The Psychology of 9.99, 10 and 1200

People think an item is way cheaper when priced at $9.99 rather than $10.

Photo from Photoxpress

Price tags ending with .99 rule the stores. They are prevalent wherever you shift your view. Ever wonder why retailers do that? And you can expect certain category of products and services with price ending in 0, like $10 or $400. Even the emission of the comma in 1200 is a result of pricing studies.

9.99s

9 has a pricing power. Any item that ends with .99 speaks out “great value”, “sale” and “discount”. Buyers think that it’s the lowest price it could ever have.

People round $9.99 as $9 instead of $10. Researchers call this the left-digit effect. Everybody that has a brain is susceptible to think that way because that’s just how human minds work. And we are more led to round prices on the left digit because we see .99 innumerable times.

William Poundstone on his book Priceless analyzed eight different studies on .99 prices and found that sales increase by 24% on .99 prices compared to the 10s. Kenneth J. Wisniewski from the University of Chicago conducted another study at a local grocery chain:  sales of margarine increased by 65% when price was dropped from 89 cents to 71 cents; but it increased by 222% when dropped to 69 cents!

People buy more when the price ends with 9. That’s why we see a lot of .99s.

10s

A tipped polo from Neiman Marcus is priced at $150, while a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print bag is priced at 3,425.00. Both prices are ending with 0, and both products are high end. An item whose price ends with 0 communicates premium quality.

People get satisfaction on owning an expensive product. People are convinced that prices ending with 0s are upscaled; and prestige brands love it that way. Companies wanted to keep the reputation on their products so not all can buy it and those who can buy it will love buying it.

1200s

How they write it affects how you buy it. The longer the price appears, the more expensive we perceive. This is the reason why restaurants minimize the price on their menu with 29 rather than $29.99.

Commas and cents make the price longer; hence, increasing the magnitude of the price (at least according to our brain). 1200 seemed to appear cheaper than 1,200.00. There are less words in “twelve hundred” than in “one thousand two hundred”, so we think of 1200 as less.

Did .99s lured you?

Sources:
The Psychology Behind The Sweet Spots Of Pricing; Fast Company
Pricing Psychology: 7 Sneaky Retail Tricks; CBSNews
5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read; Kiss Metrics
Party Like It’s 19.99: The Psychology of Pricing; Wise Bread
An Easy Way to Make Your Prices Seem Lower; Neuromarketing

24/7/365 Society

We no longer have to wait for the morning; society is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

Photo from Marcin Wichary’s flickr

Since people now don’t want to wait, businesses are offering around the clock activities. While there were still some of us who prefer to sleep tight at night, companies want you to know that they’re open whenever you needed them. With that option, they’re keeping their profits in the run every minute.

24 hours fitness is aptly named since they are open 24 hours every day. No matter what your shift schedule was, the gym can accommodate you. Working parents can leave their child in child care like Penny & Peggy Nairn where services are for 24 hours. And for us who likes to dine out, we don’t have to chase the closing times of restaurants because they’ll be serving us anytime.

Security should be firm for 24 hours businesses. Crimes are easier to perpetrate and evade at night. This is why stores have a one button that will alarm the policemen. But the increasing demand of security means society needs more policemen awake, in shift, at night.

There will be more jobs for graveyard schedule. Since people need jobs for survival, many would force their body to work at down time. But workers often won’t adjust to the nocturnal schedule, according to Paul MacLennan, PhD, of the Center for Injury Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Even holidays need workers; like the upcoming thanksgiving where some families prefer to dedicate the family day in restaurants than in their own houses.

We don’t have real 24 hours banking yet where banks are open all the time; but I think this will happen. What businesses do you think will open for 24 hours?

Sources:
Society changing to 24/7 lifestyle; News 8
A 24/7 Society; UAB

Search Engines Industry Secrets

If not present in search engine results, the business has no business in the internet.

Photo from photoXpress

Google is a titan of the internet. It has been and still is. Bloggers and businesses have to abide by the guidelines of Google to be present in the web. Having more publicity accords higher ranking, more clicks, and more profits for most.

Not many will take time to know it, but it costs money to operate a search engine. These companies will have warehouses full of computers working as a system to fit the demands of worldwide searches, that is, 3 billion searches every day.

Searches can be optimized to rank on top. JCPenny, a retail store, took the “black hat” to be the earnest result when you searched for “jeans”, “furniture”, and other related products. This happened during the holiday season; and even if you typed in “Samsonite carry on luggage,” JCPenny will still be number one in results instead of Samsonite.com. Their online shopping sales spiked up.

The “black hat” is against the guidelines of Google. It is deceptive and is cheating. It is a monopoly and is unjust. Google has a robust preventing action against these modifications. Even overdoing SEO optimization, a legitimate way of increasing site rankings, can sink the site off the Google results. Google’s corrective action against Penny?

“On Wednesday evening, Google began what it calls a “manual action” against Penney, essentially demotions specifically aimed at the company. At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.” Two hours later, it was at No. 71. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for “living room furniture.” By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.

In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country. The next it was essentially buried.” (Segal, 2011)

I say it’s too late. Millions of online shoppers visited and sales are already made. It only shouts embarrassment for the company. German company BMW was also caught bringing out the “black hat” and suffered the same fate in 2006.

Search engine keywords messes up with creative writing. Online writers and publishers are not free to use words they will. They have to ensure that people will find them, and keyword is the way. HuffingtonPost forced keywords in “What Time Does The Superbowl Start” and it rewarded them rankings. I don’t do this; I’m for the freedom of word choices. However,

“..until Google stops rewarding bad writing and various annoying tricks, they’ll proliferate on the Web. Because, if nobody is reading the page, it doesn’t matter that it’s actually better written and contains more useful content than the pages that the search engines are sending readers to.” (Joyner, 2011)

Everything is one search away – publicizing everything. You can search the map to peek at the Imrali Island, a military forbidden zone. Military grounds, air bases, and highly secured prisons in Japan, Germany, Turkey, USA, and anywhere on Earth is searchable.

And when you have an interview or a date, you can know everything about the other person by merely searching the name. The ease of instant information has questions of security and ownership.

How does this industry secret rank to you?

Sources:
Search Engine Optimization Dirty Secrets; Outside the Beltway
The Dirty Little Secrets of Search; The New York Times
Some Clear Facts About Google’s “Transparency” Report; RIAA

 

First World Work Problems

Parts of this post are hypothetical. Maybe.
by Becca Cord of 25ToFly

Photo from photoXpress; stock.xchng

I read a post today by Lament’s and Lullalbies that I thought was brilliantly human, which is odd, because I know internet people aren’t people at all, they are aliens. Cool aliens, but aliens nonetheless. Don’t worry, I am not phoning the MIB… yet.

Her post addresses the human condition of struggling between making ends meet and making your dreams come true. She writes in a way that is synonymous with the mosh pit of a thought process that I assume begins in most people’s minds when thinking about these issues. Everyone has an ideal career, or two, or three, or is at least on the search to finding one. Everyone also faces the ongoing obligation to provide for themselves at the same time. It is all a huge balancing act and we don’t have the proper equilibrium. In my case, I am just drunk.

We have to work. Most of us have to work jobs we are less than enthused about because: money. All too often people become barricaded in these jobs for years and years of monotony and turmoil. Why? Scum bag employer syndrome.

This scenario includes two pawns: the dreamer (also known as you) and the force you think you can duel but ultimately are powerless against… the scum bag employer. Here is how it goes:

You: I need to quit my job and pursue my dream of becoming a renowned [insert your dream here] if I ever want it to really happen. That’s right, no more wasting time. I make good money, but it’s not enough worth enduring the bored/grumpy/blase feeling at the end of every work day. I’d rather take a pay cut in exchange for fulfillment. I am going to do this.

Scum Bag Employer: Oh yea?  Really now? You are finally going to make the plunge? How about I go ahead and give you a hefty raise at the precise moment that you get the balls to leave me. Oh yea, and that 401K  to which you just began to contribute? You won’t get to keep even half of it if you bail on me in less than a year. You are getting your own office too. With a real live plant. Looks like you will be bringing the fruit cake to this year’s Christmas bash after all. See you Monday!

You: Well fuck.

Share a conversation with your Scum Bag Employer!

About Becca Cord: I am a twenty-something year old southern ballerina turned business student.

What If.. The Internet had an “Off” Switch

More and more people around the world are allowing the forever-developing World Wide Web to make their lives that little bit easier.

Photo from modernmilkblog.blogspot.com

Business, social networking and communication are being advanced in what can only be described as the technological age that we are currently living in.

What would you do, however, if the internet as we know it was completely switched off via a single switch without any warning?

Fortunately, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has stated that there is no such thing as a single “Off” Switch because the world is decentralised and split up into hundreds of countries, there is no central “Off Switch”.

The only way it could be switched off is if the governments of the world come together and agree to change it from a decentralised system to a centralised one.

But what if everything were to revert to the way it was prior to 1990?

Photo from viralblog.com

A number of businesses relying entirely or partially on the internet would be severely damaged.

Also all people who make a living through pod-casting, hyperlocal news and those selling products on the internet would all consequently lose their jobs.

Photo from turbo.fortytwotimes.com

With nearly one billion users connecting with friends and family nearby or abroad, the death of Facebook would probably result in the majority of people just not trying to stay in touch any more.

If the internet has made people lazy enough to stay at home to communicate with friends rather than meet in person; will people really put in the extra effort?

Photo from mamamia.com.au

Yep, you would probably regain a large portion of your brain capacity to resolve difficult problems; which would previously have been looked up on the internet.

People would have to rely on books again and reading more has frequently been linked with increased intelligence.

Photo from thedrum.com

The newspaper industry has been taking a nosedive in sales ever since the introduction of the internet. With no more “instant” news through websites and social media such as Twitter; the flow of information will travel much slower.

Does this mean more people would revert to reading newspapers for information? As well as more traditional methods of news gathering? More than likely.

Photo from net-security.org

Without the internet, corporations and government will find it much more difficult to publish information to the public – therefore encouraging the emergence of more Quangos.

Quangos are not affiliated to the government, yet rely on government funding and have been heavily criticised for a true lack or transparency.

Photo from richardtimothy.com

As opposed to working from home or teleworking. More and more companies have turned to outsourcing, resulting in a lot of money being saved – but without the internet this could prove difficult.

This will result in many people hopping into their cars and driving to work before…

Photo from greenasathistle.com

Although GPS systems would still operate, but this would prove difficult without a constant flow of internet-based updates.

The loss of Google Maps and other map based technology on the internet would result in people being unable to print off a direct list of instructions and ultimately getting lost. And finally…

Photo from topdrawersoccer.com

And you wouldn’t be reading this post. Nor would you be reading any of my other posts or the posts of thousands of other bloggers across the globe.

Just a concept I know, our lives in many respects would probably benefit socially and personally but at the same time be ridden with economic decline in a world without internet.

Would the world be better without internet?

Daniel Mayes is a recent Journalism graduate with an upper-second. He has experience working at BBC World Service, Sky News Online and has worked on projects in Europe and Africa.