Sunday, November 08, 2009

A question for the data-mining maestros

Sucked in by an Organizing for America pitch for health care reform, I tripped over what seems to be a trick of fundraising art:

Amount

(USD)
Credit Card

Why do the options bump from 25-50-100 to 220? What byte of microtargeting data is at work there? Did donor patterns indicate that for people donating $100, going up another $20 or $10 might be a psychological barrier, whereas for people at the $200 level a 10% bump-up triggers no hesitation? Does this bring in an extra 3% or 5%? How prevalent is this trick? Is there some accepted wisdom that you can slip one bump-up in the menu but not more?

1 comment:

  1. 220 is nice and round and unthreatening. Who is afraid of a 2, or a 20? While 225, the more obvious choice of nearby numbers, is sharp and corner-y.

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