97, 99 or 100

“I’ll tell you what brilliance in advertising is: 99 cents. Somebody thought of that.”
– Roger Sterling, Mad Men

How often do you see a product ending in 99 cents?

It seems so silly when you think about it logically. Like one cent will make you think differently.

But it’s common because it works.

It plays on our surprisingly gullible human psychology and sends a message to our subconscious about pricing.

However, I heard someone speaking recently, saying that 99 has lost its effect. Our subconscious minds are becoming more used to it.

Apparently, ending a price with 97 or another odd number works better now, because it breaks the state of the reader and makes them look twice. (Whole dollars, they were talking about in this case, not cents.)

If it’s true, and it probably is, then go ahead and end all your pricing with 7s or 9s or 3.5s, or whatever else will help.

But while it may apply some slight percentage of difference to sales, a mind trick like this isn’t creating more value.

A better way to sell exponentially more is to give your clients more value, to solve their problems for them and enrich their lives.

If you get that right you’ll gain at least 97 times the benefit, I promise.