BOGO!
How to frame data to help with decision-making.
“Why did you get two mustards?”
I unpacked the bottles from the grocery bags, shaking my head in confusion. My husband had gone grocery shopping and thought we were in great need of mustard. Normally, it takes us several months to go through one.
“BOGO!” he proudly proclaimed. Anytime the grocery store offers a buy-one-get-one-free on a product we use, he takes advantage. His enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. When I’m the one shopping, I can’t resist the BOGO deals either. The math is fuzzy on whether we’re actually saving money or just falling for clever pricing strategies, but it doesn’t matter. We believe we’re getting a deal, which makes us feel good.
Why? Because we have emotions tied to numbers and data.
A simple trip to the grocery store can illustrate how emotions influence our perception of data, like price or percentages. Let’s say you’re shopping for ice cream and see two cartons:
One is labeled 90% fat-free.
The other is labeled 10% Fat.
Which one do you buy?
Most people choose the 90% fat-free option. We’re drawn to the higher number, perceiving it to be a more positive and healthy option, even though both labels mean the exact same thing. Getting something that’s 90% fat-free feels better than getting something with 10% fat.
What if your car was in the shop and the mechanic presented two repair options:
One is 85% effective.
The other has a 15% chance of failure.
Which would you choose?
Or consider this: You’re buying a scratch-off lottery ticket. You can pick one with:
A 10% chance to win $95 and a 90% chance to lose $5.
Pay $5 for a 10% chance to win $100 and a 90% chance to win nothing.
The choices in each of the examples above are identical; however, the way they are framed influences how we perceive them.
Framing Data in Context
Let’s shift to a business scenario of someone updating their resume. They want to highlight a role where they grew sales by $1 million or 10%. Which metric should they include?
It depends on the industry. In real estate, nonprofits, or small businesses, growing revenue by $1 million is significant. But in pharmaceuticals, tech, or financial services, that figure may seem unimpressive. In those cases, sharing the percentage makes the impact clearer. The way data is framed determines how it is understood.
A few years ago, I worked with an image consultant to refine my wardrobe for keynotes and learned two important lessons:
Everyone has a price threshold. Some people will spend hundreds on a pair of shoes, while others believe a great pair should cost under $100. The same concept applies to other products, from suits, cars, luggage, and groceries. We all have ingrained beliefs about value.
She taught me to focus on price per wear. When I hesitated over buying a dress, she encouraged me to think about how often I’d wear it, rather than just the price tag. That shift helped me shop more responsibly by considering value over cost.
Ultimately, she was teaching me to frame my purchases differently, giving me clarity and to make decisions more easily.
Decision Fatigue & The Need for Clarity
Research suggests we make 35,000 decisions a day—from what to wear to which emails to answer. Some are minor (which route to take on a drive or where to eat out for dinner), while others are more significant (how to approach a difficult conversation or where to eat out for dinner 😊).
Decision fatigue is real. When we lack clarity, choices become exhausting, and we often avoid making them altogether. The way information is framed impacts how easily we process it. The way information is framed impacts how easily we process it. That’s why grocery stores use BOGO deals or 90% fat-free to guide decisions without overwhelming us.
When you go to a restaurant, the menu is chunked by appetizers, courses, and drinks so you can easily find what you want. Bookstores group books by topic/genre. Imagine if they arranged all books alphabetically by title without any topics. Or if Universities listed classes by number, instead of grouped by college and major. Your brain would give up, exhausted, before you found what you needed.
Yet in business, we often do the opposite.
The Data Problem in Business
Leaders say, “Make sure you present the data,” implying credibility comes only from sharing countless charts, figures, and an appendix of “just in case” slides.
They also say, “Tell the story of the data” while asking you to present from a dashboard and a one-slide pre-formatted template.
Presenters end up guessing what is important to share because leaders neglect to define the key questions they want to answer upfront. As a result, people share information that doesn’t address the real problem. They display many complicated charts while giving a voice-over of “The data speaks for itself” and “I’m not going to talk to this…” The leader interrupts, jumps ahead several slides, and questions the data. They challenge the quality, source, and analysis, often requesting more views that delay a discussion or decision.
Hours are wasted in this cycle every week, yet because it involves data, it feels like time well spent. It’s not. It’s organizational waste.
Over the past decade, we’ve become more data-savvy, thanks to advanced tools and analytics. But with that rapid growth, we’ve also developed ineffective habits.
Storytelling with Data
We don’t need more data and dashboards. We need better ways to communicate it.
(Spoiler alert: Data storytelling isn’t just about charts and visualization tools and dashboards don’t tell the story of data).
It’s a methodology and approach to helping people understand and connect with information so they can make informed decisions.
(Teaser: Data-informed is more important than data-driven!)
Anyone who analyzes and presents data can learn how to simplify complex information, making it easier for others to process and act upon. The goal isn’t to overwhelm–it’s to clarify.
More to come in future issues.
***
If you’re thinking “I get it, this makes sense. Can you just tell me what to do?”
Absolutely! This is exactly what I do with clients—helping leaders and teams refine their communications and guiding them through hands-on workshops to develop the skills and habits to do it themselves. Click here to start a conversation.
