JASON’S SUPER SMART PRICING PSYCHOLOGY TRICK

If there’s ever a product that can demonstrate the massive difference that messaging can make to price sensitivity and how much we're willing to pay for stuff, it’s packaged bread. After all, don't we all just grab the same bread on autopilot every week? (Unless it's for a nice brunch or boujee bits, of course.) So just getting people to consider switching bread brands is no small feat. But to get people to spend more money on bread and then make that bread their new daily bread? That takes some real skills. And Jason’s have got skills and then some. This went straight in the swipe file.

Think of paying £5.30 for a coffee from a petrol station vending machine. Then think of paying £5.30 for a flat white at your local independent coffee shop. One feels like a rip off, the other feels like a treat, right?

That's because our brains judge whether something feels expensive by comparing it to similar products. And that means your messaging can decide what those similar products are.

Jason's are the masters at this. Everything they do revolves around this idea of "proper sourdough". They talk about their 45-year-old mother cultures, 24-hour fermentation, handmade loaves... in everything they write. And this repeatedly shifts our mental comparison away from other packaged loaves and towards the £3.50 freshly baked sourdough from the bakery counter or our local bakery. And suddenly, their £2-something loaf of bread feels like a bargain, not an expensive packaged loaf. That in and off itself is really clever stuff. But then they've added the phrase "everyday obsession". Why? Because "proper sourdough" language alone makes it sound like a weekend treat. Something you buy when guests are coming over. So Jason's balance it with "everyday obsession" which reframes it as an everyday treat, something you can enjoy as a cheese and pickle sandwich and at a fancy brunch. (Therefore, increasing the amount of Jason's people buy.)

It's really clever.

Here's the thing to nick: sometimes, you don't need to justify your price. Sometimes the move is to change the product your customer is mentally comparing you to. If you sell gourmet coffee but your copy is making people compare you to Nescafe, no amount of CRO is going to fix that. But making them compare you to a fancy barista coffee? Now you're cooking. Obviously, there's a lot more nuance to it than that. And far too much nuance to fit here. So if you want to keep digging, we've written a full deep-dive on this, including how to apply it to your own brand over on our blog.