Lets face some facts - most of us are slam bang crash in the middle of a global upheaval. Falling stock prices, inflationary markets, stinking debt issues in the "PIIGS", a weakening dollar etc are just some 'negative cues' as my investment banker friends might explain it. Hell, I even found a live counter the other day showing the cost of war since 2001 in the USA - I almost lost my hair, so unless your already bald, I suggest wearing a tight cap before scrolling down.
However, the fact is I m not an investment banker. I look at money and finance on a behavioural scale, which is an un-budgeted 'cue' at COB in the RBS' and the Goldman Sachs. Looking at charts, excel spreadsheets and graphs all day, yeah, thats going to tell you why people spend and why people buy (there's a fantastic book with a different take on why we buy - its called Buy.ology: How everything we believe about why we buy is wrong, and it talks about the brain's functionality in stimulating buying).
Passion. Another P which is missing in marketing's now so retrograde but stale 4P's of functioning. Transitioning a product to a brand can never happen unless its maker's are not passionate about the tiniest fragment of the tiniest micro-fragment associated with its design, appeal and functionalities. In fact, I feel passion can definitely replace Price in the 4P's - who gives a damn about money if as a consumer, you have an unparalleled passion for a product? Look at Apple, a true market leader in refreshing and replacing the 4P's price with passion.
This argument is substantiated by one truly great Chinese gentleman who paid .... yes, almost $200,000 for a rare bottle of 62 year old Dalmore single malt 62 at Singapore airport on Monday. The $194,000 bottle is reportedly one of the most expensive ever sold, and is one of 12 bottles of its kind in the world.When the man saw the bottle on display, he made a bank transfer of $100,000 and placed the down payment on it.The Dalmore 62 was part of a special promotion called "Master of Spirits" aimed at connoisseurs.
If this is a case of making a smart investment to resell the matter takes on a whole different view. Then we need to assume the man is profit oriented and passionate about money. This happens very often in most brand communities - look Harley Davidson, there are the core loyalists to the values they imbibe from biking and then there are the outsider's, in it to make use of the commercial benefits of merchandising etc.
Even so, paying $200,000 for a whisky is no mean feat - it shows the true value that whisky has because whisky is not something you can pour off a tap - the longer you sow, the finer you reap and thats what makes it special.
Very nice...:)
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