Andy Chalk said:
Consumers have a much easier time seeing value in bigger expansions that cost money than they do in small freebies, Bach explained, although he pointed out that DICE will nonetheless continue to put out free DLC in the future. "It's just fascinating," he said. "Consumers are not used to getting things. There are no free lunches, and people get very suspicious when they get something for free."
It
is pretty interesting, and I think it demonstrates how easily the human mind can be manipulated. (I'm not saying that's what they've done here, just that it is an example of these principles at work.)
If you increase someone's
perceived value of an item, their brains occupy themselves with finding ways to explain that perception. They'll fill in blanks, emphasize small benefits, and so on. It's a result of something called "cognitive dissonance."
Our brains tend not to like this dissonance--for instance, spending a lot of money on something and being disappointed. Your subconscious tries to reconcile this disparity (what you paid vs. what it is actually worth) by retroactively altering one or the other. Usually, it means making a bigger deal out of the good points of the purchase, in order to "defend" the amount of money spent.
Of course, it also works preemptively. If you're asking someone for a favor--say, asking them to let you skip in line at the copier--and you practically
beg them, like it's the biggest favor in the world? They'll probably let you go. And not just to be polite, either. By
acting like it's a tremendous feat, you can actually increase the perceived value of the favor--they'll do it and feel like a hero.
Subtle manipulation in just the
framing of a request or marketing technique makes a huge difference in how it's received by quite a few buyers. Funny enough, the smarter customers are sometimes
more susceptible--think they're too smart to fall for it, they'll let their guards down, and they're also faster and more creative and finding explanations (justifications) for behaviors.
It scares me a little how easily advertising can control people in subtle ways like this, especially if it begins at an early age. And funny little anomalies like this are just little pop-up reminders that it's still happening.
