Should You Include Your Product or Service’s Price in Your Brochure?

It’s a question marketers have struggled to answer for decades: Should you include your product or service’s price in your advertising, or should you leave it for people to find out after they express an interest in what you’re selling?

Pricing can have a huge psychological impact on consumers, and it can, in turn, have a big impact on the effects of your brochures, signs and other marketing materials. A listed price can improve results sometimes; in other situations, it can ruin them.

In this guide, we’ll share four factors to consider when it comes to including pricing in your brochures, literature displays, signs, advertisements and other marketing materials to help you get the most from your campaign.

Including your price creates a psychological hurdle to overcome

Have you ever been interested in a product only to change your mind upon finding out how much it cost? Pricing can often create a barrier for consumers, but in many cases this barrier can be overcome by not disclosing pricing immediately.

When there’s a significant amount of time between a consumer finding out about your product and discovering its price, they’re more likely to overcome the usual objections to its price than if they had found out its price immediately.

This is particularly true of high-ticket, costly items. There’s a reason luxury goods are never advertised with their price attached – by building desire and anticipation in their target audience, price becomes less of a barrier to making a purchase.

Excluding your price can leave prospective customers guessing

If you’re selling a product that many consumers view as a commodity, excluding the price of your product can leave customers guessing not just to how much it will cost them to buy, but how much it’s worth.

There’s a reason electronic goods are often marketed based on price – in a crowded industry with massive amounts of competition, disclosing the price of a product can increase desire and set your brand apart from the competition.

If your product is viewed as a commodity by consumers or you operate in a highly competitive, crowded industry, including your product’s price in your brochures or advertising can reduce ambiguity and make it more appealing to consumers.

Including your price could cheapen your product’s perceived value

In some cases, including the price of your product could make it seem lower quality than it really is. A classic example of this is in the fashion industry, where products that cost less are routinely thought of as being worth less on a quality basis.

There’s a reason luxury brands never market their products with prices attached – it creates, in many people’s mind, a cheapening effect on the product itself. Including a price brands your product as a commodity rather than as a luxury item.

If you’re selling a high-ticket item or high-end B2B service, it’s often worth leaving the price out from your marketing materials. Not only does this often increase the perceived value of your product, it also encourages people to call and inquire.

Excluding your price can make people assume your product is costly

There can be a downside to excluding your price with goals of increasing perceived value – it also often makes people assume that your product is costly and thus out of their price range.

If your product is competitively priced and affordable, you should think of this as a marketing asset. Excluding it for psychological pricing reasons can discourage many of your prospective customers from taking action due to its perceived expense.

When you’re selling something that’s competitively priced and marketed as a low-cost alternative to its counterparts, it’s vital that you include it’s price. As price is a major part of your value proposition, leaving it out could cost you sales.

Is it a good idea to disclose your produce or service’s price right away?

Depending on your target audience and the type of product or service you’re selling, it can make sense to both include or exclude your price in brochures, retail signage and other marketing materials.

Is your product a high-end, high-priced option? If so, exclude its price and market it as a luxury good. Is your product a low-cost, competitively priced commodity? If so, market it with its price as a prominent aspect of its value to attract a large audience.