"Marketing to the Subconscious" Article by Steve Marsten

I am one of those people who need a coffee everyday – sometimes two! Recently I called into a café that I don’t usually visit to pick up a coffee on Sunday. My coffee has a couple of extra shots so I always expect to pay a little more.  The mature aged attendant rang up $18, which I said – “you have to be kidding me”? She looked me in the eye and said “no that’s what it says!”  Another attendant realising it didn’t sound right rushed over and sorted things out. Apparently she had not rung off the last sale. So the attendant then said standard coffee $5 plus one extra shot $6.05! Plus another extra shot – yes that will be $7.10!” That was one expensive coffee AND it was only a medium cup! On the way back to my car I found myself wondering why I didn’t really enjoy that experience. I am sure it was the fact that she counted out the shot prices.

This ties in with an article I read recently about author – Roger Dooley’s new book. It focussed on Neuro-marketing. Amazingly 95% of our thoughts, emotions and learning occur subconsciously; hence it’s much more important that we appeal to the subconscious instead of targeting the remaining 5% or our rational mind. Roger Dooley sets down three important tips for marketing:

• State the price to the cent. A precise amount of $95.66 sounds well researched and accurate while a rounded figure of $100 may seem inflated.
• Don’t penny pinch your customers. Airlines are classics for this. There are separate fees for bags, aisle seats and food etc. Every extra fee tweaks the brains pain centre. Bundled pricing is much better. This is what upset me in the coffee shop!
• And finally – use a simple font like Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman instead of script like fonts. If you want customers to fill out web forms or take some sort of action, research shows that they anticipate the task will take less time when described in simple font.

Do you use quote a flat fee or split your price?
What has been your experience with “Extras”?
What do you think your customers prefer?

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