Is Your Pocket Money Disappearing?
You can buy money from ancient Rome (A.D. 200 to 300) for less than $20 for a grab bag of uncleaned and undocumented coins. It’s hard to believe that minted money has been available since 500 B.C. In a few short years, our 21st century money may become a relic as well.
Bronze Roman Sestertius coin of Roman emperor Nero AD 54-68
More and more businesses are going exclusively digital. The cashless wave is saving some businesses a boatload of 0s and 1s as they eliminate counting cash, depositing cash and signing off on drawers, and take advantage of the overall speed and efficiency increases of cashless transactions. Last year, Visa offered a “Cashless Challenge” to get 50 operators to eliminate cash from their business. Many restaurant chains are starting to go cashless. Most notably on that list is Starbucks, because of the success of its pay app.
In additional to cash, you’re also starting to see another money image disappearing from restaurant menus — the dollar sign. A group from Cornell University — as reported in “Brainfluence,” by Roger Dooley — found that a restaurant should display its prices as a number only and not use a dollar sign or decimal. In the experiment, guests spent significantly more when ordering from menus with no decimals or dollar signs.
Dooley says there is a subliminal negative effect with currency symbols. He calls it the “money effect,” which can change a viewer’s self-interest feelings by seeing images of money or hearing about money.
So take off the dollar signs, you just might sell more 0s and 1s to your customers.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
