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trading up-manship

January 11, 2009 Leave a Comment

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090112.tradingup

I remember learning about "trading up" when I worked on the Häagen-Dazs brand a few years ago.  Our VP was a big fan of the book Trading Up, which described how middle-market consumers felt affluent and were starting to trade up up higher premium products.

We baked "trading up" into our brand strategy.  Afterall, we weren't just a premium brand, we were a superpremium brand (ice cream is one of the few categories where superpremium is legally defined – fun fact for today).  Not only was superpremium more profitable, it was growing.  Consumers were willing to pay more for products with stories, with ethics, with higher quality.

I started going to natural products shows and realized there was a whole exploding world of superpremium products, many pushing the bounds of how much premium consumers were willing to pay.  I remember one brand calling itself "ultra superpremium", another "masstige".  I was struck by the one-upmanship.  It seemed like "trading up" applied to brands as well as consumers.  

It made me wonder if brands were juicing products with more premium than consumers really wanted.  Last year, I cracked up seeing a $40 bottle of water decorated with Swarovski Crystals. 

This dynamic has been on my mind lately, as consumers seem to be "trading down" to value in droves.  I heard someone describe a shopping bag from LIDL (a big European discounter) as this year's Anya Hindmarch bag. 

This environment is a litmus test for brands that are truly meaningful.  Rather than trade up, brands need to trade deep.

Filed Under: brand positioning, recession

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  • Paid licensing options include high resolution download.
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  • Newsletter or Website $100.00 Add to Cart
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