[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'm on the phone with Manta Musa, which means it's Take Control Tuesday. And Manta, this series has been so educational for those of us who are always doing some shopping. But today it really struck me because we're going to talk about the power
[00:00:16] Speaker B: of free right now. This is our why We Buy series.
And we've been looking at consumer psychology.
And that's how retailers use what they know about human behavior to influence our buying decisions.
That's part of selling. Businesses want to make their offers attractive and give us a reason to buy.
Our job as consumers is to recognize those influences and decide whether the offer really makes sense for us. Right. And today I want to talk about the one offer that's especially attractive.
Free.
Reshaping. Buy one, get one free free gift with purchase first month free.
Sometimes free is really free and it's a great deal.
But sometimes getting something for free requires us to spend money we weren't planning to spend.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: So today let's look at the power of free, why it gets our attention, and how to tell whether the deal is actually working for us. Okay, you're shopping online. You already have $42 worth of merchandise in your car.
Shipping is $6.
If you check out now, your total is $48.
But then you see free shipping on orders over $50.
Now you start looking around for something else to buy.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yes, you do.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: You find something for $10 and put it in the cart.
Now your merchandise total is $52 and the shipping is free.
You did save the six dollar shipping charge, but instead of spending $48, you spent $52. Right? So. So that free shipping actually cost you four dollars more than you originally planned to spend.
Now, maybe the additional item is worth extra $4 to you. But compare the two choices. Don't let the word free make that decision for you. There's another reason that the word could have so much influence. And the concept in consumer psychology is called zero price effect.
The idea is simple. When something is free, we tend to look at it differently than we would an ordinary discount.
Free gets our attention. Yeah. And sometimes we become so focused on what we're getting for free, we pay less attention to what we have to buy and spend or commit to get it. Think about buy one, get one free.
If you were already going to the store to buy one and the store gives you a second one free, that's a great deal. You haven't spent any additional money. But suppose you weren't planning to buy the product at all. And then you see buy one, get one. Now you're considering buying it because you're getting two for the price of one and the second one really is free. Yeah, but you still have to pay for the first one. And if you weren't going to buy either one before you saw the offer, then the word free help create the purchase.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Sure did.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: So here's the strategy. Take the word free out of the offer for a moment and look at what remains with free shipping. Compare what you're originally going to spend, including shipping, and what you'll actually spend to qualify for free shipping.
With the buy one, get one. Ask yourself, was I going to buy this before I saw the offer?
The point isn't that free is bad.
Sometimes free really is free. Sometimes it's a very good deal. The goal is to make the free part, adding value to a purchase, not causing you to make a purchase you didn't intend to make. So here's the takeaway. When you see the word free, just don't look at what you're getting.
Look at what you have to spend to get it.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: And here's the question to carry with you this week.
Would I still be buying this if there weren't something free attached to it? If the answer is yes, you may have found a great deal. If the answer is no, take another look before you buy. Remember, be an intentional buyer, not just a consumer.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Absolutely.
I think my answer is going to always be no. I just Because I have fallen for this so many times.
Listen, you can check this out on our
[email protected] and all of the archives in the why We Buy series. Make sure you like and share them as well and listen to them on your favorite app for your podcast. Manta. Thank you.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Thank you.
