How to Decode the Decoy effect in Marketing?

Adsutra Marketing
4 min readJun 28, 2021

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Decode the Decoy!

Would you believe it if I tell you that an average person is exposed to nearly 5000 ads on a daily dosage?

CRAZY!! Isn’t it? Well, the thing that needs to be pondered upon is that how many of them actually grab your attention given that our attention span is less than that of goldfish.

Well, that’s where the principles of psychology play their role, and the majority of these floating ads are based on it, and only a handful leave an imprint on our brains that is how we end up finding ourselves unconsciously or consciously find ourselves jamming with the ad jingles and vibing with it.

It’s not just visually stored or saved in our brains we also recognize or identify ads through their music, Ad copies are also well planned which is why you’ll see the majority of them playing with colors that grab attention like red or yellow.

But are these tricks just limited to ads not really, it is applied to the smallest of the details from a web page, to pricing points.

For example, when a visitor or potential consumer is present with limited options they end up choosing the chap and the best that suits their demand, let’s roll it out a little bit more for you

When you are to purchase a phone you’re presented with two options

Phone 1- cost $100 Phone 2- Cost $300

As per your requirement, you will invest whether you want a phone just to fulfill basic requirements of some phone that are latched with multiple functionalities, but now you see the price difference between the two is almost thrice so if not always people generally go with the cheaper options.

Now let’s add one more aspect to it “The Decoy Effect”, lest insert a

Phone 3- Cost $310

Although this has fewer features than phone2 may be better coloured now the consumer starts analyzing between the three, without a doubt, Phone2 now looks or sounds like a real steal, now even when the basic requirement was met by Phone1 consumer feels the dilemma of investing into something better and cheaper, that’s how the Decoy effect played the game, interesting isn’t it?

Now the bigger question is, is it ethical?

Sources claim that majority of the time a decoy is profitable to the brand and more blinding to the consumers.

Also, a small portion also claims that it might be brought in use to persuade positive actions, well it is still a question of debate. Well now when the question of persuasion comes into the picture it gets a bit tricky as now you need to understand that no one is ever forced to make a decision, they have all the control over their free will. The silver lining lies here until a consumer is given a choice to make without their free will being exploited, The guideline declares it ethical.

Applying the decoy effect to your business

It’s all good and game to know about the decoy effect but then how to apply it?

The first step is to decide the price point that you want to be sold at the best, now let’s take help of an example: you own a hotel or resort now you have a package of 4 days stay in a regular room for $300 and 6 days stay in a luxury suite for $600.

At first instinct, anyone would go for the first option as the second offer is twice of it but now as a business owner, you decide that you want to raise the sale of the second facility that is 5 days stay in a luxury suite for $600. So you insert a third option that is 5 days stay in a regular suite for $500, this makes the second option look like a steal, well there you have it does not automate the sale of the third option organically.

The Decoy effect can be a tricky business but if the strategized right can do wonders for your business.

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Adsutra Marketing
Adsutra Marketing

Written by Adsutra Marketing

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Adsutra is the best creative ad advertising agency in Hyderabad to create a new brand identity or rebrand yourself. We are specialized in SEO,PPC, SEM& Ad Films

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