Describe Fully-Loaded Items to the Focused

What’s an item you sell which is available with a number of optional features? The car that can be ordered with or without the spoiler and the racing stripes? The car wash that can be purchased as a one-star version with only dirt removal or the five-star version, which includes the upholstery shampoo, hand waxing, and more?
     A traditional technique for selling such items to the shopper is to initially present the base model and then, once there’s buy-in, list the available options. The technique is especially attractive now, when shoppers are so price-sensitive.
     That’s fine. However, in the process, remember to describe the fully-loaded model. Research at Bentley University compared two selection frames: In the first, the shopper was invited to add desired options to a base model. In the second, the shopper was invited to delete undesired options from a fully-loaded model. In a set of experiments, the researchers found that consumers attending to this single purchase decision ended up selecting a larger number of options with the delete frame.

• This effect is more likely to occur with products and services in which the experience of using the purchase has value, such as a car. It is less likely to occur with highly functional products, such as a water heater.
• When the consumer has a great many shopping decisions to make, the effect is less likely. Here, the person might become irritated at needing to wade through a seemingly endless number of choices.
• Shoppers who appreciate the appeal of the fully-loaded model become more likely to consider the price of the model with fewer options to be a good deal. Therefore, the introduction of the fully-loaded model can be an especially helpful selling technique at the point where the shopper has concerns about the price of whatever other model they have their eye on.
• Those who buy less than the full meal deal might be better off. In a set of studies conducted at University of Maryland, participants were offered a choice from three versions of an item. More than 60% of the participants selected the most complex of the three. After making their selection, each participant was invited to add more features from a list totaling 25. The average number of additional features chosen was 20. But post-usage inquiries showed that those who selected a simpler version of the product at the start were much happier.

Click below for more:
Offer Customers Basic Plus Add-Ons
Offer Fundamental Indulgences
Anchor Browsers onto Higher Prices
Stimulate Bragging Rights from Complexity