Brand Appeal and Recognition

[Cmdr Data]

In all things, brand appeal essentially allows producers of goods to charge extra for what others would produce for less. Recently, I have seen one of the grossest acts of price gouging from a major name in technology.

I present to you... the $5,000 desktop monitor that doesn't come with the $1,000 monitor stand that it needs! Link: https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/

Now, I enjoy Apple products. My wife recently gave me her hand me down MacBook Air and I love it. My school gave me a MacBook Pro that turned me onto the products for professional use. I even bought my own iPad to use as a digital notebook, media center, personal laptop on the go (it has cellular data), etc. The connectivity between devices is incredible. But $1,000 just for the monitor stand?

In what instances have you seen brand appeal being used for greed? What are some examples of products that jack up prices just because of the brand? Do any stores near you do this? Do you go with the brand name or do you find products elsewhere? Do you mix and match? Discuss the concept of brand recognition and your thoughts on it here!

 

[tango]

Anything with a recognised brand usually costs more. If you don't like it you're free to buy someone else's product. Nobody has to wear Nike's latest footwear but people choose to pay handsomely for it. It's one of the beauties of a free market. If you believe the product offers a quality, prestige, whatever, worth the money then you buy it. If you don't believe then you don't buy it.

It's a far cry from government, that tells you what you're getting (or, more usually, not getting), what it's going to cost you, and the options are to pay up or go to jail.

 

[NewCreation435]

when I worked in retail in 2003, we sold Tommy Hilfiger shirts. I saw from the box they came in that the mark up for the store was about 200% from price they bought it at. There was another brand around the corner literally 20 feet from the Tommy display where they had the same quality of shirts for less than half.
Generally the retailer will put the high priced items in front where you should notice it as soon as you enter the department and the sale items are near the back.

 

[tango]

when I worked in retail in 2003, we sold Tommy Hilfiger shirts. I saw from the box they came in that the mark up for the store was about 200% from price they bought it at. There was another brand around the corner literally 20 feet from the Tommy display where they had the same quality of shirts for less than half.
Generally the retailer will put the high priced items in front where you should notice it as soon as you enter the department and the sale items are near the back.

People are fundamentally lazy. If you're selling stuff you might as well make it easier for people to buy the things with a high markup and tuck the sale items out of the way, then make it easy for people to just walk in and grab the cheapest one but have to look for the more expensive options. If a customer is going to be lazy, let them buy the most expensive things you have.

 

[Lamb]

My husband I bought a bike rack to go on the back of our pickup truck 2 years ago and it cost over $200. The lock to prevent theft of the rack was sold separately for $60. That's greed. We use my bike lock and lock the rack through a metal loop it has to the bottom of the truck. Problem solved.

 

[tango]

My husband I bought a bike rack to go on the back of our pickup truck 2 years ago and it cost over $200. The lock to prevent theft of the rack was sold separately for $60. That's greed. We use my bike lock and lock the rack through a metal loop it has to the bottom of the truck. Problem solved.

Is it greed or is it giving you, the consumer, the chance to decide for yourself whether you need the lock? If you were using a 4x4 to drive your bicycles across your own property would you rather the rack was $260, with no option to buy it without the $60 lock?

 

[psalms 91]

Is it greed or is it giving you, the consumer, the chance to decide for yourself whether you need the lock? If you were using a 4x4 to drive your bicycles across your own property would you rather the rack was $260, with no option to buy it without the $60 lock?

I believe that in this case it is price gouging but I could be wrong

 

[tango]

I believe that in this case it is price gouging but I could be wrong

Sometimes it's hard to know. Personally I'd rather have a base option for $200 with an add-on for $50, than have the whole package for $250 with no option to remove the add-on if you don't need it.

When I've carried bicycles on the roof of my car they've never been out of my sight for long enough to worry too much about how long the lock would withstand an attempt to steal them.

 

[Lamb]

Is it greed or is it giving you, the consumer, the chance to decide for yourself whether you need the lock? If you were using a 4x4 to drive your bicycles across your own property would you rather the rack was $260, with no option to buy it without the $60 lock?

It's greed. Not many people would drive their bikes across their own property.

 

[tango]

It's greed. Not many people would drive their bikes across their own property.

I'm not sure you can simply assume it's greed. People might drive their bikes across their own property if they own enough land, or they might drive to a place knowing they will put the bikes on at one end and get them off at the other end without worrying about locking them while they are still on the car.

The crucial thing is that if the lock is an option you get the choice to buy it or not buy it. Would you be any happier if the bike carrier with lock was a single package for $260?

 

[Forgiven1]

I pay the premium price for Apple products. Why? They work. And they also have great customer service. At least that is what I have found since going Apple about 15 or so years ago. The only non Apple electronic is my Kindle.

 

[tango]

I pay the premium price for Apple products. Why? They work. And they also have great customer service. At least that is what I have found since going Apple about 15 or so years ago. The only non Apple electronic is my Kindle.

Apple is certainly well known for having excellent user interfaces. And of course when everything is fairly well locked down it's much less likely that this app will refuse to play nicely with that app.

Personally I prefer the extra freedom of Android, even if it does have so many different versions and variants you can't always be 100% sure that everything will play nicely together.

 

[Ash]

I like buying branded items from time to time to treat myself. Personally, I would never judge someone on what they spend their money on really. If they want to enjoy and spend money on a certain thing, go for it

 

[Lamb]

Some brands definitely are higher quality and I learned that when my daughter was born. I received some hand-me-downs as well as getting baby clothes at rummage sales and the clothing that was the name brand like Osh Kosh outlasted the cheaper store brand. Stains came out easier and colors lasted longer as well as the texture of some things not pilling.

 

[psalms 91]

Yup you learn over time, for instance if you need foil to stand up, pay the higher price but if it doesnt need to then buy cheaper. It depends I buy a lot of generic but some things no

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

I try not to be overly concerned with brand appeal over is it functional and will it get the job done. For some things I do look for the better price, and primarily that means a trip to the states. Even with the exchange rate, it's still cheaper than Canadian prices for the same (or better) equipment. As an example, I was able to pick up an 'Asus' tablet with Windows 10 in the states for less than the cost of a 'Chromebook' in Canada. I've found that there's less of a 'free market' driving Canadian prices as well. Telecom companies are essentially under so many government regulations that you're paying the same rate whether it be (in BC) Telus/Bell/Rogers, whatever. I'm really not able to 'shop around' with different cell providers to find the best plan for my needs - it's all the same.

With different governments being protectionist over their own interests as well, I'm stuck paying close to $5 for a gallon of milk as opposed to letting a truly free market do its job allowing the import of American dairy, giving me the choice to "Buy Canadian" or not. Same with certain discount stores that I used to frequent in the states such as 'Aldi' or 'Sav-a-lot' whose product was on par with national brands. It just doesn't exist here.

I'll end this with the best example of the ol' switch-a-roo I've seen in a while at Wal-Mart (where else! )
"Dove Body Wash" - 400 ml (x2 @ $3.99 each) = $7.98
"Dove Body Wash" Economy Size - 740 ml = $7.99

 

[tango]

I think a lot of the size/price mismatches are based on consumer psychology. For the longest time it was common knowledge that bigger packets worked out cheaper so the supermarkets just nudged the prices of the larger packets up. If people don't bother to check which is the better deal and just buy the larger one, they can hardly complain about paying more, especially when supermarkets even give a handy comparison price to show how much it is per unit. If you can see that the small box works out at $1.20/lb and the large box works out at $1.60/lb and buy the large one anyway, you don't really get to complain about the antics of the retailer.

It's also worth considing relative longevity compared to price. Sometimes the cheap product will last as long as you need it to, especially if you're only needing to do a small amount of work but don't want to deal with the hassles of renting equipment only to have to clean it and return it and then rent it again in a couple of weeks. The question has to be whether the higher priced product will last suitably longer - you'd hope a $40 shirt would last longer than a $10 shirt, but if it doesn't last four times as long then from a longevity perspective you might as well get the $10 shirt and replace it when it wears out.

Of course brands like to push concepts like "prestige" which can't be objectively measured. Sometimes I look at the prices of designer label clothing (with the designer names prominently featured, so everyone can see you bought the top-priced one) and wonder why they don't just cut with the pretense and just write the price in huge numbers across the front of everything. You'd see at a glance who had the $5 shirt on and who had the $495 shirt on, and draw your own conclusions.