2 . Danone Portugal introduced a new yogurt named Juntos. For every pack of yogurt that a person bought, he would donate yogurt to a family in need. Danone had done its research. Increasingly, people say they want to buy from brands that give them a sense of purpose. Surely a yogurt that helped the needy would be appealing. But Juntos was a failure. Despite sinking millions into a marketing campaign, Danone pulled Juntos from the market only months after it was launched. Now the same product is simply marketed as a tasty yogurt.

What happened? To find the reason behind Juntos’ failure, Lawrence Williams and his colleagues did an experiment where they showed people some products and asked these people to pick one option. They reminded some to focus on the “purposeful and valuable” aspect while others were told to “enjoy themselves” and focus on “delight and pleasure.” They found that participants who prioritized meaning preferred the less expensive product when compared with people who put pleasure in the first place.

So why were meaning-seekers cheaping out? Lawrence Williams asked participants to explain their decision-making to find out. He learned that meaning-oriented people were not thinking about how the product they might buy could bring meaning to their lives. Instead, they were occupied with what else they could do with their money.

I am all for people making wise and strategic financial choices. But cheap products can create many problems. Inexpensive options often do not last as long as the higher-end ones. As a result, we shop more often, which is ultimately worse for our wallets. Plus, that spending pattern can do a greater damage to the environment. Thanks in part to fast fashion, people buy 60 percent more clothing today than they did 15 years ago. The fashion industry alone emits more greenhouse gases than international flights and maritime (海洋的) shipping combined.

So before you dive into your wallet for some deals, try not to fix only on what you are spending or saving. Think carefully about what you are buying, too.

3 . For many consumers, low prices are often equal to cheap products. While everyone loves a good bargain (特价商品), low prices can harm how your product is viewed. Instead of getting a great deal, customers often believe that you get what you pay for. Though everyday low-pricing strategies can work for some companies, they’re not always the best idea for certain lines of business.

Consumer perceptions play a significant role in strategic pricing. Despite all the promotions surrounding great deals, it turns out that cheaper isn’t always better. Research from Vanderbilt University suggests that low prices can backfire because consumers sometimes see them as signs of low-quality products. However, researchers also found that consumers sometimes see low prices as simply good deals. Shoppers’ perceptions depend on what they’re thinking about when deciding whether or not to buy a product.

If consumers come across a low-priced product or service, they may see it as either a good deal or not worth their time and money. How consumers think about price is just as important as the actual price itself.

Consumers rarely have complete information and use various strategies to fill gaps in their knowledge when considering products. One strategy involves using naive theories: informal explanations used by consumers to make sense of their environment. A consumer may perceive an upscale (高档的) company’s prices are too high or assume discount retailers’ (零售店) products are inferior (次的) due to its reputation being associated with lower quality items than other stores selling similar goods.

Companies can influence how customers feel about their low prices by conducting market research and improving marketing strategies focused on highlighting product quality rather than just value alone which tends towards making people rate cheaper products more favorably. When companies focus on the product quality in marketing materials, consumers look more favorably upon more expensive products. However, when companies focus on value, consumers rate cheap products more favorably.

Businesses can also identify their customer base and narrow their marketing efforts to become perceived as a specialist. This leaves customers less likely to question pricing strategies because they trust that the company knows what it’s doing and has done its research into what works best for them.

4 . More and more online shopping platforms now offer consumers a detailed look into products’ historical prices. But how does this information influence buying decisions?

To explore this question, we conducted a series of experiments with a total of more than 5,000 business school students and working adults. We measured the impact of different kinds of price shifts on people’s interest in purchasing products and identified several consistent trends:

First, when consumers saw that the price today was lower than it had been in the past, they were more likely to buy now, because the current price seemed like a good deal.

However, the picture gets more complicated when you consider the frequency of historical price shifts: In our studies, we found that if consumers were shown at least three changes in the same direction, they were likely to assume the price would continue to move in the same direction. While if they were only shown one or two changes in the same direction, they expected the price to change in the opposite direction.

So what does this mean for sellers? It may be tempting to slowly lower the price over time. However, our data shows that this can lead consumers to assume that the price will continue to fall, making them hesitant to buy. But if they just see a single price drop, they ‘re more likely to expect a reversal in the near future, pushing them to buy the product now.

Our findings can also help buyers make more informed decisions about whether and when they choose to make a purchase. As with any irrational bias (非理性的偏见), awareness of the natural tendency to expect trends to continue and single large changes to reverse can help consumers question this assumption before acting on it. Instead of letting this arbitrary (武断的) expectation guide buying decisions, consumers may benefit by doing a bit more research around the underlying factors driving price shifts. Buyers may also benefit from learning more about a product’s longer-term price history, fluctuations (波动), and typical industry-wide price ranges, to avoid being disproportionately influenced by near-term price changes. It’s also always a good idea to think about both how urgent your need for a given product is, and your own risk tolerance for a potential price increase, as this can affect whether it’s worth it for you to wait and see if the price falls.

Of course, there are countless factors that influence both consumers’ decisions around whether and when to buy and sellers’ decisions around how to price their products. But it’s important for both sides to recognize the key role that expectations play in influencing these decisions.

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