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I'm really not a huge "book" type of guy. My wife is the reader of my family. She reads every single day, usually twice. I read usually just once a day, and it's usually the Bible. Hah!
When Twilight came out, she read through that series amazingly fast because she could not put the book down. Predictably Irrational has been like that for me.
From page one, there are nuggets of information that seriously have redefined a lot of the way I look at marketing promotion.
I highly suggest that you take a second to just read the free couple pages on amazon now. It's 4-5 pages that I bet will have you impressed.
In the first chapter of this book the author, Dan Ariely, talks about how we all make comparison to other products to come up with what is an acceptable price. For example, we don't know how much a 4 cylinder car is worth, but we know it should cost less than a 6 cylinder.
Dan talks about an experiment in which he demonstrates this and uses points of reference and comparison to get someone to pick a more expensive item more times than not.
The experiment given was using a newspaper subscription. You could join the newspaper subscription as follows:
- Internet only subscription - $59
- Print Only - $125
- Print and Internet - $125
What do you think most people went for? Over 80% went for the Print and Internet - $125. Why? Because the Print only was a price comparison point that made it easy for them to decide to get the print and internet.
Now compare this to when he just had the Internet only Subscription and Print and Internet as options. Now over 70% of people selected internet only. This was because they had no point of reference to make the print and internet deal seem worth it.
Crazy good right?
Read the first pages at least, well worth it for any internet marketer.
Its sitting on my “To Be Read” shelf behind me. Hopefully this review gives me the push I need to actually sit down and read it. Like you I am not much of a reader outside of business and non-fiction.
you should check influence by Robert B. Cialdini … I bet you will love it too
Totally agree with you
I second Ricky’s comment. Clialdini’s “Influence” would be a valuable addition to your list. He’s co-authored another book called ‘Yes’ which is also a great read. Get them both – you won’t regret it.
In the field of Influence and persuasion, Dr. Cialdini is the most cited social psychologist in the world today.
I too red Influence and it was very interesting. Thanks for your recommendation Jonathan. I got myself a copy after reading the 4 pages available on Amazon. Just love reading those studies.
Here is another Entrepreneur test that was passed on to Standford students… you guys might like it:
http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2009/10/30/start-up-studies-a-pop-quiz/
If you think Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is just one of those books where you’ll get terribly bored after five minutes of reading it, you’re very wrong. This book provides us information we were either too proud to admit or too blind to recognize-in a way you’ll feel comfortable with. Dan brings out a side of economics, business, and management we were all too busy to see
it is really a nice thinking by your this topic…..
This is like pricing lining, which Walmart loves to use.
Dan illustrates a few of the points he makes in the book in a TED Talk he did Dec. of 2008. Worth ~15 mins that it takes to watch: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
Nice to see twilight getting some love glad I got these domains http://www.twilightblog.org and http://www.twilightcommunitycom
[...] far, I recently read through Predictably Irrational. This book really was eye opening to me on various marketing methods I was not implementing and [...]
This looks like a great book, I like their ideas. It could be implemented in any niche, regardless it’s blogging, affiliate marketing, or whatever.
Another idea that works for influencing “buying decision” is to show the high-cost item first, and the others afterward.
Think of all the sites using comparison charts with benefits and prices. Most of them start with silver, gold, platinum. Mostly would buy the silver, and get scared of the platinum price…
A split test would prove that if we turn the offer “up side down”, and showcase platinum benefits/price first, folks would prefer this over the other levels, as they’ll think they’re getting less benefits, even if it’s costing them more…