Psychology of Pricing Flashcards
7 cards from real CPP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning โ missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Psychology of Pricing flashcards as text
A gym offers a 'free first month' promotion. After cancellation rates spike in month two, what psychological concept explains why members may feel they already got their value?
Answer: Mental accounting and sunk cost
Mental accounting leads consumers to categorize the free month as 'prepaid value already received,' reducing perceived cost of canceling.
Consumers perceive a $10 discount on a $25 item as more attractive than a $10 discount on a $250 item, even though the dollar savings are identical. This is explained by:
Answer: Weber's Law / proportional discounting
Weber's Law predicts that perceived value is relative to the base price; 40% off $25 is far more salient than 4% off $250.
Which of the following best describes the 'decoy effect' in pricing?
Answer: Adding an inferior third option to make a target option seem superior
The decoy (asymmetrically dominated) option is deliberately inferior to one choice but not the other, steering consumers toward the preferred target.
A car dealership advertises monthly payments of $299 instead of the total price of $17,940. This tactic exploits:
Answer: Payment segregation / temporal discounting
Breaking the total into smaller periodic payments reduces the perceived magnitude of the expenditure through temporal discounting and unit bias.
A consumer who paid $500 for a non-refundable concert ticket attends despite feeling ill because 'I already paid.' This behavior exemplifies:
Answer: Sunk cost fallacy
The sunk cost fallacy causes people to factor in irrecoverable past costs when making current decisions, even though those costs are economically irrelevant.
From a behavioral economics standpoint, why do $0 shipping offers dramatically increase conversion rates beyond the value of shipping savings?
Answer: Zero is a special price that eliminates transaction cost anxiety entirely
Ariely's 'zero price effect' shows that free offerings trigger an emotional response disproportionate to their economic value, removing perceived risk entirely.
A pricing manager is introducing a 15% price increase. To minimize consumer resistance using psychological principles, they should:
Answer: Bundle the increase with a visible product improvement or added feature
Linking a price increase to a tangible product improvement shifts consumer attention from the price change to the added value, reducing resistance.