Fri, March 25, 2005

Seth Godin, with whom I frequently disagree, is harping on an Internet company called Green Culture for charging online customers more for the same product.

On the short list [Seth's Blog]

Losing Sleep Over Online Bed Purchases [trite pun courtesy of WP]

I think the derision is misdirected here. Green Culture is pretty slimy to offer the same bed under a different name for more money, but that's not the point. This is:

The price of the queen-size model, made by Lifestyle Solutions, ranged from $299 to $449.

But the District couple say they wanted something "a bit nicer." So they bought a $695, custom-ordered bed called Malibu from eco-furniture.com, the Web site of Green Culture.

As the article says later on, both websites use the same photograph to identify the bed: they're identical. If you're going to be the kind of moron who buys into the "perceived value" of an identical bed, thinking it's "nicer" just because it costs an extra $250, then you deserve to pay more. If Green Culture identifies these customers and profits from their stupidity, then good for Green Culture!

Look, I occasionally do it too, find a pricier item because the cheap one seems too good to be true and I don't want to get burned with a shoddy knock-off. It's thinking like this that allows the concept of "brand" to carry so much weight in marketing. But I don't whine about it. I know I'm being a stooge. Let's not forget: the fair price is the price the market will bear, not the price that sounds fair. If you don't believe me, try shopping for real estate in Southern California, for Christ's sake.