Designing prices without dumping: Understanding customer emotions – 7 tips

The issue of pricing is for many Companys difficult: How much can you charge without that customers jump off? And does it really have to be cheap at any price? Spoiler: Most important are feelings.

What excellent providers do better

For years I have been looking at hotels professionally, including large and small, those for conferences or for wellness, houses of large chains or small boutique hotels. I was able to do a few hundred houses over the course of time for sure appraise. You get a good insight into the market and see fast, where customers are lured with a lot of show - and where much more details ensure that the guests feel completely comfortable.

Such a house is the traditional Castel Rundegg in South Tyrol. The lord of the castle, David Kofler, leased the hotel, which was probably built in 1154 in the Obermais district of Meran, by chance after a few years of starvation. Because once upon a time, in the 70s and 80s, it was one of the leading beauty and diet hotels - so famous that the celebrities lined up and the hotelier informed the guests if and when they were allowed to come.

Tricks bring only short-term success

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And even today, a successful mixture of tradition and modernity ensures Style, hospitality and Humour for a very special atmosphere - and for the fact that as a guest in the historic vaults you feel like a little king. And exactly this special feeling is worth the 260 euros that a night in the luxurious hotel cost during my stay.

I myself have often experienced how all sorts of means were used in hotels to more or less desperately simulate such a feeling, with a fake smile, ostentatious furnishings and rigid specifications Regulate for the Employees. Even with all kinds of pricingTricks and attractants is not only popular in tourism, especially when it comes to Online-Bookings go. There are even neurological studies like this one among students who were offered a newspaper subscription.

That's what science says

The online subscription in the experiment cost 59,00 euros. A print subscription costs EUR 125,00. And a double subscription, which includes print and online, also costs EUR 125,00. So 84% of the subjects (clever students) chose the double subscription. Sure, you can get it “free” online, so you save 59,00 euros.

Now the same subscription - same prices, differently formulated. An online subscription costs EUR 59,00. A double subscription (print and online) costs EUR 125,00. Which one would you choose decide? The students quickly agreed. Only 68% opted for the double subscription. Although the prices were identical to those of the first experiment. And that's only because the second version didn't mention the print subscription for EUR 125,00.

It all comes down to sustainability

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Such price gimmicks act however mostly only short-term and are rare sustained. Because guests simply feel when something is perfect - and when it isn't. And the passion for hospitality alla Rundegg is reflected in a very special mixture:

On the one hand, there are the exciting conversations that you have with the hotelier in a stylish ambience about his hobby, the Viennese high-flying pigeons, which have been an intangible World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2019. And on the other hand, if you take a closer look, you can see how much work Kofler, who is in the hotel every day from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., and his Team into operation invest and conceal this with a light-footed, Italian style.

Good providers understand the emotions of their customers

This shows that the correct price determination, which is also accepted by the customer, is not based on categories such as expensive or cheap, but on the correct packaging of the prices and of course the content - at least when looking at long-term Success puts. As is so often the case, the reason is ours Brain to seek, but it is more about our perception and ours emotions. Rational considerations often only play a subordinate role in the acceptance of a price and the customer's purchasing decision.

So who – and that applies to everyone Industries – wants to hit the right prices for its customers, those with whom customers and businesses alike satisfied and can live well, it is a good idea to look into which effects are effective. In the end, it's all about making customers feel good.

7 classic price effects at a glance

In order to clarify how this can be achieved, I would like to give a small one below selection present the most important pricing effects.

1. Price anchors: Interestingly, anchors have nothing to do with the actual values ​​and prices. Anyone who is confronted with some high numbers (number of citizens, social insurance number, distance between Berlin and Munich) estimates the value of any product higher than if it were previously treated with small numbers (cars per household, number of children of an average family ).
2. Anchor Prices: Prices that have been memorized at some point. For example, a tank of oil that once cost 1.200 German marks. Stupid as it is, today we will find a filling for 800,00 euros to be cheap.
3. Reference prices: In addition to the product to be sold, a much more favorable and a much more expensive one is placed (without the intention of selling these devices). See the menu example above.
4. Price points: Used by customers to get an idea of ​​the price level of the entire range of goods... which is why low milk and butter prices are so important for discounters. The opposite applies to designer shops. The piece for 19.000,00 euros in the entrance marks the high level and makes pullovers for 200,00 euros appear as bargains.
5. Expensive is better: The wrong wine tasting, scientifically proved: Twice the same wine, once mords bottle, once Fuselettiket: Ahhh! The more expensive is clearly better! (Wrong, it was the same wine in different tubing).
6. Mini-shrink: Same pack, less in it. Popular and known strategy. It is difficult for consumers to see through.
7. The price-effect: How prices are perceived is strongly related to pricing. Size, color and wording influence the perception of prices immensely.

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