Dayeon Yoo’s blog post about “iPad 2 and Asian Gangs” and what people in Hong Kong were willing to pay (~$2000) to get their hands on an iPad 2 before it gets released in the area was particularly interesting to me because my brother, who works in Shanghai, had messaged me only a week back to tell me to buy some iPads and bring them to him when I visit this summer! He says people in Shanghai are going crazy for the iPads, and willing to pay lots and lots of money for it. Prior to the marketing course, I had never really thought that price was based on value– As most people, I saw price as the seller’s cost and a certain mark up.
Anyway, all of this made me think of a campaign that had been going around on Twitter a few weeks back that Eva Longoria had been tweeting about all the time. It was the TwitChange 3.0: ‘An online auction in which fans bid on the chance to be followed, mentioned or retweeted on Twitter by their favorite celebrities for charity. Proceeds from the 2011 International Women’s Day Charity Auction will benefit CARE.”
It is for a cause, but the bids that people from all over the world make on these auctions are based on value. The people that are truly looking to donate would have donated directly. In this case, people are bidding for a mention, follow for 90 days, or a re-tweet by a celebrity (such as Khloe Kardashian, Ken Paves, Kim Kardashian.. and so on). The auction has ended so I can’t access the actual final winning bid amounts, but I remember going on eBay to check it out in the midst of the campaign — and a tweet back from Sophia Bush was going at $3,000+ !
