The Economist

The Economist's decoy: a pointless option lifted premium subs 200-300%

The Economist offered digital-only, paper-only, and paper-plus-digital, with the last two at the same price. Almost nobody bought paper-only, but its presence made paper-plus-digital look free and shifted subscribers toward the bundle that carries more valuable ad circulation.

“Paper only, paper plus digital, and digital only. And paper only and paper plus digital were the same price. So you looked at that and your mental frame was, if I get the paper version, I'm getting the digital one for free. Vanishingly few people ordered paper only. Now, if you remove the paper only one, so you effectively, you had digital or digital plus paper, Vanishingly few people chose the one in the middle, but the presence of the middle option increased by about 200 or 300% the number of people who subscribed to paper plus digital instead of digital.”

Steal thisAdd a deliberately worse option priced next to your premium tier to make the premium tier look like a free upgrade.