The bag of chips I bought at the Fred Meyer on Hawthorne last week costs the same as it did in spring and weighs noticeably less in my hand. Same graphics, same shelf position, same everything, except the amount of the thing inside. I stood in the aisle turning it over like a person hunting for a serial number.
I was not annoyed about the chips. I was annoyed that somebody in a conference room decided I would not notice, and then built a year of brand behavior on that decision.
Customers notice. Customers always notice, and the noticing is worse than the price increase would have been, because now they have caught you.
Shrinking the package instead of defending the number tells your customer you do not believe your product is worth what you charge for it.
The alternative is not fun, but it is short. You raise the price, you say so out loud, and you say why in one sentence a human being can repeat. Costs went up here, specifically, and we would rather charge you more than give you less. That is the whole script. Brands that use it get a rough week of comments and then they keep their credibility, which is the more expensive asset by a wide margin.
Salt & Straw has never once pretended a scoop is a bargain. The price is the price, the line still goes around the block, and nobody standing in it is confused about what they are buying. Patagonia will tell you flatly that the jacket costs what it costs because of how it was made and how long you are expected to keep it. Oatly built a brand partly on being expensive and unembarrassed about it. None of them are quietly removing an ounce and hoping.
Customers notice. Customers always notice, and the noticing is worse than the price increase would have been, because now they have caught you.
I have watched this from inside brand strategy rooms and the argument always arrives the same way. Someone says the price point is psychologically important. Someone else says the shelf competition will eat us alive. Nobody says the honest version, which is that we are afraid to stand behind our own number in public, so we will let the packaging lie on our behalf.
A price is a claim about value, which makes it a brand statement whether you treat it as one or not. Apologize for it and you have told the market your product is a commodity that got lucky. Defend it and you have told them what you think it is worth, which is the only way anybody else ever decides what it is worth.
Truffles gets the expensive food. She has never thanked me. She has also never once suggested I put less of it in the bowl and say nothing about it.