Strategic Pricing 101
A new burger joint called Top This just opened up on Penn’s campus. The restaurant has a creative name, and an even more creative pricing strategy. Take a look:
See anything strange? In case you didn’t catch it, the Fries & Beverage “combo” actually costs more than purchasing the fries and a beverage separately… 1 cent more to be exact. Creative no? Trick your customers into thinking that since it’s convention for combos to be cheaper than buying the individual components, they are probably getting a better deal with the combo and they probably don’t need to check…
Except when they do. A friend noticed this, took a picture, and showed me, and of course he’s not the only one that’s noticed. The 1 cent difference isn’t even the issue, it’s more about principle, and it’s justifiably pissing people off. Strategic pricing is an art, and firms pour tons of money into research in this area, but there some basic no-no’s. This is one of them.
