Modern Mind Control
It's a fact of life that without conscious attention and prevention, people tend to adjust their lifestyle to match their income. I always thought "Oh, that won't happen to me" - but it did.
If you were earning an minimum wage and you saw an advert for a 50 man yen handbag, you wouldn't even think about buying it. If you were earning 1000 man per year, you might think "Oh that looks nice. Sure, it's a bit pricey, but I work hard - I deserve it".
If you earn minimum wage, you likely only buy new clothes when you really have to, and then you buy them from Seiyu, GU or some place similarly cheap. When you earn more, maybe it's Uniqlo or Muji. Then you earn more, and Montbell and The North Face don't seem so bad. Unchecked, if your salary keeps increasing, eventually you end up in the territory of Gucci and Prada.
Sadly, this is by design.
Let's take a step back - What is the point of earning more money in the first place? I would say it is to give you the freedom to do what you want. To spend your time how you want, with the people you want, doing what you want. I think most people, if they really sat down and thought about it would agree. It's easy to lose sign of this, though.
If you hang out with friends in your income bracket, then it might not seem unreasonable to wear the same brands that they wear - in fact, you might have a desire to do so in order to fit in. People might not always consciously think about it, but they have some desire to advertise their status, and wearing an expensive coat or watch is a way to do that. In reality, most people don't care what kind of watch you wear as much as how nice you are to them.
Another factor is that sometimes buying a more expensive product is actually a better deal. If the clothes you buy at Seiyu fall apart after a few wash cycles and don't fit well, then clothes from Uniqlo may well be a better deal. Likewise, clothes from Montbell might cost twice as much as those from Uniqlo, but that's okay if they last 4 times longer. The problem is that this trend doesn't continue. A Gucci T-Shirt is still just a T-Shirt, and it won't last forever - but the debt incurred on your credit card bill might.
Since this doesn't happen all at once, but creeps up on us, it can be hard for many people to notice. Most people don't think they are being luxurious even when they buy luxury brands - but they may feel like "it seems like I work and work but I just can't get ahead".
Again, this is by design.
The fashion industry is one of the worst offenders, so I will continue on that theme. To give a relatively benign example, a single company, Fast Retailing owns both GU and UniQlo. While both brands are known in Japan for being inexpensive, GU is the budget brand. If we look at it charitably, the GU brand exists to give reasonable options to those with less means. If we look at it less charitably, UniQlo exists to suck more money from those who have it. I think UniQlo clothing is genuinely better and doesn't cost much more, but this type of segmenting exists all over the place, and much of it is less innocent.
Imagine you walk into 7-11 and want to buy a can of bear. There is no price tag, and instead they tell you the price at the register after you scan your point card. As part of the point card program, you have to certify your income to 7-11 once per year by giving them a copy of your tax return. They adjust their prices based on your income. Is your income 400 man? That will be 150 yen. what? Your income is 800 man? That will be 400 yen please.
That sort of price discrimination is generally reviled by the public at large, and luckily the dystopian point system I described above doesn't exist - but something similar to it does.
Let's give an example with the iPhone.
The iPhone 17 SE 64 GB version is estimated to cost about 25000 JPY to produce, but sells for 59800 JPY before tax. That is an astounding 58% profit margin.
The iPhone 17 SE 256 GB version is estimated to cost about 28000 JPY to produce. In other words, that extra memory only costs only 3000 JPY. You might expect the price to be something like 62000 JPY then. In actuality, it costs 74800 JPY! They aren't passing the cost along to the consumer, nor are they trying to maintain the same profit margin - they are charging enough to reap a 63% profit margin.
And this continues - If you look at the iPhone Pro 17 1 TB version, the profit margin is 66%
They have simply decided that rich people are willing to be ripped off more, so let's charge them not just more, but a higher percentage markup. (And... you can be sure this is part of why iPhones don't support add-on Micro SD memory).
This is price discrimination if I have ever seen it, but it is termed the more corporate friendly "Value Based Pricing" by companies. The argument goes like this "We are charging the rich people a higher markup so that we can bring products to the less well off for less than we would otherwise have to charge". Wow, so my rich uncle buys a fancy iPhone Pro Max and the profits from that subsidize my cheap iPhone SE? Except of course that's not what really happens. The iPhone SE still sells not at a loss, but at a 18% markup.
This happens with clothes, cars, computers, phones, and more. It can be better enforced with electronic items when the ability to upgrade after purchase is limited, which is a large part of why you see soldered on SSD and Memory on many newer laptops and such a resistance to the "right to repair" movement.
Existing brands are constantly introducing new sub-brands to try to capture the absolute maximum amount of money they can from consumers. Too poor to buy Dolce & Gabana? We still want your money - Try D&G instead. The opposite happens as well. The already eye-watering prices of Moncler coats are outdone by the "Moncler O" line, purchased by those affluent consumers who don't want to be seen as mere commoners.
Even more silly, some brands will purposely produce "limited edition" models that they will only sell to people who already have VIP status from purchasing lots of stuff already. For example, certain Rolex watch models can only be purchased by existing VIP clients.
In general, if you hear "this is exclusive", rather than getting excited, you should consider if you really need it. Okay, so only 100 of that watch is made - so what? Is it that important to show off?
The point here is that many, many millions of dollars are spent on "lifestyle marketing" to convince you that you have to have things that, if they never existed, you would never have wanted in the first place.
It's easy when someone asks you why you bought something to simply say "because I wanted it" - but why did you want it? Many times, it's because someone spent a lot of time and effort to make sure you did.
At the end of the day, it you hadn't had the money to buy something, and thus not bought it, would your life be worse in some tangible way? Would you have less friends? Less job satisfaction? Value your free time less? In most cases, the answer to these questions is no.
Spending millions of dollars to determine the exact right way to segment, position, advertise, and price goods seems like mind control to me. Tricking people into wanting something they don't really want certainly qualifies.
If you ignore all the static and stick to what you really need, then what would be different is that these companies would be less wealthy, and you would be more wealthy. Realize this: Knowing that you have money in the bank and you don't have to worry about the next recession or unpleasant surprise is probably going to make you a lot happier than a new LV bag or Ferrari. Next tie you are thinking of making a purchase for something that costs more than the average price for items in that category, think for a moment about why you are making that purchase.