Mention price first

Value has no objective standard. For most products, there is no "correct" price that customers can reference—they must assess for themselves whether an offer is reasonable. But what do they rely on when objective reference values are absent? The key questions are: What reference points do people use for price evaluation, how do these reference points form, and what does the evidence tell us?

Studies

The Social Security Number Experiment

55 MBA students at MIT were asked to bid on products: a keyboard, wine, and chocolates. Before bidding, they were asked to do something unusual: write down the last two digits of their Social Security number. Someone who wrote 87, for example, was then asked, "Would you pay $87 for this keyboard?" Only after that did they make their actual bid. The result: Students with high ending digits (80–99) bid $56 for the keyboard, while students with low digits (00–19) bid only $16. A completely random number had tripled the price.

The effect across all products

Same image for all products. Wine: $27 versus $8. Chocolates: $20 versus $9. The higher anchor consistently led participants to pay three times more. Yet all participants could physically examine the products beforehand. They knew precisely what they were purchasing. Nevertheless, an arbitrary number determined the items' perceived value.

Arbitrary, yet internally consistent

The remarkable part: The students didn't notice anything. Their bids felt completely rational to them. Those who bid $56 found it appropriate. Those who bid $16 did too. Everyone was convinced they knew the "true" value. And their bids were internally consistent—the expensive wine received higher bids than the cheap one, the keyboard more than the mouse. The random number had merely shifted their starting point. They rationalized the rest themselves.

Social Security Number as Purchase Anchor

The finding that the last two digits of a completely irrelevant Social Security number produce 216-346% higher bids is profoundly counterintuitive. The magnitude is dramatic—over a threefold difference—and the arbitrariness of the anchor is striking: there is zero rational connection between a Social Security number and product value. This falls between the 'hard-to-read font' effect (rated 7-8) and the Peak-End Rule (rated 9), as the impact is massive, though the anchoring principle itself is better established than entirely novel phenomena.

Principle

Which principle for Customer Experience Design can be derived from this? The initial price point determines willingness to pay and establishes the entire evaluation framework for all subsequent prices. This anchoring effect is particularly powerful for products or services where customers lack established price expectations—from innovative technologies to personalized services. The critical factor is that the anchor must appear credible and contextually relevant, as transparently manipulative pricing can erode trust. Companies that strategically set the first price point in a category or negotiation gain significant influence over their target audience's price perception. The following guidelines demonstrate how to implement this principle in practice.

Guidelines

Show highest price first

Always display the most expensive plan first (left or top) on pricing pages. The high price sets a mental anchor, making all other options appear more affordable and increasing the conversion rate. The following examples illustrate this guideline:

• SaaS-Anbieter: Enterprise (999€) | Professional (299€) | Starter (99€) – the eye first falls on 999€, after which 299€ appears reasonable.
• Restaurants: Expensive dishes at the top of the menu, cheaper ones at the bottom. The first price seen sets the expectation for the entire menu.

Using strikethrough prices

Show the original price crossed out, with the reduced price next to it. The old price becomes the anchor, making the new one appear as a bargain. Without the strikethrough price, the reference point is missing. The following examples illustrate this guideline:

• E-Commerce: ~~€299~~ €199 – the crossed-out price establishes the value, the new price the benefit. Without the strikethrough price, €199 would simply be the price.
• Booking.com: 'Regular price €180 | Today €129 | You save €51' – triple anchoring: regular price, savings in euros and percentage.

Using Decoy Options

Add a strategic decoy option that makes another choice appear clearly superior—typically by offering similar pricing with significantly fewer features. The decoy itself will rarely be selected, but it makes the target option an obvious choice. The following examples illustrate this guideline:

• The Economist: Print: $125 | Digital: $59 | Print + Digital: $125. No one chooses 'print only' at the same price as the combo. The decoy doubled sales of Print+Digital.
• Kino-Popcorn: Small: €3 | Medium: €6.50 | Large: €7. 50 cents more for twice as much? The medium is the decoy that makes large a no-brainer.