Durable Goods, Part 2

The marketing of computers and consumer electronics has gone through a similar development to the marketing of soap, but in much less time—three decades as opposed to more than ten.When computers and other advanced electronics were first introduced as consumer goods, around 1970, magazine ads touted basic capabilities. “This gadget can do this.” (As they were a novelty, this was presumably reason enough to want to buy them.) Later ads gave the message, ” You can do this because this gadget can do this.” (One step up the ladder, from feature to benefit.) Later still, the message became “Your life/work/fun will be fantastic if you buy this gadget.” (The final stage in the hierarchy of needs: self-actualization.)Even after establishing a lifestyle (or workstyle) benefit, advertising for computers and electronics still emphasizes technical specifications, whereas the advertising for soaps rests firmly with lifestyle. Presumably, this is because the audience for these devices cares more about their technical capabilities than the audience for soap cares about its constituents.Building a luxury brand is the ultimate exercise in positioning. A luxury product needs to be more than just top-quality and well designed. It needs to be offered in the right venue, by the right sort of person, for the right price, which means high enough to be exclusive.The trick of branding a plentiful commodity such as diamonds—convincing people to pay a high price for a rock of no particular rarity or worth, and then to attach sentimental value to it—surely qualifies as one of the greatest positioning successes of all time. Starting in the 1940s, De Beers and its partners managed to convince Hollywood screenwriters to write scenes into their movies in which leading men chose a diamond engagement ring for their leading ladies, cementing the association between diamonds and romantic commitment in the public mind. Strangely though, it is only in the twenty-first century that diamond retailers such as Swarovsky and Zales have begun to build their own brands. And, as awareness of so-called conflict diamonds has made buyers more concerned about who profits from the diamond trade, origin branding for diamonds is also becoming important, with “safe” countries like Canada etching miniature logos on the sides of diamonds they export.