I heard this two nights ago during an episode of “My First Place” on the HGTV channel.

The real-estate agent in the episode was showing a house to a husband and wife who were about to buy their first house together.

The agent was promoting the house’s features. When she walked into the kitchen with the couple, she said, “It has the granite countertops.”

The definite article “the” caught my ear because I would have omitted it and said, “It has granite countertops.”

Pondering the agent’s use of “the” in front of “granite countertops”, I realized that “the granite countertops” sounded more expensive than would the phrase “granite countertops” without the definite article “the” in front of it.

But why?

I believe that adding “the” gives a feeling of “one and only”, which gives a feeling of exclusivity, which gives a feeling of higher value.

So try starting a phrase with “the” when you want to increase perceived value.

If you split-test this in your own marketing and see a statistically significant difference, then please let me know what happened — even if I am full of bunk!