Two Equally Great-Value Wines: How Do You Get Customers to Buy the Pricier One?

Picture two bottles of wine on the table: one at $200, the other at $400. Both are genuinely value-for-money — in other words, both are great-value choices.

If you were the restaurant owner, and you had no salesperson to talk customers into it and no promotional copy to lean on, how would you get customers to buy the $400 wine instead of the $200 one?

1. Print the wine's vintage and tasting notes on the table?

   No — remember, no other promotional aids are allowed ^_^

2. Add some dine-and-wine pairing suggestions to the menu?

   Same rule — no persuasion through copy is allowed ^_^

So how exactly can you get customers to buy the $400 wine?

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The answer: put a $1,200 bottle right beside them!

Because customers are already running the numbers in their heads. With one more item to compare against, the "the cheaper one is the better deal" instinct is instantly overturned — and it satisfies the customer's mental cost-benefit logic of "always being able to choose something better."

We've shared this before in our Marketing 36 Strategies emails: this is the appeal of comparison. It's just like a sportswear store that places some comparable products on the same shelf as the trendiest name brands. The two products perform identically, but the former costs only a third or two-thirds of the latter — and that's enough to spark a purchase from shoppers who aren't chasing the brand name!

Imagine walking into Starbucks. The choice in front of you isn't just the different coffees, but the sizes too: Tall, Grande, and Venti. Many people gravitate toward the Grande, because in their minds the Tall feels a little too small and the Venti a little too big. The Grande feels like the "just right" option, seemingly designed and positioned precisely for you. In the same way, many software companies offer three tiers when promoting their packages: Basic, Advanced, and Professional — and they'll often go out of their way to flag the Advanced plan as the "most popular." That's because they know most customers will pick the middle option: neither too basic, nor too advanced.

From the perspective of consumer psychology, this choice behavior is called the "compromise effect." It means that when customers face multiple options, they tend to avoid both the highest-end and the lowest-end choices and settle on the one in the middle. That's because the middle option is usually seen as the lowest-risk and the most reasonably priced, and the mind automatically inflates its perceived value for money. Understand this consumer psychology, and you can design and market your products far more strategically — boosting sales while meeting your customers' needs.