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Business
商业报道
The psychology of discounting
打折心理学
Something doesn't add up
就是算不对
How marketers can take advantage of consumers'innumeracy
且看营销人员如何利用数学盲消费者
WHEN retailers want to entice customers to buy a particular product, they typically offer it at a discount.
零售商想吸引顾客购买某种特别商品时，典型做法就是打折促销了。
According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Marketing, they are missing a trick.
但是，一项发表在《市场营销杂志》的新研究则说明了他们并未统揽全局，掌握所有窍门。
A team of researchers, led by Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, looked at consumers'attitudes to discounting.
以明尼苏达大学卡尔森管理学院的阿卡什·劳为首的调查小组研究了消费者对打折的态度。
Shoppers, they found, much prefer getting something extra free to getting something cheaper.
他们发现，购物者们更喜欢赠品胜过打折品。
The main reason is that most people are useless at fractions.
主要原因在于多数人对分数运算束手无策。
Consumers often struggle to realise, for example, that a 50% increase in quantity is the same as a 33% discount in price.
比如，消费者们常常很难意识到，加量50%就等同于折扣33%。
They overwhelmingly assume the former is better value.
绝大多人都以为前者更划算。
In an experiment, the researchers sold 73% more hand lotion when it was offered in a bonus pack than when it carried an equivalent discount.
在一次实验中，调查者们出售手霜，一种是带赠品的，另一种是打折品，两者价值相当，但是结果前者多售出73%。
This numerical blind spot remains even when the deal clearly favours the discounted product.
即便当买打折品明显更划算时，人们还是无法走出数字盲区。
In another experiment, this time on his undergraduates, Mr Rao offered two deals on loose coffee beans:
另一次实验在本科生中展开，Rao先生出售散装咖啡豆时提供两种选择：
33% extra free or 33% off the price.
赠送33%或者折扣33%。
The discount is by far the better proposition,
打折远远更加划算，
but the supposedly clever students viewed them as equivalent.
但那些本以为十分聪明的学生们却认为两种促销都是一样的。
Studies have shown other ways in which retailers can exploit consumers'innumeracy.
根据学生们的反映，零售商们发现了其他方式来利用消费者对数字上的不敏感。
One is to befuddle them with double discounting.
比如利用二次折扣来迷惑他们。
People are more likely to see a bargain in a product that has been reduced by 20%, and then by an additional 25%, than one which has been subject to an equivalent, one-off, 40% reduction.
人们觉得一件商品如果先打8折再打75折，那肯定比一次性打6折要划算。
Marketing types can draw lessons beyond just pricing, says Mr Rao.
Rao先生说，这不仅对营销手段的价格方面有所启发，其他方面也是如此。
When advertising a new car's efficiency, for example, it is more convincing to talk about the number of extra miles per gallon it does, rather than the equivalent percentage fall in fuel consumption.
比如，在宣传新车效率时，引用每加仑汽油多跑的英里数要比引用减少的耗油量的比值要更有说服力。
There may be lessons for regulators too.
这对监管者也有所启示。
Even well-educated shoppers are easily foxed.
即便是受过良好教育的购物者也很容易被骗。
Sending everyone back to school for maths refresher-courses seems out of the question.
我们不可能让每个人都重新回到数学课堂。
But more prominently displayed unit prices in shops and advertisements would be a great help.
但如果商店和广告上能更清楚地标明单价的话必定可以帮上大忙。
