Heuristics Series Part 3: Value Perception

In part 3 of our heuristics blog series we explore value perception, and the strategies marketers can use to influence online shopper behaviour. 

In case you missed them, earlier blogs in the series covered scarcity and complementarity - both powerful purchase motivators.

Value Perception

As you know, heuristics are the mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that our brains use to simplify decision-making and problem-solving processes. The ‘value perception’ heuristic is our quick-thinking bias that deals with how we value something, how we take things for granted, and how our value perception changes when we see things differently.

Marketers can manipulate this bias with positioning and advertising tactics that change the way consumers think about a product and therefore the value of it. Check out this clever example from cereal brand Shreddies which achieved an 18% increase in sales.

Ideally these creative tactics would result in a perceived value increase of course - but if misjudged, you could potentially risk causing a negative impact on value perception, and see sales go down instead of up.

In online shopping, value perception strategies can be observed in many different formats, such as:

• Gift card offers as a reward for purchase.
• Spinning wheels after purchase - to get a free item or a special offer on your next order.
• Free gifts and brand partnerships - check out the complementarity blog for more on this.
• Exclusivity / scarcity - where an item is made to look more valuable because its a limited edition or available only to certain groups. Overlays with countdown timers can be used to create a sense of urgency too - and we often see conversion rates increase by around 10% when testing against standard overlays, so they can be highly effective.

Rather than being based on true monetary or production value, a shopper’s value perception about the worth of an item is often based on a feeling. So online marketers can try to leverage this by creating fun or innovative ways to add value in the consumer’s mind.

Our next blog will focus on the relevancy heuristic.

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