When two equally functioning laptops — one visually attractive, the other less so — were priced at $600, research participants were pretty much evenly split over which to choose; but when the computers were priced at $599, 85pc chose the attractive one, says a team led by Jungsil Choi of Cleveland State University in Ohio. The reason is that a price ending in ‘99’ conveys a discount image.

(Source: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, Sep 15th, 2014