Test Your Direct Response I.Q.
August 17th, 2005 by Bob Bly
Here are three different offers:
(A) Half price.
(B) Buy one, get one free.
(C) 50% off.
One of these pulled 40% more replies than the other two.
Which do you think was the winner? And why?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2005 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Direct Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 17th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
I’d say 50% off pulled the best because it’s specific.
August 17th, 2005 at 7:51 pm
I’ll go with 50% as well. Buy one get one only works if I want two, half price is not as specific as 50% off.
August 17th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
I’d vote for Buy one Get one free, because it has ‘free’ in it. Free is the second-most popular DM term, if memory serves.
August 17th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
I’ll say half price, because half is half. It immediately conveys the benefit without any need to calculate the benefit in the mind. 50% off, on the other hand, forces the reader to calculate, albeit quickly, what 50% represents in terms of savings.
As Mark Twain once said, “Numbers don’t stick in the mind; pictures do.”
August 18th, 2005 at 6:22 am
The best result in Russia would give “buy one, get one free” approach as
Russian mentality says if you are given anything at all for free you should
take it.
August 18th, 2005 at 6:23 am
Michel, you make a good point based on logic. But too often consumers (like myself) buy on emotion. And “get one free” strikes an emotional cord. What sticks in the consumer’s mind — to borrow your Mark Twain analogy — is, “Hey, I can get something free!”
August 18th, 2005 at 6:45 am
Personally, I’d go for the freebie. FREE always gets my attention.
August 18th, 2005 at 8:30 am
It’s a hard one to answer without knowing what the offer is actually for. But I’d think in most cases, buy one get one free would be the top mover if, as someone has already mentioned, it’s something I want more than one of.
Of the other two, I’d go with “50% off” over “half price.” “Half price” focuses on what I have to pay, while “50% off” focuses on how much I save.
August 18th, 2005 at 8:38 am
I’m going to guess free as well. Why? Because, well, free is free, and 50% off or half price is only “half-free.”
August 18th, 2005 at 9:15 am
I’ll join the “Buy one, get one free” crowd. FREE still has tremendous power.
August 18th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
I’d go with half price because in my opinion it is the simplest and easiest to rapidly absorb.
August 18th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
“Buy one, one free”. It leaves the perceived value of the first intact, and the second one couldn’t be cheaper. You also get more, instead of the same. And it has ‘free’ in it of course.
August 18th, 2005 at 1:16 pm
I’m torn, but I’m going with 50% off. As others have noted, the appeal of buy one get one free depends on whether I want two of the item in question. I’m trying to figure out how prospect theory plays into this, and my hunch at this point is that generally people will prefer paying less cash to receiving a greater quantity of goods.
Half off just seems to vague, for no reason I can put my finger on.
August 18th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
Buy one, get one free. I would think that “half price” and “50% off” are close enough – if one’s going to pull 40% more, it needs to be radically different somehow. Plus, looking at my own behavior as a mindless consumer, the grocery store usually hooks me with their “buy one, get one free” offers.
August 19th, 2005 at 10:23 am
Buy one get one free. Because it makes you feel (emotions rule ok) that you’re getting more of what you want to buy. I’ve assumed that you might buy one in the first place.
August 19th, 2005 at 1:11 pm
Emotionally it should be buy one get one free for the reasons noted above.
Logically, BOGO makes even more sense these days. You can always sell the second one on eBay and make a buck… so it’s really get TWO for free!
August 20th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Definitely 50% off. Quantify, quantify, quantify.
August 20th, 2005 at 10:59 am
It’s the buy one, get one free. I don’t want to buy two…which is what I have to do to get two, at 50% off. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s how people think. I think.
August 20th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Bogo. It’s all about the feeling of getting more.
August 20th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
I’ll go with “Half-price” as it is the easiest for the reader to understand. I’ll have to agree with Michael Fortin on this one. We all have an oppinion on this, but like Mark Joyner will tell you, it requires intensive testing to prove results.
August 20th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
Even though I chose “half price” orginally, I think “free” is the winner. For the same reason I chose “half price” originally, and when you think about it, the word “free,” regardless of context or surrounding qualifiers, is still the most powerful word.
“Half price” immediately communicates, by itself and in the mind, that there’s another half you must pay for. “Free” communucates an instant, immediate benefit, regardless of what you need to do to get it for free.
“Free” by itself conveys something that’s free. You don’t need to pay for the freebie (even though you must pay for something else to get it).
“Free” is a powerful human motivator. People will still ignore the context because cognitively yet unconsciously, they only focus on, and recognize (often at a visceral level), the word “free.”
You just can’t do that with “half price.” It paints a picture, yes. But it paints both dissenting pictures — half free, and half pay.
As my friend and copywriter, Rachel McAlpine, often says, “Avoid using negative words — say what it is, not what it isn’t.” I agree. Rachel is absolutely right on the money.
Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the bestseller “Psycho-Cybernetics,” states that the brain is a goal-seeking organ. It needs a goal in order to function.
For example, if I told you to *NOT* think of a white carnation, you will have hard time since your brain needs a goal. It will naturally picture what it is supposed to avoid. The mind needs a reference point. A visual equivalent.
On the other hand, if I asked you to think of a pink carnation instead of a white one, you will think of a pink carnation. (And you won’t think of a white one!) I gave your mind a goal rather than taking one away from it.
Thus, by stating what something isn’t or implies something negative, can be counterproductive since it is still directing the mind, albeit in the opposite way. If I told you that dental work is painless for example, you’ll still focus on the word “pain” in “painless.” Rather, I should say, “There’s little discomfort.”
For the same reason, “free” conveys the benefit instantly. People will go to great lengths to get something free, even though they have to pay for it — often in other ways.
My 2 cents.
August 21st, 2005 at 1:01 am
(A)Half price won if this were an appeal to an older crowd, because there’s no intermediate calculation, or cognitive process to determine what you’re getting. Simple offers tend to pull better when presented to an older crowd.
(B)Buy one, get one, won if this describes an offer for most food items. Or a six pack of beer. (No. Beer isn’t considered a type of food).
(C)50% off, won if this offer appeared before working adults, because their cognitive processes are engaged by numbers as an extension of their work life. Numbers are taken seriously by this crowd.
Peter
August 21st, 2005 at 9:28 am
Peter,
No wonder I’m so confused:
I’m and old guy that consumes beer (occassionally) and I also work my tale off! haha!
August 21st, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Buy one, get one free. I think people are most attracted to anything that is free.
August 21st, 2005 at 9:31 pm
I believe that “b – buy one, get one free” was most successful. Straight forward. Cuts right to the chase and what many consumers love to hear – FREE. Also it is easy for all to grasp and it has that magical word FREE. Finally, did I mention FREE?
August 21st, 2005 at 11:48 pm
It is so “buy one, get one free”
So confirm my thoughts Bob
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:17 pm
Without a single doubt whatsoever, it’s buy one, get one free. It works because of the singular reason of the bonus. When a customer has already decided to buy, they’ve made the decision. So if a customer is buying just about any product, they’ve made up their mind already.
The get one free is just the tipping point.
While 50% may seem similar, it’s not that similar at all. 50% off, actually reduces the value overall, whereas, that buy one, get one free is very specifically a gift.
Sean
http://www.psychotactics.com
August 23rd, 2005 at 2:54 pm
Is Bob going to leave us hanging on this one?
August 25th, 2005 at 8:12 am
I personally have no idea but I sure would like to know the outcome:-)).
I hope Bob will post the results soon.
September 5th, 2005 at 3:38 pm
Told you so
And told you the reason as well.
(see post above)
Sean
http://www.psychotactics.com
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January 17th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Well A and C are the same- which I hope people realize…so I assume B is the 40%.
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