What ever would us Marketeers do without branding ?
Brands are promoted to be aspirational, and part of the cache is the fact that the biggest brands ( such as Shelby) cost more to purchase than the lesser brands despite the fact that the production costs are much the same.
Ask yourself why people pay so much for Adidas and Nike trainers when they only cost less than $4 to make per pair. Take that $4 off what you pay and behold you have the brand premium ?
The high brand premium becomes a major part of the market positioning and brand owners guard these positions as a matter of life and death.
Now what happens when a strong market leader reduces the prices he charges? The perception of the brand suffers as customers ask themselves if the previous brand premium they were happy to pay to reinforce their aspirational purchase decision was really worth it ?
Are we at that point yet?
Anyone cancelled a Shelby order to buy a Kirkham ?
Cheers,
Tony
In my spare time I sell snake
oil........