I love watching "educational" television. The Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc, are on a lot in my household. I know that watching too much TV isn't good for a variety of reasons, but if I am going to watch it, I choose to watch programs that teach methings like history, science, and himan psychology. I love to learn, and this is one way that I expand my knowledge.
Anyway, there's a show called "Brain Games" that deals with human perception and psychology. There was one episode that really intrigued me, and I saw how it related to internet marketing. Let me share.
At a movie theater, they gave moviegoers two options for popcorn. They could either get a small serving for $3 or a large serving for $7.
Yes, crazy expensive (and realistic) prices for popcorn, right?
Which option do you think most people chose?
It was the $3 option. When they interviewed the moviegoers, they found that most people chose to purchase the smaller $3 tub of popcorn because $7 for a large just seemed to expensive.
Simple enough, right?
So then the researchers changed things up a bit. They added a third option. Moviegoers now had three options to choose from: a small for $3, a large for $7, or a medium for $6.50.
What do you think happened?
A majority of the people starting purchasing the $7 large size tub.
Remember, nothing else changed. All they did was add a new option to choose from. But now, instead of comparing the $3 small to the $7 large option, they were comparing the $6.50 middle tub against the large one.
The introduction of the decoy option had moviegoers thinking "for just 50 cents more, I can get a large tub."
I am not revealing anything revolutionary here. Just shining a light on something that you probably already suspected.
Now, here's the key: how do you use this in your internet marketing pricing strategies?
Pricing options can have a significant effect on profits. Using a "decoy" option may get your potential customers to purchase higher priced products and services if you use the decoy for comparison purposes.
If you have a product or service, you could be generating more income without having to do anything extra except offering buyers another option to choose from.
Much Success,
JoeMack