December 9, 2003 – ‘Tis the Season–To Spend More or To Be More?
“In our fifty combined years of listening to consumers, we have never heard more heartfelt expressions of emotion about a product that even industry insiders think of as mundane and unworthy of much attention,” The Zenit (Vatican City) News recently reported that the usual concern over excessive consumerism at Christmas has a new twist this year: the growing popularity of luxury brands. A recent book, Trading Up:The New American Luxury, observed that people are increasingly disposed to pay higher prices for what they see as premium products.
The luxury goods include even otherwise mundane household needs. A prestige trademark washer-dryer, for example, sells for more than $2,000, compared with conventional brands that retail for around $600. To their surprise, the authors came across numerous consumers from various backgrounds who assured them that possessing the higher-cost brand made them feel happier and a better person.
“In our fifty combined years of listening to consumers, we have never heard more heartfelt expressions of emotion about a product that even industry insiders think of as mundane and unworthy of much attention,” they marvel.
Other examples involve what are more commonly seen as luxury products. One consumer said that he had paid $3,000 for his premium golf clubs, as opposed to under $1,000 for a more conventional set, because “they make me feel rich.”
Types of Luxury Products
The authors divide the New Luxury products into three major types. The first type is the accessible super-premium products. These are priced at or near the top of their category. But, being low-ticket items, they are still affordable to middle-market consumers. For example: a $28 bottle of premium vodka, as opposed to $16 for more ordinary brands.
The second type is the old luxury-brand extensions: lower-priced versions of products for the rich. Popular items here include cheaper models of top-range cars.
Third is the “masstige” goods, a term the authors use to refer to mass prestige goods that occupy a spot between mass and class and command a premium price. For example, toiletry products that carry a fancy brand name can mean a price difference of over 200%.
Fulfilling Emotional Needs
What is the appeal of New Luxury goods? The authors observe that they are typically based on the emotions, and that consumers have a much stronger emotional engagement with “luxury items” than with other goods.
Once consumers become convinced of the superiority of a product and form an emotional attachment to it, they are prepared to spend a disproportionate amount of income on it. This is done by scrimping on other expenditures. These consumers thus avoid middle-range products, trading down in some areas to save money, and in others going for a higher-price item.
Increasing weight is given to emotional self-satisfaction: “[W]e all receive countless messages every day — especially from media influencers and celebrity endorsers — urging us to reach for our dreams, fulfill our emotional needs …”
Being and Having
John Paul II’s first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, echoed the Second Vatican Council’s insistence on the importance of “being” over “having.” The encyclical, in section No. 15, warned that modern progress demands “a proportional development of morals and ethics,” which he observed seems “unfortunately to be always left behind.”
The Pope asked if this progress really makes human life “more human” and more “worthy.” In some areas it does, he replied. But he questioned whether, in the most essential facets of human life, we are becoming truly better, more mature spiritually, more aware of the dignity of our humanity, more responsible, and more open to others, especially the neediest.
John Paul II also asked if, amid material progress, there is a growth of social love, of respect for the rights of others — or if there is an increase in selfishness. This materialism, he warned, can lead us to become slaves of our own desires and consumer goods.
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” warns Jesus in Matthew 6:21. Timely advice for brand-conscious consumers.
Discussion Questions
What are some “luxury” products you have seen advertised recently? How are we persuaded by advertising and the media that we will feel emotional satisfaction from these kinds of material goods? How can people become slaves to their own desires and to their consumer goods?
What would be helpful to you and others to emphasize “being” over “having?” despite living in a consumer oriented society, or, as it is being called, in “the marketplace of desire? What can we do, and cultivate, so we are less drawn into materialism, especially around Christmas?
From the Education for Justice website of the Center of Concern.
