Deconstructing "Buy 1

Deconstructing "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!"

James R. Rosenfield

September 2004

For at least a hundred years now, "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" has performed better than "2 for the Price of 1!" If the ancient Phoenicians had had these formulations, I'm sure the results would have been the same.

The offers are identical. Why, then, does one consistently out-achieve the other?

Three reasons: "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" is more iconic, directive, and effortless than its near twin.

• Iconic

Icons are symbolic communications recognized immediately and involuntarily by the right hemisphere of the brain. They can be grouped into graphic icons (logos, pictures of people); numerical icons ($49.95 looks considerably cheaper than $50.00, that's why retail pricing works); verbal icons (short words such as "new, now, yes"); and personal icons (golf clubs to a golfer).

Conscious use of icons gets the message across faster. In fact, without icons you won't get your message across at all.

Note that I have written "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" using the numeral "1," rather than the word "One." Reason: Numerals, especially small ones, are right hemisphere. Never use the verbal form of a number, because that moves the communication into the left hemisphere.

Note also that I have written "FREE" entirely in upper case, and followed it with an exclamation point. Capital letters are bigger than lower case letters. To the right hemisphere, bigger is better. Punctuation marks are iconic, not read but rather registered. An exclamation point connotes enthusiasm. (I am baffled by art directors who insist on ending headlines with a period/full stop, which literally tells the right hemisphere to skip the body copy.)

There is no word in the English language more iconic than "FREE." The presence of "FREE" alone can explain the greater effectiveness of "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" But wait.there's more.

• Directive

Ever notice that people have a benign tendency to do what they're told, as long as you're not ude or hostile about it? It's our herd instinct. We are pack animals, after all, social as honeybees. We like to be agreeable, unless we are talking on mobile phones.

The short directive verbs, themselves verbal icons, give the "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" phrase much more power than the relatively passive, lifeless "2 for the Price of 1."

Declarative sentences are the dullest things you can write, and "2 for the Price of 1" is a declarative sentence.

If you have ever created direct mail, you know the power of language such as "See inside" on the outside of an envelope. The recipient doesn't process these kinds of mild imperatives intellectually. It's more of an automatic response.

Another virtue of "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!": It incorporates the benefit of buying, which is "getting." People buy not to spend money, but for gratification. "2 for the Price of 1!" omits this more-or-less subliminal, but hugely important, connotation. "Price" lacks the idea of gratification embedded in the "Buy-Get" dyad.

• Effortless

No one wants to do unnecessary work. With the exception of the occasional obsessive/compulsive, people are economical in the expenditure of energy. "Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" is as clear and explicit as a bell pealing in the midday heat of a tropical village. "2 for the Price of One!" requires just a bare modicum of interpretation and calculation, no more than a split second's worth, but this is enough to weaken the offer substantially.

"Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!" is about as good as you get when it comes to any physical product. One thing so far is missing, though: A time limit.

"Buy 1 - Get 1 FREE!..............Act Now! Offer Expires September 15."

That's about perfect. We've already sung the phrases of the first part of this. "Act Now!" combines two iconic words and the iconic exclamation point. "Act" is a strong directive verb. "September 15" gives the expiration credibility by being explicit. A specific date is much more believable in a deadline than "Offer Expires in 2 Weeks" or (worst of all) "Offer Expires Soon."

Discount plus time limit equals the strongest possible offer for a physical product. This mode of articulation adds strength onto strength onto strength.

I've concentrated on a close analysis of an ostensibly hackneyed offer. It's of course not hackneyed at all. Immature marketers, not yet bruised by reality, bristle at what they regard as clichés: the word "FREE," retail pricing, the whole panoply of techniques that in fact work time after time, year after year, until they become burnished into a sort of eternal effectiveness that only the foolish and inexperienced look at with contempt.