Enlarge Fonts for Big or Little Discounts

Sometimes you might aim to maximize profit margins by offering only tiny promotional discounts. At other times, you might aim to clear out musty inventory with deep discounts. However, when a promotional price discount is quite small—such as only 10%--shoppers may consider it not worthy of notice. When quite large—say 70%--shoppers might question the quality of the item. This is among the reasons consumer researchers suggest a range of 15% to 35% to attract new customers and, when offering a deep discount to all customers, labeling it as strictly time-limited.
     Studies by a team based at Saginaw Valley State University, The University of Memphis, and University of South Carolina indicate that presenting the sale price in a font noticeably larger than the regular price also will ease shopper concerns about especially low or high discounts. The relatively big print grabs focus. This diverts attention from the shallowness of the little discount and from quality concerns generated by the deep discount.
     Strangely, the technique is working because the consumer moves away from contrasting the sale price with the regular price, the opposite of what we’d think is basic to a promotion’s attractiveness. But the team conducting the studies points to prior research showing how once a person recognizes an item is on sale, they’re less concerned with the precise amount of the discount.
     The font color also can grab attention. Put promotional prices in red ink, advise researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Babson College, Drexel University, and Oxford University. When a sale price appears in red rather than black, it increases the perception of savings by about 70% among male shoppers. Related to this, the men in the studies liked retail ads better when prices were presented in red.
     The effect was much smaller for women shoppers, though. The increase in perceptions of promotional savings with red instead of black ink was about 8%, a difference too small for the researchers to consider it significant, given the variation among people in price perceptions. Still, since the red made a difference for the men, use that color.
     Font size and color for salience work most clearly for very small and very large promotional discounts. With moderate discounts, it’s probably best to highlight the contrast between the regular price and the sale price.

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Offer New Customers 15%-35% Discounts 

Match Discount Depth to Duration 

Ready Men for Good Deals Using Red 

Orient Shoppers to Appreciate Discounts