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Consumers are Predictably Irrational... are they?
I was intrigued when I read Dan Ariely’s pathbreaking book ‘Predictably Irrational’. I thought only a few consumers may behave that way and I wanted to test it.
I went to a nearby Supermarket and stood at the end of the isle selling soaps and detergents. I noticed that most consumers preferred to pick up a bundled pack over singles. This is completely rational, isn’t it? Bundled packs do offer discounts over single packs.
Do they? I wanted to check it out. I was shocked to find that in nearly half of such bundled packs, consumers ended up paying more than if they had bought the same number of units in singles! This was quite revealing in terms of shopper behaviour. Discounting of bundled packs is not only expected, but even taken for granted… so much so that most consumers didn’t even bother to check the pricing. They blindly picked up the bundled packs, being sure that it would be at a discount.
So, consumers are irrational and predictably so. If you are a consumer, do check the price of bundles versus singles. And if you are a marketer, well… do leverage this intriguing consumer behaviour!