As a longtime marketing guy, I’m still fascinated by how easy it is to hoodwink people by making them think that a higher price equates to better quality.
The genius move, however, is to build on another perception of quality, e.g. “German engineering” or “French luxury” as a support for that higher price.
The “German engineering” ethos has been leveraged countless times, most notably with Mercedes cars — although in this case, it was a reputation very well earned, back in the 1960s and -70s. (In the recent past: not so much, as anyone who’s driven a Merc of said vintage will tell you.) As gunnies, we all know of the Heckler & Koch example, which has enabled this bunch of WWII-era retreads to make oodles of cash out of their not-especially noteworthy handguns and cheekbone-crushing G3/PTR-91 automatic rifles.
It’s why I always roll my eyes at the extreme HK fanbois, because I’m positive that most of their fanaticism stems from a need to justify their paying a premium price for what is really a pretty ordinary product.
As for “French luxury”, here’s one example of the trope: Grey Goose vodka, which is a case history for the ages. (Watch it; it’s 10 minutes of your time well spent.)
I happen to know quite a bit about vodka manufacturing, as it happens, having worked with the South African retail arm of Gilbey’s. As I’ve recounted on these pages before, part of my education occurred when the Gilbey’s guys took me on a tour of their production facility, where an engineer taught me how to make cheap liquor: take a clear distilled spirit (from any source: potatoes, sugar cane, barley, wheat, apples, all mixed together, whatever) and pass it through a series of charcoal filters to make vodka, or add a few drops of diesel fuel(!) to make gin, and so on.
The genius of marketing, in the Grey Goose example, was not the manufacture of the vodka or the quality of its raw material, therefore — French wheat is no different from any other wheat — but utilizing the aura of French luxury brands (Louis Vuitton, Chanel etc.) to imply that GG was an exceptional product, made all the more so by creating an artificial bottleneck on supply, and most telling of all, selling the product at a premium price to the International Status-Hungry Parvenu Set. Good grief: $30 per bottle for vodka? When it first came out, I tried it at a hotel bar somewhere — I think it was at Claridges in London, while on a business trip — and while I’m no expert on vodka, I have drunk a woeful amount of the foul stuff. I could discern little difference between Grey Goose, Stolichnaya and Smirnoff. (The bartender obliged me by setting up a blind taste test of the three brands — the mark of a good bartender, by the way.) I identified Smirnoff immediately (see above for reasons), but GG and Stoli? No chance. And Stolichnaya, by the way, is a product that trades on the Russian ethos for vodka quality, go figure.
But what all the above illustrates is how easy it can be to dupe people into buying expensive products as part of an aspirational desire to be part of a specific set — most notably, what used to be described as the “jet set” (now, the private jet set), which contains elements of society such as professional footballers, pop stars, supermodels, Russian oligarchs, Hollywood actors, software billionaires and other such scum.
And never has the old adage been so verified that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Considering that vodka has always carried a legal definition involving words like “neutral grain spirit”, which in turn is defined as “flavorless” and “odorless”, and which only recently has allowed for flavor additives, I’ve always strugged to understand what a “premium vodka” could actually be, if anything.
“Our flavorless, odorless neutral grain spirit is better than any other guy’s flavorless, odorless, neutral grain spirit” because why?
“Our flavorless, odorless neutral grain spirit is better than any other guy’s flavorless, odorless, neutral grain spirit”
That’s why my “House of Marais Geler” freeze dried diet water sells so well.
Glock, anyone? Not faulting their product or saying it wasn’t innovative for its time, but c’mon, it’s just Plastic Fantastic Tactical Tupperware. My choice is Canik, IMHO what Glock should have evolved to (including price) long ago.
I own 2 1911’s, but I am no fanboi. It’s heavy, limited capacity, and has an overblown reputation for stopping power.
When I was shopping for an IDPA gun, I rented 4 different modern ones at the local range. I was going to skip the H&K VP9 because of the price, but the clerk told me I really wanted to compare triggers. So I did.
I bought the VP9.
Yes, H&K thinks I suck and hates me, but there was really no comparison. I still shoot it better with iron sights than my Sig with a red dot.
I always subscribed to the adage, that if I can’t taste the difference, I won’t pay the difference.
A marketing professor said that the best you can get is about two thirds in favor of something. Roughly one third can’t tell the difference, one third can tell the difference and don’t care, and about one third can tell the difference and it matters to them.
Brought to you by the same people that buy $500 ice chests and $50 aluminum mugs.
I’ve also heard it said that 90% of the power tools destined for the home handy man are all made in one of 2 or 3 factories in China. The internals are largely identical and they slap on a different case depending on the customer – DeWalt, Ryobi, Rigid, etc. You’re paying for the brand name but getting the same drill everyone else is selling.
And yes, I do own a Yeti ice chest. And a Cabelas knock-off ice chest that’s almost as expensive. But I do in fact go camping quite a bit, so there’s that.
The quality of German manufacturing:
Over engineered…
Over priced…
Over weight…
(and some would say)
Over here!
I don’t always buy vodka but when I do it is Sam’s Club Members Mark. It is tasteless, odorless, and 40% ethanol. In truth, I mostly use it to dissolve stevia for cold drinks so a bottle (1.75L) lasts me a long time.
If you can find it, try Buffalo Grass vodka from Poland. Poles claim they invented vodka, not the Ruskies.
Enjoyed it in Warsaw and kept a liter in the freezer to drink with friends.
All three of my Welsh nieces graduated from medical school in Poland. I had the pleasure of attending each of their graduations, and got to sample Poland’s best examples of the spirit.
Still, meh, it’s water and alcohol, which are basically solvent commodities. I don’t typically drink anything that uses vodka, but if it mattered, I think Wyborowa was probably my favorite. I’d buy it if I ever had a reason to buy vodka.
The big difference in quality from an engineering perspective is they systems and priorities. In other words are the engineers making the decisions or are the bean counters or marketing guys making the calls. I have done engineering for American, German and Japanese companies, and the US ones are the worst about having non-technical people making technical decisions based on non technical priorities.
I’m not a snob on just about everything.
I drink to get dronk – as cheaply as possible.
I shoot whatever gun is available.
A vehicle is just a means to get from A to B if I feel like going.
Prepared properly, a cheeseburger is just as good as a prime rib.
About 90% of my hand operated power tools are Ryobi.
I listen to classic rock almost exclusively.
From what I understand, one of my nieces and her friends in college would buy cheap or cheaper vodka and run it through a water filter a few times and the taste would improve by disappearing. I suppose that would work whether it is filtered at the distillery or at home.