Designer Perfume And Price - Are You Being Fooled?
I remember seeing a billboard in San Diego, years ago: "What's the difference between cheap wine and expensive wine? The price."
I didn't realize exactly how true this was until I read a study on wine, published a few years later, in 2007. In the experiment, researchers told the subjects that they would be tasting five different wines at a price ranging from $5 to $90. The subjects rated the wines, and they reported enjoying the higher priced wines more than the lower priced wines.
*Do expensive wines taste better?*
I know, big surprise, right? It's no secret that people look at price to determine quality, especially when there are no other factors. If you see two babysitters for hire and one is more expensive, many people will assume that the pricier babysitter will give better service, and hire them. As my friend put it, "I'd think that something is wrong with the cheaper option, and I wouldn't want to risk it."
Even with less risky situations, people still assume higher quality or service in a higher-priced option. This isn't a bad thing; often, higher price does reflect better quality... but not always.
In the wine study, the subjects were really tasting the same wines at two different prices! They really tasted three wines: two of them twice, at the low price and the high price. They couldn't tell they were tasting the same wine, and their brain monitors showed that they physically enjoyed the wines more when they thought they were more expensive.
*How important is price in the perception of quality?*
In my years of teaching perfume knockoffs, I've found that most people distrust the quality of the homemade versions, at first. I thought it was because it was so unusual, so unofficial, and so much off the beaten path from normal ways to get discounts.
Turns out, it may simply be because the designer dupes are so inexpensive compared to the original fragrances, even though the scents are indistinguishable from the originals. People are still being, well, duped by price! (When my students actually use their own products, though, they usually are quick to admit that it's as good as the real thing.)
"What makes perfume so expensive? The price!"
But what is the real cost of perfume? The materials are not what make the fragrances so expensive. Most designer perfumes are manufactured at one of eight big perfume companies, and they are produced in such volume that the materials only account for 10% of the cost. Some of the ingredients are truly fine and expensive, but much less for them than for a hobbyist or small boutique perfumer.
The number of manmade ingredients in modern designer perfumes both lower costs and increase the perception of value! Fragrances not found in nature smell modern and cutting-edge, which has value on its own. Many of these same manmade scent molecules are, of course, used in everything from bathroom freshener to cleaning sprays, but their presence in perfumes takes on a high-class sheen.
*The costly fantasy of perfume.*
Perfume is part of fashion, and our reasons for buying it are emotional and culturally-induced. No one wants to smell bad, of course, but the "meaning" of perfume is learned, acquired through both cultural legend and personal experience. Most of the price of perfume is the creation of the cultural legends. The ad campaigns and celebrities, the created fantasies around perfumes such as Chanel #5, the bottles and packaging that emphasize the perfume's "meaning," and the high price all raise perfume to its luxury status.
Is this bad or wrong? Should we blame perfume manufacturers for artificially raising the price just so we think their perfumes are better? Of course not. The cultural legends -- the fictional experience -- of perfume have value. The emotions evoked by perfume are very real, just as the emotions caused by a movie are also real... just as the enjoyment of the wine tasters was real.
There will be people who will only buy name-brand goods for this reason. There will always be people who buy things just because they're expensive. But there will also be creative bargain hunters -- people who see beyond the curtain and find creative ways to get the luxuries they want for less money!
by: Katherine M. Durkes
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