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Internet Marketing and the Number 7

by kenny5
29 replies
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, or wondered about it, but 95% of products sold online have a price that ends in the number 7. Whether it's $17, $27, $197 etc.

Is there a reason for this? It seems like that's just the way it's done but I was wondering if there is any real reason why everyone sells using that number.

Thoughts?
#internet #marketing #number
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    i think you are thinking way too much about this...

    or maybe u are right.

    no idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    Somewhere, in some tiny room, there is a guy with glasses and garter on his arm that crunched the data and realized that 7 is a magic number. But then again, maybe he's just a Mickey Mantle fan and we all fell for it.

    Seriously, psychologists say that prices ending in a "7" sell more product than prices ending in a "9", for example, $6.97 will probably be more powerful than $6.99. Want to know for sure? Do some split testing on your own pricing.
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    • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
      Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose View Post

      Somewhere, in some tiny room, there is a guy with glasses and garter on his arm that crunched the data and realized that 7 is a magic number. But then again, maybe he's just a Mickey Mantle fan and we all fell for it.

      Seriously, psychologists say that prices ending in a "7" sell more product than prices ending in a "9", for example, $6.97 will probably be more powerful than $6.99. Want to know for sure? Do some split testing on your own pricing.
      I will add that Ted Nicholas has tested this extensively. Google it.
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  • Profile picture of the author infomaniacs
    Lucky 7 maybe?
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    I think it's just one of those "someone said it works" things. For most people it likely makes no difference.

    That said, I do it myself

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author AidenChong
    Probably it's the lucky number for the Western people? The Chinese would be much more prone to the number 8... Everything has to be in the number 8.

    Because 8 means getting rich, 8 means luck... Something along that line...

    But I get excited when I see the number 0! I don't have to pay for anything?

    Edit: Forgot to add that Chinese hate/afraid to use the number 4! It means death, die, badluck, etc. Just like the number 13?

    But seriously, testing it in your own niche market would be the best thing to do, I supposed.

    Aiden
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Whatever its "magic" is, it doesn't extend very far because you never really see it outside of sites run by IMers and not offline by huge corporations who know what they're doing.

    It's almost become a badge of an IMer's site with no site-specific testing to back it up.

    IM is bulging with "me too" mentality.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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    • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
      Originally Posted by Neil Morgan View Post

      Whatever its "magic" is, it doesn't extend very far because you never really see it outside of sites run by IMers and not offline by huge corporations who know what they're doing.

      It's almost become a badge of an IMer's site with no site-specific testing to back it up.

      IM is bulging with "me too" mentality.

      Cheers,

      Neil
      I tend to disagree, and I use it exclusively outside the IM world. So do my competitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Hey Brian

    I think that's the problem with a lot of this stuff. Cherry picking bits of someone else's offer or sales process and sticking it in your own without testing is not the way to go about things to maximize profit. Sure, use it as a benchmark but that should be all it is.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    What I don't understand is that you just don't see this sort of pricing offline. If it was so psychologically powerful, you'd think the big boys offline would be using it. But they don't.

    Nor do they use the Belcher button on their multi-zillion selling sites

    Cheers,

    Neil
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    • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
      Originally Posted by Neil Morgan View Post

      What I don't understand is that you just don't see this sort of pricing offline. If it was so psychologically powerful, you'd think the big boys offline would be using it. But they don't.

      Nor do they use the Belcher button on their multi-zillion selling sites

      Cheers,

      Neil
      Walmart and Sams Club are champions of the 7 strategy.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
      Originally Posted by Neil Morgan View Post

      What I don't understand is that you just don't see this sort of pricing offline. If it was so psychologically powerful, you'd think the big boys offline would be using it. But they don't.

      Nor do they use the Belcher button on their multi-zillion selling sites

      Cheers,

      Neil
      To think that big businesses know anything about marketing is becoming more and more wrong. They try for brand awareness and indirect marketing - stuff that you can't test. Direct marketing is almost nowhere to be seen with them and yet we strive on it - how could we possibly then compare what our prices end with to theirs?

      I will add that Walmart does use the number 7 at the end of their prices occasionally - but it tends to be on items on the higher price range for their targets. Something about the choosing between a $29 product and a $37 one makes consumers think the $37 is better because it costs more - but is close enough to the same price that they should get it.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulie888
        Originally Posted by Kevin Williams View Post

        To think that big businesses know anything about marketing is becoming more and more wrong. They try for brand awareness and indirect marketing - stuff that you can't test. Direct marketing is almost nowhere to be seen with them and yet we strive on it - how could we possibly then compare what our prices end with to theirs?
        I totally agree with you on this issue. Comparing your marketing strategies with that of a multinational corporation that has millions of dollars in their marketing budget is not really an "apples to apples" type of comparison.

        So many of their marketing strategies are designed to promote brand awareness and do not produce direct conversions that can be tracked. For example, when companies blow millions of dollars on a 30 second Superbowl ad spot (don't forget that they pay lots of money to create those ads as well), there's no feasible way to directly track whether it results in a positive return on investment. All they're really aiming for is brand awareness and recognition.

        An independent internet marketer doing direct marketing would not have the financial resources and wherewithal to do anything resembling this just to promote brand awareness, so you just have to be a little circumspect when evaluating the marketing strategies of these large corporations.
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  • Profile picture of the author blueorca17
    Just my opinion, the significance of the #7 in WSO has to do with social engineering.... a lot of people use 7 in their WSO price because a lot of OTHER people have used it in their WSO's. Monkey see, monkey do. If it works for other people, and they make money off of it, does it not make sense to follow the same strategy by using that number in a price?
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  • Profile picture of the author mikemac1
    As Paul said Brian nailed it, there were major studies done that showed consumers favored prices ending it not just 7 but also 2 and this isn't just a copy writing thing, I remember one of my marketing classes in college spent some time on pricing and we discussed the effect of 2s and 7s.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    I remember hearing about this in college too, and another of the pricing strategies that you see being employed both online and offline is having prices that are just below a psychologically significant threshold of money in people's minds, i.e. $9.99 or $9.97 instead of $10, which apparently makes many people think they're paying only slightly more than $9 instead of what is basically a few pennies short of $10.

    I know this might sound ridiculous when you really examine what is going on, but business case studies have proven the power of this pricing strategy to increase sales time and time again!

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
      Steve Jobs got a trademark on the number 9 being used at the end of anything. Offline businesses are grandfathered in at prices that end in 9, but new businesses (mainly online) cannot use a 9 at the end of any price.

      Just to really annoy Jobs, I've priced all my products at i$9.99
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    This number has an interesting psychological effect; it is neither too much nor too little.
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  • Profile picture of the author Emma Blanke
    Originally Posted by kenny5 View Post

    I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, or wondered about it, but 95% of products sold online have a price that ends in the number 7. Whether it's $17, $27, $197 etc.

    Is there a reason for this? It seems like that's just the way it's done but I was wondering if there is any real reason why everyone sells using that number.

    Thoughts?
    Hi there,

    I attended a free webinar by Jeff Walker and have seen some books that say that phycogically, using the number 7 as the last number for the price of a product or a service, encourages the person to buy it a lot.

    And it does!

    I think thats why!


    Emma!
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    • Profile picture of the author Luis Medilo
      I think that it's because many people consider the number 7 as lucky.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anup Mahajan
    Maybe it has to do something with how people perceive number 7. The number 7 is associated with many fascinating things like 7 wonders of the world, 7 colors in rainbow, 7 deadly sins etc. Maybe people want to rub some of the magic associated with the number 7 to their products LOL

    Anup
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  • Profile picture of the author WD Mino
    7 is the number of completion 7 is considered by a ton -millions to be the number of completion or for better term the number of perfection.-True!
    -WD
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    Here's a brief summary of some of the things that have kept Apple's trademark lawyers very busy (and presumably rich) recently - Apple facing threats of a lawsuit over iPad name
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  • Profile picture of the author RegalWeb
    May I know where did this number 7 trend started? And who coined this? Anyone has an idea?
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Maybe it's a cultural thing - here in the UK, pricing uses the "9" approach much more than the "7" approach. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing anything priced with the "7" approach here.

    Actually, 5 is used a lot too. Something will be 995 instead of 1000.

    Whatever works is cool.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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