Price-anchoring offer

The pattern

This still is filed under Price-anchoring offer.

Define

A higher reference number is shown first so the real price reads as a concession, not as a starting bid.

Mechanism

People judge a price against the first number they see. The anchor must be a real comparison or it collapses.

Verdict

We have a credible reference the buyer will accept

Why it works

The mechanism is substitution arithmetic: instead of naming nutrients the reader cannot picture, the panel converts each one into a plate of food she already knows, so one glass visibly replaces a day of cooking. The Elsie and Elmer cartoon does the emotional work the fact panel cannot, showing energy rather than claiming it, and the joke runs at the father's expense so the mother is the competent one in the scene. The government statistic supplies an outside authority for the problem before the brand supplies the solution, which is the standard order for a category nobody believes they belong to. Price and pack are stated plainly at the foot so a reader convinced by the panel can act on it in one trip.

The big idea

Vitamins become a chocolate malted drink children want, and one glass of Hemo is shown to equal plates of eggs, bread, liver, spinach and beef.

The offer

Borden's Hemo in pound jars at drug and grocery stores, a full pound making 24 drinks for 59 cents, or mixed like a malted at the soda fountain.

The proof

A panel matching one glass to 3 boiled eggs, 4 slices of whole wheat bread, 3 servings of beef liver and more; a U.S. government figure that 3 out of 4 Americans lack vitamins.

Lines from the ad

Try Hemo...the new way to drink your Vitamins and like 'em!

ELMER, ISN'T IT WONDERFUL HOW Hemo PERKS UP GROWING CHILDREN!

IF IT'S BORDEN'S, IT'S GOT TO BE GOOD!

Steal this when

Use this when your product's benefit is measured in units the buyer cannot feel or picture - milligrams, percentages, hours saved. Translate each unit into a familiar physical equivalent and let a character carry the emotional promise beside the table.

The emotion

Written to Anxiety. It makes the Say move.

After the government figure that 3 out of 4 Americans lack vitamins, the panel shows one glass of Hemo equal to 3 boiled eggs, 4 slices of bread and 3 servings of liver.