Pricing
Tactic

Offer a Similar (Yet Worse) Product

Existing products feel more appealing with a "decoy option" nearby.

$85 blender next to similar $100 blender that looks worse

Overview

A popular study tested subscription options to the Economist magazine:

  • $59 — Digital
  • $125 — Print
  • $125 — Print and Digital

At first glance, it seems wrong. You can buy the digital and print for the same price as the print only.

But alas, it’s a decoy option.

Nobody chooses the “print” subscription, but this option shifts demand toward the “print and digital” subscription, a more expensive plan (Ariely, 2008).

  • Ariely, D., & Jones, S. (2008). Predictably irrational. New York: HarperCollins.