudden winds up costing $54 after "such a great bargain."
The business involves the MSRP as an anchor to cause clients to feel like they've really gotten a good deal on the items, given the . For internet businesses, the MSRP may be crossed out with the new value close to it, for this same reasoning.
3. Artificial Time Constraints
Sale ends Today! Only a few hours left! Whatever it is they are saying, organizations have been utilizing fake time requirements to force a need to get a move on it since forever. Single day "Flash Sales" or deals that end, essentially any time before the buyer had planned to return. All of a sudden urges the client to make an impulse buy, OR a bundle purchase. When they had previously not even been considering such thing — Making claims such as "act now before the deal closes or before their top choices sell out."
While the informing on a business' site could say that the deal is finishing, truly it'll reset in a couple of hours and continue to run. Attempting to cause clients to not only speed up their decision time, but practically blowing way past that, with their new acceptance of the situation.
4. Innumeracy
You may already know the saying, "six and a half, or 1 dozen of the other.” Well innumeracy is quite comparable. Because Innumeracy’s methodologies take what is actually a straightforward math equation, but chooses the word choice that is more interesting to a client due to... you guested it. Psychological Pricing.
For instance, a container of penne pasta may be at a bargain for Half off on the off chance that you purchase two. Close to it, an alternate brand's case of penne is buy one, get one free.
The get one, get one free choice really sells better, despite the fact that the math works out to be exactly the same. Clients simply feel like it's a more ideal arrangement for them.
5. Appearance of The Price (literally)
Did you had any idea that the manner in which a value physically appears, can impact the manner in which a client feels about it? Dumping the pennies causes individuals to feel like they're spending less cash. And to test it our right here and now. How about when numbers such as $22 feel a whole lot less expensive than $22.00 Despite the fact that the actual number isn't as lengthy as well.
And another fun fact while we're at it... As per an article in the New York Times, even the dollar signs before the actual price, can set buyers off into a frenzy over the pricing.
So the tried and tested conclusion there is, just eliminate the Dollar Sign AND all of the Pennies, altogether.
6. Flat Rate Biases
Consider a time when you were going on Holiday and decided to book your reservations with an all-inclusive resort, rather than the one that doesn’t offer any package. Even though, piecing together all the expenses of the trip may be cheaper in the long run, the flat rate is just easier to predict, and overall feels like a more stable option than having something (that you can't even think of) go wrong. Hypothetically causing everything to cost more. Even if the all inclusive package still costs more than what those other expenses would have actually totaled up to be.
So in the words of William Poundstone's book called, Priceless... “Consumers just like flat rates... even when they cost more.”
So How Else Does Psychological Pricing Come Into Play With Marketing?
While Psychological Pricing can be a rewarding method for deciding how much the things you sell ought to cost, it can likewise be essential for your image's more extensive showcasing ploy.
For instance, a business may publicizes itself as a "reasonably priced furniture company." Where its central goal is based on giving trendy, top notch furniture that is not accompany by an over the top sticker price. Essentially using the Pricing itself, as a center piece of the brand as a whole. Which informs clients that they are getting incredibly well made furniture, at a reasonably marked price. Now, assuming that you were already contemplating creating a business thats based on providing reasonably priced products, you could consider making that piece of information, your main marking procedure.
Now for the last part of this article we'll examine three mental estimating techniques that act as more of an advertising system than anything else. Which are, how excessive costs suggest higher quality, pricing transparency, and payment plans that allow users to pay in smaller amounts, over a longer period of time.
Higher Pricing Suggest Higher Quality
The manner in which a business prices it's items can fundamentally affect a client's impression of value.
Greater costs give the feeling that a thing is worth more, regardless of whether it's made by similar maker or similar materials. In an episode of the mid 2000s Disney Station network show Kim Possible, Kim succumbs to a couple of boots fundamentally more costly than a similar pair at another shop. Club Banana, possessed by a similar owner as Know it all Shop, increased and renamed Know it all Store's dark pair as onyx to all the more likely found a place with other originator things at a comparative cost.
Which is a well known estimating process that organizations use to send the message that their products are extraordinary. Clients see a higher sticker price and presume that the items are of the greatest quality conceivable. Regardless of whether that is valid, it doesn't imply that the expense reflects what the things are really worth.
For instance, a company may offer garments and accessories at an extravagant price. Highlighting cashmere coats, sweaters, and jumpsuits. While the brand's primary line is essentially "an investigation of quality content and rich surfaces with an emphasis on your emotions and the products seasonality." While the higher costs of a well designed cashmere sweater could deter purchasers away, this technique involves Psychological Pricing as a procedure to draw in those that are searching for garments at an extraordinary plan.
Alternatively, cheaper items indicate that they may be lower in quality—even if they’re not.
Such as when a venue may offer passes to its off season shows for a drastically discounted price. Despite the fact that the seats may come with a superior view of the city, or acoustics equivalent to that of more well known venues. But regardless, the low sticker price causes individuals to assume that the seats are horrendous.
Psychological Pricing Transparency Improves Customers Trust
Another angle is to evaluate the straightforwardness of the choice. Where you create a list of precisely the exact amount every component of your item costs (materials, work, delivery, etc) and the amount you increase those items and why. Which is a great methodology in the off chance that your showcasing procedure is to sell originator quality things at reasonably priced options.
Payment Plans or Pay Over Time
Offering clients the chance to pay for their items over a longer period of time, through apps like Affirm, Klarna, and Shop Pay makes it simpler for them to manage and justify the higher priced purchases. Promoting that you offer systems which clients can complete the payment over time, can assist with eliminating the high ticket price to purchase. So a $1,000 treadmill quickly becomes $250, but to be paid at regular intervals, which is much more reasonable for people.
Testing and Repeating Psychological Pricing Strategies
The total amount that clients will pay for various items is rarely permanent. So your prices should not be permanent as well. Which is the reason emphasizing and testing various costs over a long period of time is unbelievably significant. You could find that irregularity influences your store in a genuine manner, or that clients are bound to spend more in the late spring months versus the fall.
In conclusion, by running tests, receiving client input, inspecting abandoned cart information, and taking a closer look at the general numbers for your store can assist you with better comprehension of what prices are best to use. So give it a test, and let us know how it goes for you!