Reframe Prices Into Smaller Base Values

Customers focus on absolute numbers.

They often prefer $10/month to $120/year because a smaller base value feels more pleasing.

But it works for any lower base value.

Reframe a Price Into:

• Monthly Price. Yearly SaaS plans often depict an equivalent monthly amount ($25/month billed annually).
• Daily Price. Anything under $4.00/day is persuasive to mention (Gourville, 2003).
• Petty Expense. Like a cup of coffee (Gourville, 1999).
• Per User. Describe your $10k/month B2B software as $67/user per month.
• Lower Currency. Global customers might be flexible on currency formats. If it makes sense, invoice them €4,600 instead of an equivalent $5,000 (Wertenbroch et al., 2007).
• Incremental Cost. Consider a 23-inch TV for $199. If you want to sell the 27-inch TV for $259, don't sell the total price of $259. Sell the difference of $60. Researchers confirmed this effect for a premium subscription to the New York Times (e.g., +$7/month converted better than a total of $16/month; Allard et al., 2019).

Stronger For

• New Brands. Products without existing pricing norms (Chung & Sheinin, 2024).
• Typical Frames. Though let me know if you try $0.00003 per second.
• Round Digits. Customers preferred a gym membership in which €60/month was framed as €2/day or €15/week; they disliked €59/month as €1.99/day or €14.99/week (Bambauer-Sachse & Grewal, 2011).

• Allard, T., Hardisty, D. J., & Griffin, D. (2019). When “more” seems like less: Differential price framing increases the choice share of higher-priced options. Journal of Marketing Research, 56(5), 826-841.
• Bambauer-Sachse, S., & Grewal, D. (2011). Temporal reframing of prices: when is it beneficial?. Journal of Retailing, 87(2), 156-165.
• Bambauer-Sachse, S., & Mangold, S. C. (2009). Are temporally reframed prices really advantageous? A more detailed look at the processes triggered by temporally reframed prices. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 16(6), 451-457.
• Basu, S., & Ng, S. (2021). 100amonthor 1,200 a year? Regulatory focus and the evaluation of temporally framed attributes. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31(2), 301-318.
• Chung, M., & Sheinin, D. A. (2024). The effect of category‐specific temporal frame on temporal reframing of price. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
• Gourville, J. T. (1998). Pennies-a-day: The effect of temporal reframing on transaction evaluation. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 395-408
• Gourville, J. T. (1999). The effect of implicit versus explicit comparisons on temporal pricing claims. Marketing Letters, 10(2), 113-124.
• Gourville, J. T. (2003). The effects of monetary magnitude and level of aggregation on the temporal framing of price. Marketing Letters, 14, 125-135.
• Wertenbroch, K., Soman, D., & Chattopadhyay, A. (2007). On the perceived value of money: The reference dependence of currency numerosity effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(1), 1-10.