Once we know something, it becomes hard to imagine what it feels like not to know it.
More quotesKing Cobra put on a wine jacket and found another £1.05 down the back of the sofa.
Nothing inside the bottle improved. The neighbouring drinks told people what sort of purchase they were making, and the acceptable price moved with the category. We love talking about willingness to pay as though every customer carries a tiny valuer in their head. Mostly, that valuer looks sideways.
A £6 coffee is ridiculous beside a takeaway cup and unremarkable in a hotel lounge. Software looks expensive beside a £20 utility and cheap beside another employee. Put an ambitious option at the top of a menu and the middle choice acquires the reassuring glow of moderation. Context does not decorate price. It helps manufacture it.
This is why desperate discounting is often a positioning confession. The team asks, “How do we make £100 feel like £80?” before asking what the buyer thinks the £100 replaces. A competitor? A freelancer? Three hours of senior staff time? The recurring misery of doing nothing? Change the honest comparison and the same number can move from cheeky to sensible.
Of course, an absurd decoy is still an absurd decoy. The frame must survive attention and the product must survive use. But before hacking ten per cent off the price, I would inspect the company it keeps. Numbers are sociable creatures.