"Round Up": an Ingenious Strategy

“Round Up”: an Ingenious Strategy

26 January 2010 198 views Comments

Often, while checking out at a store I’m asked, “Would you like to donate a dollar to ______?”

For the longest time, I said “yes” to almost every one because I felt too bad to say “no” and I truly want to help everyone…until I realized I was donating a small fortune each year, so I stopped (for the most part).

kroger However, while at Kroger last week, I said “yes”…because I found their strategy to be incredibly smart (and they really sold me). And for that reason, I’d like to highlight it in this post.

Instead of donating a dollar, I was asked if I wanted to round my change up to the nearest dollar and donate it. Amazingly simple concept yet so ingenious!

If you’ve ever worked in the restaurant business, you know people *LOVE* whole numbers. How many times have you gotten a tip of $5.32???

Plus, a dollar can sometimes seem like a lot, whereas $.57 might be a little easier to give up.

So while each person actually donates less than a dollar, I’m assuming that more people agree to donate…and thus, more money for the charity! Love it!

So visit your nearest Kroger and “round up”! Did I mention the money is going to help the victims in Haiti? Great cause, great strategy. Well done, Kroger!

Tony Ruiz

Its amazing the results you get when you change the way you say something. Great strategy on Kroger's part.

Nicole VanScoten

I agree! It's funny to think about how our minds work and how certain wording makes us act a different way. It's all marketing I guess ;) Can you think of any other examples like this?

Tony Ruiz

I agree. I was at a restaurant, the waiter impressed our whole table and was very informative. At the end off the night he gave us the receipt and mentioned that the suggested tip was included on the receipt but he made it clear it was only a suggestion and we are welcome to cross it off. Our table was so impressed with his work and being so up front about the suggested tip that we gave him more than the receipt suggested. I thought about it throughout the night and totally knew it was all part of his strategy, it was simply brilliant. How about you? Do you have any other examples?

Nicole VanScoten

Very good example! I wish I had used that trick when I was a server back in college ;)

I was trying to think of my examples, and I actually thought of a reverse example that relates to this. I notice a lot of the time, when people are raising money for a charity, they don't say anything. I think in general, people are more likely to give when there's some element of communication there. If someone is standing somewhere collecting money without saying a word to anyone, I think they're often easier for people to ignore. It seems like communication is step 1 and then step 2 is the strategy we talked about. Don't you think?

Tony Ruiz

Thats an interesting point. I think they rely on "social proof." When people see that other people already left money for the charity they expect people to want to donate. Perhaps if they said a few words they can get a better rate of donations.

Nicole VanScoten

Very good point...and I'm sure they still raise a good amount of money by doing what they're doing. However, I always wonder if they could make more doing it just a little bit differently? Hmmm...