How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Twofer

Disciplines > Marketing > Pricing > Twofer

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

In a sale, one way of displaying prices is as 'two for the price of one'.

Other encouraging statements may be added to this, such as 'This week only'.

The pairs of items being sold may be attached together so the customer can pick them up easily. This can be done with tape, staples, boxing, elastic bands or whatever seems appropriate. Be careful in this that the packaging still looks attractive.

Example

A retail store ties two pairs of gloves together and sells them as 'two for the price of one'.

A garage puts out a special offer to service two cars for the price of one. They get a lot of people adding their second car to take advantage of this. Now they know that both cars will likely need servicing together in future years, doubling their potential business!

Discussion

The 'twofer' is the same deal as the BOGOF, but has subtly different meaning:

• BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) uses the 'free' power word, hence triggering a greed response.
• Twofer (Two For the price of one) emphasizes the quantity that the customer is getting. 'Look', it says, 'You are getting lots!'

A danger of assigning something as being 'free' is that the price-quality heuristic can come into play, where the customer equates 'free' with low quality. Free can also indicate that the item is not wanted, and that the seller wants to give it away. 'Here', it says, 'You can have this for nothing because I do not want it'. This is the opposite of the scarcity principle, where something becomes desirable because you might not be able to get it another time.

Another variant of Twofer and BOGOF is 'half price'.

See also

BOGOF