Organizations will always come up with ways to encourage buying more (or paying a higher price), but the strategies are a moving target because a given market will learn and adjust (albeit slowly). I would argue that the MRSP "trick" no longer works because almost no one expects to pay it anymore.<p>Using some of these tactics could backfire depending on how educated or savvy your target market is. Think of spam messages, those over the top tactics used to work on more people, now for most educated people that type of hard sell doesn't work.<p>Of course it all depends on the target market, if you're selling blankets with arms the bar is a little lower.
My very first customer was the boss of a friend of mine. I asked my friend what his boss was willing to pay. "It doesn't matter," my friend replied, "Just charge him 50% more than what you really want and let him negotiate you down. As long as he thinks he's getting something from you, he'll be happy, and you'll get whatever you want." Great advice.
the impression of utility is more important than actual utility. what does the extremely high priced option (50k in the example) signal to the customer? that someone out there is deriving 50,000 + x value from that service.
"My hunch is that most companies could increase revenue by simply adding a very high-end offering, even if they never sell a single one of those expensive units."<p>This strikes a parallel to something 37Signals once said, many moons ago, though I believe I had misinterpreted their point. When they said it (or when I read it,) I assumed it meant that you should definitely throw a premium option out there because there are some people who always buy the premium option... even those who wouldn't consider buying a less-than-premium option.<p>It honestly never occurred to me that its primary purpose is to make the other prices look smaller by comparison.