But wait... there's more!

The advert above is an example of an effective advert. This is because it uses the persuasive technique known as the “that’s-not-all” technique. The “that’s-not-all” technique consists of offering a product at a high price, not allowing the customer to respond for a few seconds, then offering a better deal by either adding another product or lowering the price. This is shown in current advert as it promotes the product at £35 throughout the advert until the end where it presents the buy one get one free offer as well.

The effectiveness of this technique was shown in a study by Burger (1986). The experiment was conducted at a psychology club bake sale where no prices were displayed. When the participants approached the bake sale table, they were given one of two responses about the price. Subjects in the “that’s-not-all” condition (30 participants) were told that the cupcakes were 75 cents each. A second experimenter then, without allowing the customer to respond to the price of the cupcake, soon announced that this price also included two cookies. The subjects in the control condition (30 participants) were shown the cookies as soon as they asked about the price of the cupcakes and was immediately told the package of one cupcake and two cookies would be 75 cents. The number of subjects who purchased the package in each condition was recorded. The results showed that significantly more people in the “that’s-not-all” condition purchased the package than those in the control condition. This is shown in Figure 1 below which shows that 75% of the “that’s-not-all” group purchased the package as compared to 40% of the control condition.

Figure 1. A graph showing the amount of participants that purchased the cupcake and two cookie package in each condition.

Therefore, the study above shows that the “that’s-not-all” technique is effective in increasing sales. This is why adding the additional offer of “buy one get one free” on the end of the advert presented above is effective in increasing sales.

Burger, J. M. (1986). Increasing compliance by improving the deal: The that’s-not-all technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 277-283.