Gails Blog

So PJ and I were walking past a shop window on the way to a shoot the other day when we looked in at the washers and driers. PJ has just bought a new house, which came with a washer and dryer she doesn’t particularly like. She was looking at an energy efficient front loader with a little lust. The set was on sale; a good price we thought. Especially when we turned around and compared it to the Big Name set that was priced higher.

Funny that. It seems it’s in our natures to assume that because it has a higher price, it’s a better product.

To prove the point, researchers from CalTech and Stanford told their guinea-pigs that they were drinking five different wines at five different prices. You know what? Those tricky psychologist lied; there were only three types of wine because two wines were offered twice: a $5 wine was described as costing $5 and $45, and a $90 bottle was described as costing $90 and $10. (There was also a $35 wine with the accurate price given.)

The guinea-pigs not only rated a wine as tasting better when they were told it was pricier, but their brain scans showed greater activity in their pleasure zones. OMG! Just being told the wine was more expensive gave the drinker greater pleasure. How awful is that?

Perfume is another good example of a product whose quality is often measured by its price. You can buy a six-ounce bottle of a lovely perfume at the drugstore for $30.00. If you want Chanel No. 5, one ounce will cost you $250.

A friend of mine told me a story that made me split with laughter. It seems her cousin was in the drugstore where he saw an expensive brand of cologne on special, two-for-one. So he bought them. He didn’t need them, but the idea that he was getting something expensive for FREE made him bite. His perception wasn’t that the colognes were half the price they had been before. No. He kept the original price as his benchmark, and registered the other bottle as FREE to justify dropping a lot of money he could ill afford to spend.

Hey, nobody likes a BOGO sale more than moi. I’m talking averaging down two pairs of shoes to $20 each here, not popping for a $300 handbag so I can get the other one for $150. I guess, it’s all a matter of perspective.

While it is sometimes true that “you get what you pay for”, if you decide to pay two or three times the price for a particular product, does that mean you expect it to be twice or three times as good? Think about it. Is that Super-de-dooper Latte really three times better than the coffee you could pick up at Timmy’s?

This is where we get into the whole idea of “value.” Dollar for dollar if the more expensive item isn’t proportionally better than the cheaper one, should you spend the extra money? Would the lower priced item suit your needs just fine?

So how’s a body supposed to counteract the More-expensive-is-better syndrome? You could do some blind testing of our own. If there are products you pay extra for because you think their higher quality makes it worthwhile, maybe it’s time to check your assumption.

You could also be better informed by reading consumer reports available in magazines or online. You could ask for friends’ opinions on the performance of less expensive alternatives they may be using.

Okay, it’s your turn: Have you ever bought a premium anything only to be disappointed? Do you have substitutes that you routinely choose over more expensive items because they are just as good?