Does the way you write a price make it seem higher or lower? Of course! We already know that including a currency symbol can have a negative effect – that’s why you see some restaurants pricing a steak at “29″ instead of “$29″ (see Neuro-Menus and Restaurant Psychology). But new research shows that punctuation and decimals can make a difference in how people perceive prices.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, prices that have more syllables when spoken actually seem higher to consumers. Commas (e.g., “$1,699″) and cents after the decimal (e.g., “1699.00″) add to the number of syllables and hence make the price seem to be of higher magnitude. This effect occurs even when the price is written and not spoken – our brains, they say, use the auditory representation in storing the magnitude of the price even when the price is only seen visually.
The effect is due to the way one would express the number verbally: “One thousand six hundred ninety nine,” for the comma version, vs. “sixteen ninety nine” for the unpunctuated version. Visual length may also be a factor.
Proper Pricing Protocol
At at time when entire businesses are based on a consumer perception of value and low prices, these findings point the way to best price display practices. If you want your customers to look at your price as low, then omit commas and decimals. Don’t use $1,199.00, just say $1199. (You might even omit or minimize the currency symbol, which separate research has shown to trigger selfish behavior.)
No comments:
Post a Comment