When Consumption Isn’t Conspicuous

Marketers know that a key element in many purchases is to signal something about the buyer. A Toyota Prius, for example, says that its owner is concerned about the environment. Expensive luxury brands let the world know the buyer has discriminating taste, and, more importantly, has plenty of money. Whether you believe in the evolutionary [...]

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Balancing Luxury, Tiffany Style

Luxury brands face a difficult challenge: they must be exclusive, and usually expensive, to maintain their elite status. At the same time, a brand that has extremely limited distribution may not be able to acquire or maintain the visibility in the marketplace that makes the product both recognizable and desirable. A brand that is so [...]

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Does Your Product Have Enough Flaws?

The better the product, one expects, the fewer the flaws one will find. That’s why Lexus is at the top of the quality surveys, and why Yugo went out of business. That’s perfect logic, until you get to true luxury products. One of the counter-intuitive marketing characteristics of real luxury products, according to J. N. [...]

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