

The Snickers Trick - jsomers
http://jsomers.net/blog/the-snickers-trick

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javery
So Snickers is actually subsidizing the sales of the other products with their
marketing, it sounds like they should adjust their pricing or add some minimum
inventory levels.

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run4yourlives
It's a loss leader. Remember, the manufacturer is Mars, Inc. They'd prefer you
buy the higher margined product too, because most likely they make that as
well.

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mark-t
Why don't they just increase their margins on the thing that people actually
want?

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tdonia
before someone gets up from their desk and walks down the hall, Mars is able
to sell that person the idea of a 50cent Snickers. While this is not
completely realistic - many times that snickers slot will be empty - it's
enough to convince someone to get out of their chair, walk down the hall and
'check' the machine. At the machine, they've not only decided that they
probably want something, they've begun to exert effort to achieve their goal.
Upon finding the machine out of snickers, they either have to walk back
disappointed (and now maybe slightly hungry, by suggestion) or they can get
some other similarly priced snack to fulfill the need they created for
themselves.

If, instead, at the beginning of the decision tree it was a 75cent guaranteed
snickers bar then it would be a simple, rational decision - do i want to pay
75cents for this? The argument the marketing department makes is that there
are are fewer people who rationally want that 75cent snickers bar vs. the
people who can be sold on the dream of a 50cent snickers bar (that strangely
looks and tastes more like a high-margin cookie).

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delackner
And then there are people like me, who are hungry and desperate for _real
food_ (not milk chocolate and corn syrup) who pass by a vending machine,
despair at every single product on offer, and just drink some water.

Happy that I live somewhere where "fast food" includes very very healthy
options (like made-that-day rice balls with red beans).

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mrtron
[citation needed]

