In our age of mass consumption, products that appear valuable and rare are a welcome addition to supermarket shelves. During my routine rebuy process of toothpaste, I usually reach for Colgate - the brand I grew up with. But in an aisle of blues, reds and sparkling swooshes, Rembrandt stood out in design (and in price). I paid the extra few dollars for the paste. Holding the package in my hand felt like I was holding something airy, something special and something that held a secret. Upon opening the colored tab on the front of the box, the whie exterior yielded to rich lush solid colors that held the prized tube of toothpaste.
At checkout I bought a small box of Starbucks Cafe Mocha T
ruffles. The exterior design was richly textured and the handwritten name made it appear one of a kind. The little box felt like it contained two little gems. With the opening of the front flap, a sentence was revealed "When coffee dream, it dreams of chocolate" The two truffles sat on a cheap looking gold tray the the candy itself was without luster and tasted cheap.So much of our consumer experience is subconciously shapped by expectation. There have been many experiments in which people's expectation of quality actually shape and affect their judgement. Two glasses of wine from the same bottle were given to test participants. They were told one bottle was pried at $21 Dollars and the other at $8. People overwhelmingly enjoyed drinking the glass of wine they thought was more expensive, then the inexpensive one. Even thought the wine was the same. Price points go hand in hand with design.
Rembrandt is set apart in both price and design. And will I feel better about brushing with Rembrandt? Absolutely. Will I be able to tell any real difference between this and my trusted Colgate? I doubt it. After all, most of us probably can't tell a difference between toothpastes other than by taste and coloring.
2 comments:
This reminds me of what my aunt used to do with her daughter. My cousin would only drink Motts apple juice, but it was several dollars more expensive than the store brand.
She bought one bottle of Motts. After that, she bought nothing but store brand apple juice and simply refilled the Motts bottle. She never noticed.
I'm definitely drawn to products in aesthetically pleasing packaging. The other day I was buying wine as a gift and I don't know much about red wines so I picked it entirely based on the bottle that I thought was prettiest.
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