Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 16th Feb 2011 23:24 UTC

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Member since:
2007-09-06
At some point, the craftsmanship of a product is maximized and, for lack of further real value, synthetic value must be added through the luxury branding, artificial scarcity or whatever can be exploited. If our hypothetical Gucci purse sells for 30k, that same purse and build quality without the
Gucci logo sewn on will only sell for a few hundred. There is no real difference, purely market magic concocted to part fools from there money (though a fool paying 30k for a purse will probably be able to refill the wallet pretty quickly).
A luxury item is more like a hot air balloon's basket held up by the inflated brand it's strung under.