For a long time, our family’s favourite salt came in either 125g or 250g boxes. Last week I noticed the supermarket now stocks it in a 55g refillable mill. It’s the same product in different packaging—except for the price that is. It costs 37 cents per 10g when you buy the salt boxed, and $1.45 for 10g when you buy it in the mill.

Most people would argue that nobody in their right mind will pay almost four times as much for the same product in different packaging. And yet they do. We do! All the time.

We pay more money for convenience and status. We go out of our way to buy products that align with our sense of identity. We place just as much value, if not more, on how something feels than on how well it works.

Often, the key question when it comes to pricing and value isn’t how much is it worth, or what will people pay. It’s, what’s the story the customer is telling himself about what the product is worth to him, and why?

Once we know that, we’ll tell a better story.

Image by Aaron Thomas