{"id":533,"date":"2009-03-05T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/it-has-the-granite-countertops\/"},"modified":"2015-12-10T13:24:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T19:24:04","slug":"it-has-the-granite-countertops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/03\/it-has-the-granite-countertops\/","title":{"rendered":"“It has the granite countertops.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard this two nights ago during an episode of “My First Place”<\/a> on the HGTV channel.<\/p>\n

The real-estate agent in the episode was showing a house to a husband and wife who were about to buy their first house together.<\/p>\n

The agent was promoting the house’s features. When she walked into the kitchen with the couple, she said, “It has the granite countertops.”<\/p>\n

The definite article “the” caught my ear because I would have omitted it and said, “It has granite countertops.”<\/p>\n

Pondering the agent’s use of “the” in front of “granite countertops”, I realized that “the granite countertops” sounded more expensive than would the phrase “granite countertops” without the definite article “the” in front of it.<\/p>\n

But why?<\/p>\n

I believe that adding “the” gives a feeling of “one and only”, which gives a feeling of exclusivity, which gives a feeling of higher value.<\/p>\n

So try starting a phrase with “the” when you want to increase perceived value.<\/p>\n

If you split-test this in your own marketing and see a statistically significant difference, then please let me know<\/a> what happened — even if I am full of bunk!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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