I remember being at the store with my mommy sometime in 1960. A wanted a toy. It was $1.99. My mother gave me two dollars to give the cashier. I was so happy that the price was only $1.99, We’d have lots and lots of money left over to buy candy!! The clerk gave me back a penny. I waited for the rest. My mother said, that’s right dear, that’s what’s left from $1.99. I knew then (I’m not kidding, I remember thinking this) I’d been hoodwinked by some slick pricing trick. The 99 cents was right in front of my eyes but all my mind let me see was the one buck.
Fast forward to 2011. I see a car priced at $49,999. Wow. It’s only in the forties. I can justify that. I’m wide awake when I rationalize this. I even know I’m doing it. But my brain won’t let me see a ‘5’ on the front of that price. No-sirree. I’ve been hypnotized. Again. My brain is in an economic partnership with the devil.
It’s the single greatest insight any marketer has had in the history of selling, maybe the greatest human intellectual achievement of all time, after Einstein’s theory. I bet this single tactic is responsible for more merchandise sold than any ad or commercial or brand positioning strategy since Noah put a for sale sign on his Ark after the flood. It worked on me when I was 7. It worked on me today.
There should be a statue in bronze erected on the front lawn of the marketing hall of fame for whichever hero of capitalism, known or unknown, came up with __ dollars ninty nine.
Think about effectiveness like this, the next time you see a $6 million Superbowl commercial with two talking dogs trying to jump-start a rabbit.
B