Buy one, get one free
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"Buy one, get one free" is a common form of sales promotion. While rarely presented to customers in acronym form, this marketing technique is universally known in the marketing industry by the acronym BOGOF, and it is regarded as one of the most effective forms of special offers for goods.
The main aim of BOGOF is to persuade buyers to purchase two items. The fact that a 50% discount is on offer, is seen as motivation to buy the goods in question, even if under normal circumstances they would not have bought even a single item. The phrasing of the BOGOF deal is designed to create the impression of getting something "for free", whilst the lack of a reduction in the price of a single item helps maintain the apparent "full value" of the product in the buyer's mind in a way that an explicit 50% discount would not. This kind of marketing strategy can be described as 'Spending to Save'.
Thus, the psychological effect is presumed to be that the purchaser imagines that they are getting the first item at its "true worth", and at the same time getting a second item with the same value for free, and that the deal represents a net gain for them, rather than a simple exchange of goods for money at the goods' true value.
Supermarket chain iceland claim to have "invented" the buy one get one free promotion.
