Suppose your store has an item regularly priced at about $10.00. You tell a bunch of your customers the price has been reduced to $7.22. Then you ask purchasers how good a deal they think they got. A few weeks later, you tell a different bunch of customers the price of the item has been reduced to $7.66 from the regular price of about $10.00. As before, you ask purchasers how good a deal they think they got.
All the purchasers are likely to say they got a good deal on the item. But those who heard the price as $7.66 are more likely to rate themselves as having gotten a large discount.
Why? It has to do with the sound of the words. The “s” sound conveys smallness and smoothness to the English-speaking brain. A price stated verbally as seven dollars, sixty-six cents tends to sound small, and the purchase decision seems smooth. But an “oo” sound, as in seven dollars, twenty two cents, tends to sound larger. Other researchers—at HEC School of Management in Paris and at University of Pennsylvania—found that when a high price is said slowly to the customer, the customer is less likely to object to the price.
Sometimes sounds of smoothness and slowness can hurt sales. The developers of the BlackBerry PDA originally wanted to call it the Strawberry because the little buttons reminded them of that fruit. But naming consultants said the “s” in strawberry implied a slow device.
However, when it comes to prices and customers, small and smooth sound great.
For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers
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