Psychological pricing_$XX.99

Is $ 19.99 is really less than $20? 

If YES, do not blame yourself, it is not your fault for spending more than budget! 

Did you know that the human brain focuses on the left number as a small number? 

Marketing expert like to use the “psychological pricing” or “left-digit effect” strategy. 

When did this strategy start? 

According to CBC Radio, this psychological pricing strategy has been in use since 1875. 

This strategy is widely used and highly effective!

What is psychological pricing? 

Psychological pricing strategy is a strategy that sets the price lower than a regular integer to entice customers to think it is really lower than normal and decide to buy faster, for example: $ 2.99, $ 2.69 or a price that ends with No. 9 ($ 19) and so on. 

What is behind the popularity of this psychological pricing strategy? 

Of course, just hearing the name, we know that this method is related to human psychology, the thinking of our human brain when seeing any number. 

According to Stanislas Dehaene’s book, The Number Sense, we prefer to say small numbers or integers rather than large numbers or complex decimal numbers, and our brains also catch and prefer small numbers. It tends to go for small numbers. 

Mr. Kent, director of marketing, said that when you see $ 4.99, in your brain, you will see number 4, decimal and two digits. But because our brain prefers small numbers, it will only focus on the left front number. 

One study found that a group of students spent 0.018 seconds to know that $ 5 was less than $ 5.50, but they only took 0.015 seconds to realize that $ 4.99 was less than $ 5.5, which means that our brains like numbers. XX.9! 

Why is understanding brain function to this number important? 

Because it helps the seller to set the right price and that price influences the buyer’s decision, which motivates the customer to decide to buy faster than usual. 

Finally, I would like to say that this strategy also makes us, the buyers, spend money over the budget without realizing it, because we always think that it is cheap … cheap, buy … buy!!!