£125 for a snowdrop

We went to a snowdrop exhibition last weekend.

It was at Michael Heseltine’s house and he collects them. They have over 900 varieties.

I like a snowdrop as much as the next person, but I am not convinced about the differences between them.

They had some trestle tables by the car park and were selling the snowdrops in little pots and my wife wanted to buy some.

It was interesting to witness the psychology when we saw the price.

The first few pots we saw were around £35-45 which I didn’t expect.

As we continued to look, some were £85 and there were a few for £120 and £125.

The amazing thing was that they all looked the same and if you jumbled up the prices, there is no way you could tell which ones were more expensive.

It was fascinating to see that when we found one for £15, we thought we’d got a bargain, in fact we bought two!!

If you saw a snowdrop in a garden centre for £15, there is no way you would buy it.

This is called price anchoring and is a technique to have a higher price option which makes the other options look more reasonable.

It is commonly used on the wine menu in restaurants and high end cars makers do it like Porsche and Ferrari by having a very expensive model which makes the normal models look like a bargain!

I don’t know if this is something that you can implement in your practice. If you deal with self pay patients, is there a range of packages that you could offer to enhance the experience or give different levels of support and aftercare, eg access to a private WhatsApp group or a series of videos or virtual consultations post procedure with yourself or a colleague eg physio, dietician, yoga instructor?

Having a higher price package will not only enhance the experience that those patients who enroll in it will get (and there will always be someone who will want the £125 snowdrop), but will also anchor your standard package to make it look more appealing.