# How buyers read a price > Reference prices, anchors, the middle plan, per-month framing and charm prices: what the evidence says and the honest version of each. - Course: [Pricing: Set, Package and Raise Your Prices](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing.md) - Module: How do we show the price honestly? - Lesson 17/32, ~25 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/how-buyers-read-a-price ## A page full of tricks **Alex Tutor:** You're on Klasna's growth team, looking after the price list with Nazar. You've already set floors, ceilings and what each plan includes; this module is about how the price is shown. **Nazar:** I'm redrawing the price page for January. I've read about tricks: end every price in 9, add a VIP plan nobody buys so the rest look cheap, show the Club per month. Which ones work? **Sofia:** Do they work, or are they allowed? Those are two different questions. **Alex Tutor:** Both matter. Buyers rarely judge a price on its own; they compare it with a **reference price**: what they paid last time, what the alternative costs, or a number we put next to ours. **Alex Tutor:** A parent who paid 620 a lesson last spring reads 650 as a rise, whatever the page says. A parent coming from a private tutor at 750 reads the same 650 as a saving. **Alex Tutor:** Check that before we look at Nazar's list. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a parent who paid 620 UAH a lesson last spring and a parent coming from a private tutor at 750 will read Klasna's new 650 the same way. **Alex Tutor:** So every trick on your list is one move: choosing which reference the buyer sees. The honest version shows a real one. The dishonest version invents one. > **Exercise:** Nazar wants a reference price next to NMT Sprint (12,400 UAH for eight weeks). Which one is honest to show? ## Anchors and the middle plan **Alex Tutor:** The first number someone sees pulls their sense of "expensive" towards it. That is an **anchor**. On a price page, the anchor is whatever sits first: on the left, or at the top. **Nazar:** Our English packages: 8 lessons for 5,200, 16 for 9,920, 32 for 18,560. Most families take the 16. **Alex Tutor:** That's the **middle-option effect**: with three real choices, many people pick the middle one as a safe compromise. It's honest when every plan is something families actually buy, and the middle one genuinely fits most of them. **Nazar:** And my VIP plan? 32 lessons with a "personal manager" at 900 a lesson. Nobody would buy it, but the 16 would look like a bargain. **Alex Tutor:** Then it's a decoy, built to mislead rather than to sell. If you wouldn't be glad when someone buys it, it doesn't belong on the page. A real top plan is fine: something a family might want and Klasna can deliver. **Alex Tutor:** Name what Nazar's VIP plan really is. > **Exercise:** Klasna's English packages are 8 lessons for 5,200, 16 for 9,920 and 32 for 18,560; most families take the 16. Nazar wants to add a “VIP” 32-pack with a personal manager at 900 a lesson, which he expects nobody to buy, so the 16 looks like a bargain. What is this plan? **Sofia:** And the savings? Should the page say how much the bigger packages save per lesson? **Alex Tutor:** Yes, if it's measured against a price Klasna really charges. The 8-pack is on sale every day, so it's a fair comparison. Work out the 32-pack's saving per lesson. > **Exercise:** Klasna's English packages: 8 lessons for 5,200 UAH, 16 for 9,920, 32 for 18,560. By how much does the English 32-lesson package save per lesson against the 8-lesson package? In % of the 8-pack's price per lesson, to two decimals. ## Per month, per week **Nazar:** Now the Club. "From 360 a month" looks much nicer than 4,320 a year. **Alex Tutor:** Both are true, so ask what the buyer will end up believing. The annual plan is paid at once: 4,320 today. If the page shouts "360 a month" and hides the single payment, a parent expects a monthly charge and gets a 4,320 one. **Alex Tutor:** First, the honest comparison in numbers. > **Exercise:** The Club costs 450 UAH a month on the monthly plan, or 4,320 UAH paid once for a year. By what percentage is the annual plan cheaper than twelve monthly payments? In %, to two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** The honest version: "4,320 a year, paid once: 360 a month, 1,080 less than twelve monthly payments of 450." The per-month figure helps people compare; the total tells them what will leave their card. **Sofia:** Same for NMT Sprint? 12,400 for eight weeks is 1,550 a week. **Alex Tutor:** Same rule. "1,550 a week" is honest only if "12,400, paid up front" is just as visible. Splitting a price helps people compare. Hiding the total misleads them. > **Exercise:** Which Club price block is honest **and** still makes the annual plan attractive? ## The nine at the end **Nazar:** And the nines? 649 instead of 650, 12,399 instead of 12,400? **Alex Tutor:** The evidence is mixed. In some settings people read 649 as "six hundred and something", the **left-digit effect**, and buy a little more. In others the effect is small or absent. Nobody can promise you a number for Klasna. **Alex Tutor:** Round prices send a message too: easy to remember, calm, confident. For a school that sells parents' trust, 650 may read better than 649. And 12,399 saves a family one hryvnia. **Alex Tutor:** So it isn't the big lever. What the price is compared with, and whether the total is clear, matter far more. If you want to know, test it like any price change: on revenue. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** ending prices in 9 reliably raises sales by a known percentage, so Klasna should switch 650 to 649. ## Every tactic has a twin **Nazar:** Let me sum up: reference prices, anchors, the middle plan, per-month figures, nines. Each one can be used well or badly. **Alex Tutor:** Yes, and the test is short: would the buyer feel tricked if they saw how the page was built? A real alternative, a middle plan people need, a monthly figure next to the total: nobody feels tricked. **Sofia:** And an invented "value 15,000" next to the Sprint, or a plan nobody is meant to buy? **Alex Tutor:** They fail it, and the next lessons show they can break consumer rules too. Persuasion that shows real options is selling; persuasion that invents them is a **dark pattern**. > **Exercise:** Match each tactic with its **honest** use. ## Your turn: the Club block **Nazar:** Write me the Club price block for the January page: monthly and annual. And I want the annual plan to look attractive. **Alex Tutor:** Attractive and true. Show what each plan costs, when it is charged, and the comparison that makes the annual plan worth it. **Sofia:** So: the total, how often it is charged, the per-month figure as a helper, and the saving against paying monthly. **Alex Tutor:** And no invented "was" price. 450 a month is a price Klasna charges every day, so comparing with it is fair. > **Exercise:** Write the Club price block for the January page (3–5 short lines): the monthly and the annual plan, what is charged and when, and one honest comparison that makes the annual plan attractive. The Club costs 450 UAH a month on the monthly plan, or 4,320 UAH paid once for a year. > **Key ideas** > > - Buyers judge a price against a **reference price**: what they paid before, the alternative, or a number on the page. Choose a real one. > - The first number seen works as an **anchor**; the **middle-option effect** is real. Use them with plans people actually buy, never with a decoy. > - Per-month or per-week figures help comparison only next to the total and the moment it is charged: 4,320 paid once is 360 a month. > - Savings are honest when measured against a price charged every day: the English 32-pack saves 70 UAH (10.77%) a lesson against the 8-pack. > - Charm prices have modest, mixed evidence; round prices can read as calm and confident. Test, don't assume. > - The test for every tactic: would the buyer feel tricked if they saw how the page was built? **Alex Tutor:** Next time: the total price up front. What a family really pays, with fees, currency and renewals, and how easy it is to leave. - Previous lesson: [Case: redesign Klasna Club for 2027/28](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/club-redesign-case.md) - Next lesson: [The total price up front](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/the-total-price-up-front.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.