I ordered a bouquet of flowers on 800Flowers.com. The photo of the flowers online was quite attractive. The color story is pink with supporting purple accents. The high quality flowers count is 17 with eleven lilies and six roses. The order was for the large size at $64.99 (there are options for a medium at $54.99 and small at $44.99).
The bouquet delivered appeared quite less attractive. A photo of the delivered bouquet is below. I count a total of 7 high quality flowers, with four roses and three lilies. That is ten flowers less than the photo of the bouquet on the website. The color story is weak with the red carnations and cream color roses instead of pink. The excess leaves were not pruned. In essence the bouquet looks messy.
I wrote an email to complain and it took several days to recieve a reply. They offered to deliver another bouquet and that bouquet was about the same in quality as the first one delivered.
The company provided a $20 off coupon on anther order when we complained the first time. Then when we complained about the second bouquet we recieved another $20 coupon.
However, having not been satisfied twice makes it hard to want the use the coupons or order again from the same company.
One does not expect the flowers delivered to look picture perfect, but there needs to be a reasonable accuracy in the quality delivered versus the quality promised.
Nike signed on Golf Icon Tiger Woods to do their add campaign for Nike Golf division. This creative ad shows Tiger smiling with his mouth in the shape of the swoosh logo.
When Verizon launched the LG Chocolate phone, it created a scent association by making its stores smell like chocolate.
Joe Camel used pop-up book type of method for their advertisement.
Coca Cola launched a cause marketing campaign in Singapore in December 2010.
As a follow up to the luxury thought experiment…can you turn fiberboard & paint into $148 million dollars. According to The New York Times in 2006, the painting No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock to David Martinez, managing partner of Fintech Advisory Ltd, in a private sale for a record inflation-adjusted price of $140 million.
People who study luxury often have a hard time defining what it is. For a thought experiment, take a look at the following two scenarios, and describe which is a luxury.
Scenario 1
A rock
A rock that is oval
A rock that is oval and shiny
A rock that is oval, shiny & red
A rock that is oval, shiny, red and belonged to Pablo Picasso.
A rock that is oval, shiny, red and belonged to Pablo Picasso and recently sold for $1.2 million.
Scenario 2
A rock
A rock that is oval
A rock that is oval and opaque
A rock that is oval, opaque & reddish
A rock that is oval, opaque & reddish and belonged to George Bush.
A rock that is oval, opaque & reddish and belonged to George Bush and recently sold for $2 dollars.
Well…which is a luxury? What is your answer?
What if these conditions went on for one more round…
Scenario 1
The rock was found to be made of glass.
Scenario 2
George Bush sold the rock to his daughter. The rock originally belonged to Howard Hughes and is the biggest uncut ruby ever found.
Which scenario is luxury now?
Perhaps luxury is all in the mind.
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The digital medium is becoming more and more the essence of the brand. For some categories like publishing, software, services, and media the digital brand is indistinguisible from the core of the brand. For categories of products from packaged goods to durables the digital medium is becoming the core of the brand. Automobiles used to delight us with cup holders, then GPS, then automatic parking, and the future of cars is the automonomously driven car. Just sit back and read the iPad on the way to work as the car drives and parks for you.
A rice polishing machine.