The Motion Sick: Price Anchors

Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby and real indie music industry guru of sorts, wrote a neat little thing on how we anchor things to the monetary value that we first experience.  

http://sivers.org/uncomparable

how did Starbucks successfully start charging $4 per cup? How did they get people to switch their price-anchor to consider $4 a normal (not expensive) price for a cup of coffee? 

They made sure it was such a different experience, that you could not directly compare it to your previous coffee-buying experience. 

They focused on ambience, to make it feel like a continental coffeehouse. Instead of small, medium, large, you say short, tall, grande, venti. They made drinks with expensive-sounding names like Caffé Americano, Caffé Misto, and Frappuchino. 

They did everything they could to make the experience feel so different that you would not use the regular “cuppa joe at the diner” as an anchor, but instead would be open to a brand new anchor.

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The Motion Sick Blog – http://themotionsickreviews.blogspot.com/