The purpose of Giving discounts to customers by raising prices
Faced with these situations most people, it ends with the feeling that business has done better in the second case, where no fee has been paid. All this despite the fact that the final price was exactly the same in both situations. Why do consumers react irrationally?
The theory developed by Israeli psychologists Daniel Hahnemann (Nobel laureate in economics 2002) and Amos Tversky, called prospect theory (Prospect Theory) argues that people will attach greater importance in proportion to the losses than gains, even though both are of equivalent size.
Experiments have shown that in some cases the losses they affect us double that similar gains. Suppose you lose $ 10, this will cause more unrest if we won $ 10, although in absolute terms it is the same amount. If you go to the supermarket and found that half of the products we buy usually are up 10%, while the remaining half has fallen at the same rate, probably will not be indifferent to this change, despite having a neutral impact on our wallets. As mentioned above, the greatest psychological weight is given to the loss, perceive that we are in a worse position than before the price changes.
Following the above reasoning, the surcharge is perceived by customers as a loss, while the discount is treated as a gain. Then, pay a surcharge because a greater impact psychologically, even though objectively have the same dimension as the discount and allowing, as in the initial example, reach the same final price.
This is the reason why many companies choose to raise their list prices and then offer discounts to different customers depending on the quantities purchased, the payment means or the other criteria. This is better received by customers to establish a list price and charge relatively low fees if the amount purchased is less than that required as a basis or if you use a payment method is not preferred by the company.
