Gabor-Granger: The Demand Curve Illusion

Looks like precision. Acts like fiction.

Gabor Granger gives you a curve. And if you squint, it looks like economics. Here is some history on the Gabor-Grainger technique.

Each dot says how many people would buy at a given price. It slopes downward — demand falls as price rises. Basic. Predictable. Elegant.

But also: completely disconnected from how people actually buy.

Here’s the trap:

It looks like a demand curve…

It feels like a model…

So teams treat it like truth.

They’ll plot the curve. Pick the price that “maximizes revenue.” Then assume they’ve done real pricing work.

They haven’t.

Why it breaks:

It’s not built on choices, it’s built on yes/no hypotheticals

There’s no competitor, no alternatives, no context. Every price is evaluated in isolation, not tradeoff.

Which means:

• There’s no guarantee people would actually buy at that price
• There’s no connection to category behavior or profit impact

Just a pretty line based on people guessing.

Don’t confuse curves with clarity.

If the real goal is revenue, profit, or market share — you need to model decisions, not acceptance.

Because in the real world, no one buys from a curve.