A fantastic way to simultaneously increase your bottom line and to improve your customer experience is to offer bundles at special prices. One of the more recent examples of this that I experienced was with Street Fighter IV, a video game for the Xbox 360. I was going to buy this game one way or another, but I opted for what they call the “Collector’s Edition” even though it was $10 more than the regular game. Why?

Most stores were selling the game by itself for $70, whereas the Collector’s Edition sold for $80 to $90 (I found it for $80). With the Collector’s Edition, you get a few “bonus” items, including an anime movie, the official soundtrack CD, and a special collector’s figurine of one of the game’s characters. This helped to complete the Street Fighter experience, so to speak, because it added some fun extras.

The kicker is that I would not have purchased any of these “bonus” items on their own. Had they sold a $10 bundle that included the soundtrack, movie, and figurine, I probably would not have purchased it. Because it came as part of a special bundle though, I was able to justify the increase of $10 in price. In this way, the game publisher was able to get an extra $10 out of my wallet that they would not have received otherwise.

In looking at your company’s marketing efforts, think about bundling together related products or services at a slightly reduced price. While you may lose a little bit of money on the people who would have purchased the bundled items separately, you gain a lot more from the people who may not have purchased everything included in the bundle. For example, if you’re running a restaurant, you can have a special deal that comes with a three-course meal. Many people don’t buy appetizers and desserts regularly, but if they perceive a “savings” with the meal deal, they’ll opt for that instead.