pricing strategies vs ask structures

I realize that this is a bit off topic for online fundraising but as it does strike right at the meat of annual giving programs - how much to ask for - I think that it fits.

Yesterday I read an article in Bloomsberg Businessweek about what Apple is - a tech or a design company with the author concluding that Apple is a pricing company. That's right, what they sell most is pricing. The example used to demonstrate this is the I-pod Touch, recently released with three price points. Each of those prices is above the price of the I-phone, that by the way does all of the same things as the touch plus has the little bonus of making phone calls.

They manage to do this by using pricing decoys, reference prices, bundling and obscurity. The final two clearly only work with physical product but the first two can be used in establishing buy in to ask amounts within an array.

Pricing tools can be used to establish a gift level that you want them to give at in the following manner - ask high and provide a reason for them to give that is real but not likely to be successful then follow with an ask that is what you actually want them to do accompanied by a reason for giving that is highly motivating.

Take a look at your ask structure and the support for each amount - have you tried to structure it like that? If so, let us know if it worked, if not, give it a shot - it works for Apple!