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 selling device is borrowed status: nothing is claimed about the taste, and the aspiration in the clothes, pearls and plumes does the work a product claim would otherwise have to do. The price and the command are kept out of the painted scene and placed inside a mirror-frame prop standing on the table, so the artwork stays a portrait while still carrying the offer - the sales line is an object in the picture rather than an interruption of it. The drink is shown served in a branded footed glass, which teaches the fountain trade the serving ritual at the same time as it advertises to the customer.

The big idea

A five-cent fountain drink is placed in the gloved hand of a richly dressed society woman, so a nickel buys a share of her pearls, plumes and lace.

The offer

A glass of Coca-Cola at the fountain for 5 cents, stated inside the small framed mirror on the table: "DRINK Coca-Cola 5¢".

Lines from the ad

DRINK Coca-Cola 5¢

Our Favorite

Steal this when

Use this when the product is cheap, undifferentiated and consumed in public: buy the aspiration around the moment of use, and park the price inside a small device in the scene rather than across the artwork.

The emotion

Written to Admiration. It makes the Avoid mistake.

Pearls, plumes and lace on a society woman carry the whole appeal; nothing is said about the taste, so the nickel buys a share of her look with no reason beyond it.