Consumer Choices

     You probably wouldn’t think twice about spending $9.99, but $10? Somehow, that feels different. This post explores a classic marketing concept known as left-digit bias and how it shapes the way consumers perceive value.      Left-digit bias is a cognitive bias in which people place disproportionate weight on the leftmost digit of a price, often underestimating or overlooking the remaining digits. As a result, prices like $2.99 feel meaningfully cheaper than $3.00, and $99.99 feels closer to $90 than $100. Our brains anchor on the “2” or the “9,” rather than fully processing the true numerical difference. In both cases, even though it is one cent, our brains don’t necessarily process prices logically. This effect is often amplified when prices are presented side by side or when consumers are required to make rapid decisions with limited time for deliberation.      This is where left-digit bias becomes especially interesting. A price like...

I am by no means an expert, but I wanted to share some thoughts inspired by my psychology courses. I was first motivated to write this post because of the famous cookie brand, Crumbl. Their cookies have been everywhere on social media, from influencer taste tests of weekly flavors to reports of an everything bagel, flavored cookie. But it got me thinking, how did a small cookie business grow into a nearly $2 billion company with over 1,100 stores nationwide?      For those who aren’t familiar, Crumbl launches a weekly menu with roughly four to five new cookie flavors. In my opinion, this is where their marketing really takes the cake, or should I say cookie :). Each flavor is only available for that week, and after Saturday, customers can no longer try them. This creates a perceived sense of scarcity, triggering a natural urgency to buy. Consumers may place a higher value on cookies they can only try that week, and the scarcity often sparks feelings of FOMO, fear of miss...