Reptilian brain · Pricing & Behavioral Economics
Inflated Anchor Pricing
A fictitious 'was' price or list price beside the real one, so that the ordinary price reads as a discount; bundles do the same by anchoring on a summed 'value'.
An everyday example
'Was $199, now $99' on an item that has never sold for $199; a bundle 'worth $2,400' for $299.
What it can cost you
Valuing the discount instead of the item.
Warning signs
- I am excited about the saving, not the thing.
- I have not checked whether the old price was ever real.
One thing to do
Ignore the struck-through number; check the price history and competitors, and value the bundle by the components you would actually buy.
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