Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 3/4/04 2:05:30 AM, owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us writes: << I bought my wife the C-5060 for Christmas. She loves it. I'm impressed for a point & shoot digital. Lots of nice features. It was $600. That doesn't bode well for either Panasonic or Leica if the $600 camera comes out slightly ahead over something 2-3x its price. >> Years ago one of my graduate students did a doctoral dissertation titled "Price as a Surrogate Cue to Quality." The crux of the dissertation was that for many products, quality cannot be discerned by normal observation so the average buyer falls back on price as the best cue. The hope is that "you get what you pay for." Astute marketers have long known that the best way to sell prestige items is to raise the price well above that of competitive products is the hope that this will convince the buyer that their item is better. Economists call this "negative price elasticity." This approach is often used for cosmetics, i.e. "It costs more but I'm worth it."; automobiles, i.e "show them that you've arrived" (in a Cadillac); art works; and, of course, cameras. Interestingly, one of the documented research findings was that the more personally insecure the buyer, the more likely he or she is to believe the hype. Larry Z - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html