“I don’t think we need to spend more than 200.”

I was telling my wife this as we discussed a possible new tent for our family camping trip this summer.

“If that! I’ve seen plenty of options for less” she replied.

Our life has changed this year, and while we’ve camped fine in the past, the addition of our new guy (8 weeks old as I write this email) has made a different dynamic.

“What I really want is a great big cabin tent!” She went on.

We’ve never really been “glampers” before …

But camping with kids and a bunch of family at a car camping ground kinda changes things.

And this summer is going to be epic.

I’m turning 40, as is my wife’s older sister. My best friend also turned 40 this year. So we’re gonna do a big family-style camping party with everyone on the coast.

And the little 4-person tent doesn’t cut it anymore for our family of (now) 6.

So we’re shopping.

BUT

We have this baseline thought that we’re gonna buy a big giant tent for our family for like 150-200.

It’s not unreasonable since there are tons of those options online.

So, we discuss what we really want in a tent, and then start looking.

And we find as we research … that everything in our price range isn’t quite right … and most of them have clear quality issues (especially with the wind and rain).

“Hey honey! I found a great one! Look at this … fits 8, does amazing in harsh weather, looks like it can take a beating aaaaand its 2000… damn.”

“Uh. hell no” she says flatly.

“Hah yea, easy no.

Hmm … this one looks interesting, similar build, nice headroom but stands up to wind and weather, space for all the things … only … 800? Eh … that’s a lot more than we were planning to spend.”

“Yea I don’t know about that.”

Back and forth.

After several hours over the weekend of research, looking at youtube videos, reviews, comparisons to alternatives, etc …

We ended up buying a tent to fit us all (and a little more), for 560 all included.

WAY more than the 100-200 we wanted to spend.

But funnily enough, we were happy to spend that amount and get what we wanted.

What changed?

This is where I tell you the answer is "price anchoring"

Except ...

It probably isn't what you think.

Most of the time when I see “price anchoring” discussed, it comes with a predefined sense of “control.”

You price anchor by presenting other similar products of different prices in order to focus your prospect’s attention and make YOUR offer sound really good.

A lot of this is ham-fisted.

“I could sell this for 10k, but for you, it’s only 20!”

(and more elaborate versions of the above)

I’m not into manipulating people.

Part of it is because I just don’t feel good using manipulation, so why act in a way which isn’t in line with who I am and my beliefs?

(Especially since I can get what I want without manipulation)

But part of it is because all of these “tricks” work due to fundamental aspects of our human nature.

And if you can understand fundamentally why tricks like these work, you can understand how to use them without trickery, and likely far more effectively.

Price anchoring is on my mind lately because I’ve seen it pop up in several discussions (probably reticulated activating system at work there.)

​Daniel Throssell (whom you may or may not like … he’s pretty brash in his emails, but I share a lot of similar perspectives) recently wrote to his paid newsletter about price anchoring …

I won’t reveal the whole thing, but I will say what stood out to me was an element of price anchoring he identified which I never thought of before …

The time someone is exposed to a price being relevant.

That is, he postulates the longer you’re exposed to a price, the more likely you are to be susceptible to be anchored to that price.

I thought that made a lot of sense, but felt a little incomplete.

Similar to how “the anchor price has got to be believable”, feels incomplete.

And I realized this weekend, these ideas are two sides of the same coin.

“It’s got to be believable … “ this should beg the question, “how does a price become believable?”

How does ANY idea become believable?

And I think this is where time often comes in.

The longer you sit with and experience a price (or idea), and understand and accept the reasons for that price (or idea), the more obvious and more powerful an anchor it becomes.

I think “time” is a good tool to use, because time allows for a price to sink in, to become real.

But there are other elements at work as well.

Take my tent buying experience, where we happily paid 3x more than we originally wanted to.

My initial price expectation was lower because I saw all the different options around that price range, and they all looked good.

Closer inspection revealed flaws and forced me to widen my search.

I spent multiple hours slowly convincing myself that it didn’t make sense to buy anything less than an 800 value tent, because any construction less than that would be a quality that would cause problems, we’d hate it, and we’d rebuy in the future, likely after a bad camping experience …

(We live and camp in the pacific northwest, which is quite wet for reference, and we also camp in the desert, which is quite hot and windy)

I also have years of camping/backpacking experience, so I know what good quality equipment costs (I just figured since we were car camping, we could save on price by getting heavier/bulkier).

So the longer I sat with, and - IMPORTANTLY - digested and critically thought about the pros/cons/features/qualities of all the options … the higher and higher I got price anchored.

It required more than just time, it required that I accept on a specific level of belief that the value I was searching for was justifiable at a much higher level.

By the time we found the solution we ended up buying, to us it was by a large margin the lowest cost for all the quality and features we wanted …

And yet, 3x higher than what we originally thought we’d spend.

That is the fundamental power driving price anchoring.

How can YOU use this?

Well …

I’m gonna let you sit with that open loop for a bit.

Think about it.

I’ll be back with some ideas for implementation in the future.

In the meantime …

This email came to me yesterday as I was thinking about my buying experience, also having sat with my own open loop on “price anchoring” in general.

And I felt it warranted sharing immediately while MY experience was fresh in mind.

But this is sort of “interrupting” a bunch of other content I’ve been writing and sharing.

We’re still very much in the middle of exploring “Mindshare” …

Here’s what I’ve got coming up:

I wrote the second “down the rabbit hole” on Belief and Liminal Thinking.

As soon as I publish that, I’ll share it with you (and if you haven’t seen the first "Down the Rabbit Hole", I’ll show you how to get that).

I feel this one is important because it’s a deep exploration of fundamentals which inform how Mindshare can be crafted with intention.

BUT

Before I can continue with Mindshare from there …

I must show you some behind-the scenes.

I realized I have this big clear yet incomplete picture of what I’m weaving together here, and I think the process I’m going through will be interesting and useful to you.

We'll go on this adventure together ...

If you’re interested.

Just keep an eye out through the rest of this week as I bring you along.