Instantly Boost Sales by Leveraging the 'Mooch Factor'
It's not always clear why, but bonuses and BOGOs work every time
Q: What’s better than buying a really cool product you saw on TV?
A: Buying that product and also getting another product for free.
Why? I really don’t know. It’s a quirk of human nature. But I do know the best name for this quirk that I ever heard: the “mooch factor.”
Free stuff isn’t just better for consumers: It’s better for sellers, too. That’s because offering extras reliably increases response and boosts sales. In the trade, we call them “premiums” or “bonuses” — little tchotchkes that come with our product so long as you act now. Here’s an example from our Ultimate Irish Peeler commercial:
That spiralizer is a cheap piece of plastic that costs mere cents to manufacture. Yet customers love it, and it close sales. Ronnie proved that years ago when selling this peeler to live audiences. We continue to prove it in another, simpler way: If the warehouse ever makes the egregious error of not including it in the package, we immediately get a call. Mooches gotta mooch.
Fred Vanore, founder of Blue Moon Studios, is one of the first DRTV producers I worked with and learned from in the business. He is also the one who came up with the phrase “mooch factor.” In a May 2010 presentation at a symposium we did together, he explained the principal underlying this humorous label:
The tale shouldn’t wag the dog, but sometimes it does. A bonus can change a campaign. It will not make someone who doesn’t want your product actually buy it — but it will take people off the fence.
Fred and I knew this to be true because we had worked on more than one campaign together where a bonus transformed an unworkable CPO (or CPA for non-DRTV folks) into a workable one, leading to a rollout that never would have happened otherwise.
These days, bonuses are rare. About a decade ago, most DRTV practitioners switched to ‘buy one, get one’ (BOGO) offers. Now, you may wonder: Just because people like one of something, does that really mean they will respond favorably to two of the same thing? The “mooch factor” predicts they will, and history has proved it right. BOGOs work when the second one is “absolutely free.” They work when the second one is “free, just pay processing and handling.” They work when the second one is “free, just pay a separate fee.” And they even work when the second one is only half free (i.e. 50% off).
Last week, I talked about the last 30 seconds of a DRTV commercial being that time when we move from selling on emotion to justifying the purchase with rationalizations. Free things that aren’t really free is another great example. Yet it works. Every. Single. Time.
After the break, I’ll show you a few current applications of the “mooch factor” from this week’s top campaigns. I’ll also give my take on a new trend: Some DR marketers have dropped bonuses and BOGOs altogether. Is that a good move? Stay tuned.
Chart Watch👁️
Piezano
Pitch: “Make the world’s most delicious pizza with real stone right in your home”
Offer: 3 pay of $49.99 with free shipping
Brand: GraniteStone
Marketer: E. Mishan & Sons (🏆 2022 True Top Marketer)
Producer: Hutton Miller (🏆 2022 True Top Producer)
Premium subscribers learned about this project in early September. It is now #20 on the DRMetrix. Here’s what I wrote back then:
Kudos to whomever named this product. Clever and amusing! As the industry’s self-proclaimed historian, I also appreciated “set it, and let it …” An inside joke to be sure, but it made me smile. A less creative (and less ethical) writer would have simply stolen the classic Ron Popeil line.
As for the product, I’m not sure about the market for these items. On the low end, no pizza item has ever done well enough to get anyone excited because it’s just too easy and inexpensive to order a pizza. On the higher end, there’s more of a case to be made. I see several fancy ‘patio pizza ovens’ at Home Depot and online from brands such as Solo Stove and Blackstone. Here, the market shrinks considerably. But for people who enjoy the idea of taking the time to make homemade pizza, this commercial will no doubt resonate — and it can be used indoors.