Two tee-shirts being sold for $25
Insert Alliteration into Prices
Price Digits

Insert Alliteration into Prices

Customers were more likely to buy two t-shirts for $25 because of the matching “t” sounds.

Alliteration feels good.

Consider the name Coca-Cola.

Reading Coca activates a "c" sound in our brain. Re-encountering this sound in Cola feels easy because of the existing activation of this sound, and we attribute this pleasant sensation to the entity (in this case, Coca-Cola).

You also see this strategy with pricing:

  • Five Dollar Footlong (Subway)
  • Four for $4 (Wendy's)
  • Ten for $10 (Kroger)

Indeed, it works:

  • A $6.00 sundae converted better than a $5.99 sundae
  • Four Flavors $4.00 converted better than Four Scoops $3.99.
  • Two Twix converted better than Two Snickers.
  • 4 Fables $40 converted better than 4 Threybles $39.
  • 9 Neven for $9.00 converted better than 9 Neven for $8.00

(see Davis et al. 2016)

  • Davis, D. F., Bagchi, R., & Block, L. G. (2016). Alliteration alters: Phonetic overlap in promotional messages influences evaluations and choice. Journal of Retailing, 92(1), 1-12.

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