I found this post in today’s “You’ve Cott Mail” on subscription options very intriguing.   I like the value-added strategy behind it, though the author’s spin on it as “a decoy offer” is a bit negative.

Anyone have experience with offering these 3 types of membership options?  Would love to hear about your results.

Many thanks to Thomas Cott for providing food for thought each day, and to article author Steve Cuno.

Commentary: A ‘decoy offer’ can make consumers spend more

Steve Cuno, writing for Deliver Magazine, June 18, 2010

An international magazine offered three subscription options. Option A: For a modest price, you could have the online edition. Option B: For about twice as much, you could have the printed edition instead. Option C: For the same price as the printed edition alone, you could have both the printed and online edition.  If you think that no fool would choose Option B, according to one test, it more than pulls its weight. Just not in the way you might expect.  Option B is what behavioral economists call a decoy offer. Rather than attempt to garner sales of its own, Option B’s effect seems to be to draw attention away from the less-costly Option A and convince you that C is a heckuva deal that is not to be missed.  In tests omitting Option B, 68% of respondents preferred the lower-priced Option A, with just 32% preferring Option C.  Adding Option B to the lineup literally turned that result on its head. Now 84% chose the higher-priced Option C. No one chose Option B. It appears that Option B played a crucial role of leading people who would normally spend less … to see the value of spending more.  When direct marketers test a succession of offers, the idea is to learn which one will win the greatest number of customers. By contrast, a decoy can increase total spend among customers you already have. This can be especially useful if you happen to have saturated your market.