“It’s not about the true value of the product, but the perceived value that luxury brands brainwash you into thinking their products are worth the high prices”
Sometimes when people shop, they are not looking for what’s worth, but for the brand’s name and its popularity: the luxury brands. People love luxury brands. After years of marketing, high-end brands have constructed a shopping experience that hook people up by creating an aura of prestige and luxury with high pricings and marketing. How do they achieve this goal? It all comes down to one word: Scarcity. These brands manipulate and feed off of people’s urge of wanting what they can’t get. With endless luxury marketing jargons and strategies like “limited-editions,” “hand-made,” “crossovers,” “raffle-ticket system,” and “celebs” on social media, these luxury brands want to tell the customers that their products are “rare.” They self-create a scarcity and rarity in their products and play “hard to get,” making it feel like only very few people can own the products. Their goal somehow is not to drive up sales, but to tell people that “we are releasing a new product, which you won’t be able to buy.” In turn, this is the indirect advertising effect to promote their brands and to promote the scarcity. It’s not about the true value of the product, but the perceived value that luxury brands brainwash you into thinking their products are worth the high prices because they are scarce and rare. This strategy also induces a sense of self-esteem to those who can actually get their hands on the products, which increases the popularity and the value of the brands that can in turn give these brands a valid excuse to jack up their pricings even more.
“In the end, the price, not quality, sells the products.”
The high pricings resulted from the self-created scarcity also contribute to another benefit. When you buy something, you don’t opt for the cheapest one. You feel like it is selling for next to nothing because it is not worth anything. With high pricings, you would think that the products from luxury brands must be better. Even sometimes when you are able to buy a luxury product, but when you first get your hands on it and you feel like the quality is the same as the ones from non-luxury brands, you would still think “Nahhh, it doesn’t matter because the logo on it is enough to knock people off.” That’s what these luxury brands want you to think, because quality does not set the price; price sets the quality. In the end, the price, not quality, sells the products.
But is there a way to gain this self-esteem without falling into the trap of self-created scarcity? Is there a way to only spend your money on the actual value of the product, not the perceived value? Is there a way to buy for the quality, not the price? Is there a way to go beyond luxury, and be more luxurious than luxury?
“What’s luxurious is not the product, you are the luxury.”
Absolutely. If people love owning limited-editions, the hard-to-gets, and the things that only they have, wouldn’t it be more luxurious to own the Exclusive-Edition? The edition that you and only you in the world have? By adding your Initials, a Statement about yourself, and an Emblem that represents your character, every item you carry is the Exclusive-Edition that only belongs to you. There’s no scarcity in the product, because it’s not about a limited supply with an unlimited demand. It’s about even if your Exclusive-Edition gets into the hands of others, it loses all meanings and values that you bring to it. The so-called “self-esteem” is not induced to you by the product, it’s the reverse because it’s you who are giving the product a purpose, a “soul,” and a meaning. All of it without spending for the hyped-up price, but the actual cost for the material and value of the product. You might notice that we don’t put the ANORAK logo on our products or we put it inside the products that is hardly visible to others. Because we want YOU to be the brand. Extending your own charisma to the item and having the Exclusive-Edition, that’s the definition of true luxury. What’s luxurious is not the product, you are the luxury.