The Hindu Business Line : Watch out for the foot in the door

Consider this. A stranger approaches you inside a mall. After some small-talk, she asks you how you feel about the victims of natural disasters. When you say that your heart pains for them, she asks you to sign a petition which demands that big companies should help such victims. You agree.

And, just as you ink your name on the paper, she asks if you would be willing to buy a ticket for a concert being held to raise money for these victims. The ticket is high-priced, yet you buy one because you are a victim of the “foot-in-the-door” principle. What is it?

This principle refers to a strategy that makes you agree to a bigger request by first setting you up with a smaller one. Signing the petition in the above case is a small request, which is then followed by a bigger request — buying the ticket.

Since you agreed to sign a petition, it would be difficult for you not to buy the concert ticket. The idea is to actually make you buy the ticket — the petition is incidental.

Marketing professionals engage in such tactics all the time. A variation of this strategy is called the ‘low-ball technique’.

Suppose you decide to buy an apartment. After hours of negotiation, you drive a bargain with the company’s salesperson. Just as you are completing the required forms, the salesperson takes away the price advantage by charging for options that you thought were included in the price. What would you do?

Chances are you will still go ahead with the purchase. Psychologists have found that we are more likely to stick to our commitment when we complete the forms than when it is filled by the salesperson!

Even otherwise, you were committed to making the purchase, till the salesman removed the price advantage. You will now rationalise your decision. You may believe that the price is good, even if the granite kitchen top is charged separately! Or, you may rationalise that other apartment developers are unlikely to be different.

(The author is an investment strategist.)

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