asnpcwiz wrote:
I definitely agree with these statements. In fact, I stated earlier that rareness of a given item or merchandise is one of the main factors that affects price. Granted, there are certain circumstances. I mean, I think a mint 93 Toyota Tercel is pretty rare now, but I wouldn't pay crap for it.
The first order effect is still the brand...after that is scarcity. No matter how scarce a mint 93 Tercel is, it's still a Toyota. If you have a mint 93 Ferrari, that's different.
asnpcwiz wrote:
Regardless, I think the main question is how brand image is perceived. Some are debating that higher priced items are seen as higher brand items, while lower priced items are lower brand items. I don't think it's true. I definitely don't feel that Monster, Sony, Bose, etc are better brands, even though you will pay a premium for their products.
There is a correlation between price and brand. That's the whole point of branding. For the A/V equipment in your example, you are assessing the value of the brand, which is a whole different ballgame. Perceived value differs greatly from person to person, because everybody uses different metrics for value. That's why for any given product (e.g. cars, watches, toilet paper, etc) there are so many different brands.
--Mofongo