Retailers’ belief that customers like a price ending in a nine rather than a rounded-up zero — 199,99 instead of 200,00, for instance — has been borne out by scientific research on a restaurant menu.
Researchers carried out a field study at a small, 22-seat restaurant in Brittany, western France, where customers were given a limited choice of dishes (five pizzas, four of meat, three of fish and four salads).
The team singled out the restaurant’s second-most-popular pizza to see what happened over six weeks, when customers were faced with the option of a rounded-up price or a price ending in a nine.
For the first two weeks, all the items on the menu had zero-ending prices.
For the following fortnight, the price of the ”target pizza” was brought down to €7,99, while the prices of the other dishes still ended in a zero.
For the last two weeks, all the dishes had nine-ending prices.
The popularity of the target pizza rose by about 15% during the test’s second phase, the study showed.
When the item was pitched at €7,99, it became easily the restaurant’s most popular pizza against rivals with zero-ending prices.
It was ordered by 49,5% of customers who ordered a pizza.
But in the first and final phases — when all the dishes had the same price — the target pizza was preferred by 34,1% and 35,9% in pizza orders, respectively.
The paper, by Nicolas Gueguen and Celine Jacob of the University of Southern Brittany in Lorient, appears in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. — Sapa-AFP