What is it with number 7?
I have been doing some research on the competition. Similar, but no equal, online marketing programs on the market. The price always finish in 7, some of them repeat number 7 ($77; $377). WA also is $47 per month. Why is that?
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Following on the heels of Corey's comment, I have been studying the psychology of futures trading on the stock market. Now the number 7 is a very significant number when it comes to money, wealth, fortune etc. It is known as a "Psychological Pivot" in market trading.
The psychological pivot is an undeclared but very obvious psychological barrier, based on superstition. 7 is supposed to be a lucky number, people will be more inclined to buy something for $67 rather than $66 dollars, even though they would save a dollar, just because it ends in a 7, and the 7 draws the eye and is more pleasing to the eye than any other number. The number 13 however, is a no-no. Sell something for $12.99 or $14.27, but not $13.
Same with numbers ending in '0's. Believe it or not, people are more attracted to a figure like $19.99 than $20.00 - not just because they save a penny, but because there is a psychological barrier that people have set up to avoid certain numbers.
There are people who will always set the volume on their TV to only end in a 0 or 5, while other people will only set it to end in an even number - not because they are crazy, but because their mind works within psychological barriers and superstitions.
You raise a very good point Bernardo, pay attention to those 'psychological pivots' when you see them arise, ask "why?" and then follow that trend. You will be surprised at the variety of things that attract buyers, all of which you can incorporate in your own work.
All the best!
I love the comment about the TV volume, lol.
That's me! I used to work in Audio Visual and sometimes something had to be an odd number, whether it be a sound element or a visual element. Used to drive me nutts! LOL! For some strange reason I did not feel right if things weren't evens stevens. Weird, lol. Luckily I am more a perfectionist than superstitious and if it sounded better, or looked better set on an odd number than so be it. But in the back of my mind it still urked me, would have liked to have had it both ways. Perfection and and even number. This is why coding etc can drive me nutts, sometimes I have to use an odd number for something and I just don't like it. So strange.
When I worked in sales, marketing, and advertising (for a job) we used to try all sorts of things like this in our pricing. As a general rule the pricing was always $9.99 or $9999, or $7699 etc etc etc. We tried doing things like $9.87 or $9987, or $7623. The remarkable thing was that changing a price in this manner did often have a positive effect based on all sorts of things, like if it was a 'sale', and even geographical targeting. It was a psychological thing, and it worked. We did testing across two different store brands (we owned both companies) and would test one concept in one store versus another. Often these stores were in the same building! LOL! Anyway it was not perfect testing as there were so many other variables involved, but sometimes the results were nothing short of amazing. Apparently in Asia the number 8 is very lucky, apparently. We changed our 'sales' pricing in an area that had a high Asian demographic. We changed the last two digits to 88. So $9.88, $9988, $7688. On sales days we increased turnover of 'sales' items by close to 100% month of month, year on year from that point forward.
I read a book once about this sort of stuff. It was called 'The Hidden Persuaders'... I think, can't quite remember. It was a very old book and was all about psychological selling, and questioned its ethics etc. Some techniques were even banned in United States, not sure what changed as this is rampant in the 21st century.
Anyway I hope this provides some insight as to why this might be done. I believe it is all psychological. Psychological selling. We believed that the random pricing like $7623 made the buyer think that that was our lowest price (often it was), as $7699 looks like a RRP price, even if it is on sale.
Well, the other day a respond to a test in wich I was among the 2% that answers different than the rest of people. I guess my not liking number 7 goes with this too...
To me is more like the number 10. Top 10, particularly in tennis.
Besides I remenber someone, maybe Kyle or Magistudios, not sure, that mention that if you see to many numbers 7 somewhere (do not remenber) that was a scam.
I am spending many hours everyday at WA, with so much information about so many things I do not remenber where I read, or hear wath I just mention.
7 is a number of "completion". Yes I studied Numerology. As a Math major, numbers fascinate me.
Extensive studies have been done, and more products sell with sevens than any other numbers.
Yes I've also heard that from my sales experience. It is also known in the spiritual world in this own right. It shows up in many religious books, Christian, Pagan, Celtic,,,, basically all of them. Powerful and it is also a "pretty" number.
People also write a lot of "7 best" "7 top" and so on. There seems to be something psychologically appealing in the number 7.
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I love the feedback on this post. I've wondered about things like this before, but never knew that there were psychological reasons behind it. Great discussion, guys.