我们为什么会觉得星巴克比较便宜？

2013-10-15 11:55:10来源：网络

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　　What's the most you'd pay for a small coffee at Starbucks? $2.50? $3.00?...$3.50?

　　在星巴克你最多会花多少钱买一小杯咖啡呢?2.5美元?3美元?还是3.5美元?

　　That's the question German neuroscientist Kai-Markus Müller set out to answer in a recent study. And he found that we're significantly underpaying for our overpriced coffee — or at least we think we are.

　　Müller, who used to work at Simon, Kucher & Partners, a consulting firm that helps companies figure out how to price their products, is convinced that classic market research is unreliable because subjects don't accurately state how much they would be willing to pay for something.

　　His solution was to look at the part of the brain "that monitors proportionality independent of reason," says Der Spiegel. This patch of grey noodles makes judgments about what goes together, like "coffee and cake," for instance. It decides what doesn't go together, like coffee and a $100 price tag.

　　这是一项德国神经学家Kai-Markus Müller进行的最新调查。他发现我们一直都在用较低的价钱购买我们认为非常超值的咖啡——或者说至少我们是这样认为的。Müller曾经在一个名为Simon, Kucher & Partners的咨询公司工作。这是一个帮助企业进行产品定价的公司。Müller认为传统的市场调查并不可靠，因为被调查者并不会明确的说出他们愿意为一个商品支付多少钱。“他的解决方案是研究大脑中控制原因独立平衡性的区域，” 《明镜周刊》说到。“大脑的这片灰色区域会评价哪些东西比较比配，例如‘咖啡和蛋糕’，哪些东西不匹配，例如一杯咖啡和100美元的定价。”

　　Müller hooked subjects up to EEG brain scanners and showed them several pictures of a small cup of Starbucks coffee. The company sells it for about $2.45 in Europe, but Müller attached different prices to each image.

　　Müller为被调查者脸上脑电波扫描器并向他们展示了几张星巴克咖啡的图片。这杯咖啡在欧洲卖2.45美元，但是Müller为它定了不同的价格。

　　What he found: The brain reacted violently to clearly bad pricing — whether it was 10 cents, or 10 euros. "When the brain was expected to process unexpected and disproportionate prices, feelings of shock, doubt, and astonishment manifested themselves," Müller told the paper.

　　So what was the sweet spot? The subjects' brains were most comfortable in the $2.85 to $3.25 range — a huge margin above what Starbucks is now charging for a cup.

　　他发现：大脑对不合理的定价反应非常剧烈——不管是10美分还是10欧元。“当大脑处理意料之外和不合理价格时，震惊、怀疑和惊讶的情绪都都会用过脑电波表现出来，” Müller向媒体说到。所以哪个价格最合理呢?被调查者的大脑最能接受的价格在2.85美元到3.25美元之间——远高于星巴克现在的定价。

　　"In other words, the company is missing out on millions in profits, because it is not fully exploiting consumers' willingness to pay money," Müller concludes.

　　“换句话说，由于星巴克没有全面的利用消费者的支付意愿，它每年会损失上百万美元的利润，” Müller总结到。

　　Müller's work builds on past studies that use brain scans to try to shed light on the mystery of marketing. For years, a lab called Sands Research in El Paso, Texas, has studied how shoppers make decisions in the real world. For one study, researchers suited subjects up with EEG caps and eye-tracking glasses, and sent them to the supermarket to see how their brains acted while shopping.

　　Müller的调查基于之前的利用脑电波对市场神秘性进行的研究。几年来，美国德克萨斯州厄尔巴索一个名为金沙研究的实验室，一直在研究销售者在现实世界中是怎样做出购买决定的。研究者为被调查人员连上脑电波扫描仪和眼球追踪眼镜，并将他们带到超市中，研究在沟通中他们的大脑是怎样活动的。

　　The researchers found that the "vast majority (76 per cent) of U.S. grocery shoppers make their purchase decisions in-store, and that shoppers using non-cash payment methods are most likely to make impulse purchases," says The Telegraph. "So shelf-placement and in-store marketing are more crucial than ever." Sands Research also uses brain scans to map out the way our brains react to Super Bowl commercials.

　　研究人员发现“绝大多数(76%)的美国人在百货商店购物时在店内做出购买决定，而且使用非现金消费的购物者更容易冲动消费，”《电讯报》说到，“所以商品陈列和店内营销就变得比之前更为重要。”金沙研究还利用脑电波研究出大脑对超级杯广告的反应。

　　Müller's study, however, is the first to directly tap the brain as a pricing tool. And just like with the other studies, our brains had no problem helping the "neuromarketers" out.

　　Müller的研究是首例将脑电波作为定价的工具的科学研究。和其它研究一样，我们的大脑再次成功的帮助通过神经系统反应研究市场的调查者解决了问题。

　　相关词汇：

　　Neuroscientist：神经系统科学家

　　Underpay：少付…价钱，少付…工资

　　EEG：脑电波，脑电图

　　Disproportionate：不成比例的

　　Astonishment：惊讶;令人惊讶的事物

　　Marketing：市场营销

　　impulse purchase：冲动购买，冲动消费

　　pricing tool：定价工具

本文关键字: 星巴克