How to give a discount by doubling your price

WHEEEEWEEE.

I’m in the garden today. Hot. Prepping for a summer solstice party.

But I took a quick siesta to tell you about a really cool product that I use almost daily during Portland’s 2.5 week-long summer.

First of all, it’s the finest in aaaaaall the world. And, it’s guaranteed for life. (The company that makes this product even replaces it for free … if it ever wears out.)

It also …

• Floats, so you can use it as an identifier tag on the river.

• Repels rain, so you can get out there in the garden when it’s dumping down.

• Blocks UV rays, so you can stay protected if you forget your daily SPF.

• Even comes with a space to write your name and phone number, in case you ever lose it in battle or need to remember your name and phone number because you’re like 10-Second Tom.

Now — despite not knowing yet what this product is — you’d have to agree that it packs a pretty good punch and … depending on what it is, it would command a pretty pretty penny, right?

Well, the truth is that this product is just simply a polyester, wide brimmed hat from a company called Tilley Endurables. It cost me about $60 when I bought it a few years back.

Most hats, I think, cost around $30. This is almost double the price — and yet, it feels like I’m getting an absolute bargain.

I call this trick “multi-use theory.”

It differs from just listing out features, in that you are taking the product you’re selling and giving it myriad different uses and situations.

In other words, you contextualize the features of your product in real-world scenarios — which not only helps your reader paint a mental picture of using the product, but it also increases the perceived value of said product. Which makes the final cost negligible, even if it’s double.

Increase the use-case scenarios » give a “mental” discount.

This works just as well, in my opinion, for physical products as it does information products.

The formula is simple: Take your product’s existing feature, and apply it to an unrelated scenario, possibly in an entirely different market or use-case altogether.

It certainly sold me on this hat back in the day, but I’ve also seen it used in info products, toys, and even books.

Alright, that’s all I have for you today. Now I’m gonna go use my hat to scoop ice, and maybe later, I’ll use it to gather berries.

Bye bye!

— David