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The principle that Sharon used in her letter with her parents is called “human perception, the contrast principle”, where the order of how things are presented to us affects our perception on the way we see things and the difference between them.
Example,
You hold a glass of water at room temperature after holding a hot glass, you will perceive it colder than it actually is.
You hold a glass of water at room temperature after holding a cold glass, you will perceive it hotter than it actually is.
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It basically explains every time we got intrigued to buy products/ services just because they say it has been reduced from AED 1,299 to AED 899. We think we got a good deal because we have “saved” so much money in this deal. Our brain has set the baseline for the produce as AED 1,299, the higher price, and so we place a high value on the product. When we see AED 899, we immediately think we just saved AED 400. In reality, though, we actually just spent AED 899. Whether or not we had this budgeted for our purchase is not the primary influencer in making us think it’s a good deal… or making us buy the product.
Perhaps your budget was only AED 700. You would be thinking, “Technically speaking, that “great” deal is AED 199 more than my budget, but then again I just saved AED 400.”
In this scenario, you didn’t save AED400. You just spent AED 199 more than my budget.
Our thinking process deceives us into thinking it’s a good deal.
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Ok, maybe I could be confusing you here… so to set the ground clear, let’s answer this question:
How do marketers trick us into buying expensive products?
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