More for Less? Depends…
October 3rd, 2011
The modern consumer market is so saturated with brands, advertisement, and alternatives that shopping can almost feel like putting together a stock portfolio at times. You’re investing your image in a brand each time you chose to consume a product, you’re associating yourself with that brand and consequently that brands image. Ironically in most markets that brand’s image is determined based on the sort of people that would purchase said product. By extension then it stands to reason that associating yourself with a brand you are also identifying with a social group. The simplest example of this is the apparel market because when you buy apparel you are directly effecting your outward appearance which dictates people’s first perceptions of you as a person.
This is why in a modern market companies stand to benefit greatly from maintaining a perception of quality. Regardless of all the four factors effecting purchasing people are always looking for quality products, in most cases the only thing that effects this is price. It all depends on utility, quality or money saved. How can a modern business capture both markets, the thrifty and the people looking for the best of the best. It the age old quality-for-less conundrum and aside for the age old we’ll-just-turn-into-a-massive-chain mentality some companies are finding ways of doing it (or at least making consumers believe they are).
Companies like KidRobot, an apparel company, do it by offering a limited number of a certain product while maintaining a a low price. By limited quantity I mean there will only be 150 made of a certain model, ever. This means that despite the low price consumers will perceive a much higher quality in the product they are purchasing because of its scarcity. Using exclusivity to attain a larger market, who’d have thought?