The Decoy Effect: How You Are Influenced to Choose Without Really Knowing It
The Decoy Effect: How You Are Influenced to Choose Without Really Knowing It - Think you got a good deal? Look again..
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Price is the most delicate element of the marketing mix, and much thought goes into setting prices to nudge us towards spending more. There’s one particularly cunning type of pricing strategy that marketers use to get you to switch your choice from one option to a more expensive or profitable one. It’s called the decoy effect.
Imagine you are shopping for a Nutribullet blender. You see two options. The cheaper one, at $89, promotes 900 watts of power and a five-piece accessory kit. The more expensive one, at $149, is 1,200 watts and has 12 accessories.
Which one you choose will depend on some assessment of their relative value for money. It’s not immediately apparent, though, that the more expensive option is better value. It’s slightly less than 35 percent more powerful but costs nearly 70 percent more. It does have more than twice as many plastic accessories, but what are they worth?
Now consider the two in light of a third option.
This one, for $125, offers 1,000 watts and nine accessories. It enables you to make what feels like a more considered comparison. For $36 more than the cheaper option, you get four more accessories and an extra 100 watts of power. But if you spend just $24 extra, you get a further three accessories and 200 watts more power. Bargain!
You have just experienced the decoy effect.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/t...=pocket-newtab
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