MarketingDUAL-USE

Up-To Comparatives

What it is

Framing a benefit by its ceiling — “up to 50% off”, “speeds up to 1 Gbps”, “save up to $500” — so the reader anchors on the maximum while the typical outcome, which the seller knows, goes unstated.

How it works

An “up to” claim is literally true whenever a single case reaches the ceiling, which makes it cheap to assert and hard to challenge. Readers do not process it as a range. The maximum is the only number on the page, so it becomes the anchor (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974), and because people tend to read the qualifier as modest hedging rather than as a warning, the ceiling is remembered as the expectation. When the Federal Trade Commission commissioned a copy test in 2012, after settling with five replacement-window sellers over “up to 47% energy savings”, a large share of respondents took the advertisement to mean that most buyers would save close to that figure, with or without the words “up to”. The UK Advertising Standards Authority found the same with broadband: “up to” speeds that only a tenth of customers could reach were understood as typical, and from May 2018 advertisers were required to show the average speed available to at least half of customers at peak time instead. The same device underpins sales in which a handful of lines are cut deeply and everything else barely at all.

Real-world examples

  • •In 2012 the FTC settled with five window-replacement companies, including Long Fence and Home and Serious Energy, over “up to 47%” energy-savings claims, and released a copy test by Manoj Hastak and Dennis Murphy showing that consumers read the ceiling as what they would get.
  • •UK broadband advertising: until 2018 a provider could advertise an “up to” speed achievable by 10% of customers; CAP guidance in force from 23 May 2018 replaced it with the average speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time.
  • •“Up to 70% off” banners over racks where a few items carry the full reduction and the rest 10-20%; in the EU, the Price Indication Directive as amended by the 2019 Omnibus Directive requires the reference price for any reduction to be the lowest price charged in the previous 30 days.
  • •Battery and network claims — “up to 20 hours of battery”, “up to 5G speeds” — measured under laboratory conditions that ordinary use rarely reproduces.

Ethical guidelines

Where the line is

An “up to” figure is honest when a substantial share of buyers actually reach it and the typical result is disclosed beside it; it becomes manipulation when the ceiling is a rare or laboratory outcome presented as the only number, so the reader anchors on a result the seller knows most will not get.

  • ●Lead with the typical result; if you state a ceiling, state the share of customers who reach it and what the median customer gets.
  • ●A ceiling reached by only a small fraction of buyers is not a fair description of the product; UK advertising rules require that a significant proportion could achieve the “up to” figure.
  • ●For discounts, state the range (“10-70% off”) and the number of lines at the maximum, not the maximum alone.
  • ●Test the claim on real readers: if most take the ceiling as the expectation, the claim is misleading whatever the qualifier says.

How to defend against it

  • ►Read “up to X” as “rarely X”, then ask the seller in writing what the typical or median result is and how many customers reach the maximum. A refusal to give a number is the answer.
  • ►For discounts, find the items that actually carry the headline reduction before judging the sale, and check the “was” price with a price tracker or, in the EU, against the 30-day-low rule.
  • ►For speeds and battery life, find the independent figure: Ofcom and the FCC publish measured broadband performance, and reviewers publish battery tests under standard loads.
  • ►Re-anchor deliberately: write down what you would expect if “up to” were replaced by “on average”, and decide on that number.
  • ►Report “up to” claims that few buyers can reach to the ASA (UK), the FTC (US), or your national consumer authority (EU).

From the Defense Playbook

Ask for Absolute Numbersseconds

When someone quotes a relative change ("cuts your risk by 50 percent", "doubles the danger"), ask what the risk was before and after in plain counts out of the same number of people, because the same fact sounds enormous as a ratio and modest as a difference.

The Unit-Price Checkseconds

Compare products by price per unit (per 100 grams, per litre, per sheet, per dose) instead of by pack price, pack size, or the size of the discount sticker, which is the one number that package design and promotions cannot disguise.

Pin the Baileyminutes

When a position seems to change size depending on whether it is being advanced or defended, write down the bold version and the modest version side by side and ask which one is being claimed, so the speaker cannot enjoy the conclusions of one and the defensibility of the other.

Every playbook entry states how strong its evidence is and when not to use it. Browse the full playbook.

References

  1. Hastak, M., & Murphy, D. (2012). Effects of a Bristol Windows Advertisement with an “Up To” Savings Claim on Consumer Take-Away and Beliefs. Report prepared for the Federal Trade Commission
    The copy-test finding that consumers interpret an “up to” savings ceiling as the result most buyers will obtain.
  2. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124-1131 · link
    Anchoring: a salient initial number biases the estimate even when the reader knows it is not representative.
  3. Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP and BCAP) (2017). Broadband Speed Claims: Advertising Guidance. ASA/CAP guidance, published November 2017, in force 23 May 2018
    The replacement of “up to” broadband speeds with the average speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, after research showed “up to” figures were read as typical.
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