This is a continuation of yesterday’s blog post. If you missed it, click here to catch up!
As I walked to the car where my family was waiting, I started laughing. In fact, I was laughing so hard that my husband started laughing, too, even not knowing why. At first he was admittedly shocked. We had been having a pretty bad week, and laugher was the last thing he expected from me.
I finally understood that why someone would by a $9 bottle of shampoo over a $2 one, even if the formula is exactly the same. In fact, research scientists found that even when people got to try the product, such as tasting brownies, they would choose the more expensive product as tasting better, even if the two brownies were cut from the same batch.
The luxury store gave me a better shopping experience, a better story about who I was or how I fit in with society. In turn, I would have been willing to spend much, much more on the same types of products even if they were the same or only slightly better than I was used to buying.
There is a book that has been out now since 2003 that talks about this phenomena. Trading Up: The New American Luxury by Michael Silverstein is supposedly a sort of marketing bible that can teach companies what makes other companies, such as Williams-Sonoma or Callaway Golf so successful and how they can do it without really spending much extra money in the process.
Marketing these days is all about selling a lifestyle. I am a person that can distinguish quality in a potato surrounded by stains of Brahms and lit by the soft glow of tinted lights. It means that this potato is better than the others, that it (and I) belong to a better class.