The bread machine nobody bought that doubled sales anyway
A retailer once launched a new product that flopped completely — and still became one of the most cited pricing stories in marketing.
Williams-Sonoma sold a single home bread maker for years at a steady price. Then the company added a second model: bigger, similar features, priced more than 50% higher. Almost nobody bought the new, pricier machine. But sales of the original one nearly doubled within weeks.
Nothing about the cheaper machine had changed. What changed was the comparison next to it. Before the expensive option existed, the original was the top of the line — a purchase that felt like splurging. Next to a machine 50% pricier, that same purchase reframed itself as the sensible, moderate choice. Researchers call this the decoy effect: an option that sells almost nothing itself can still be the reason a different option sells twice as much.
It shows up everywhere once you look — the $12 movie popcorn that makes the $10 one seem cheap, the middle software tier nobody's supposed to pick. The expensive option isn't failing. It's doing its actual job.