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Today I am wondering about...
Jun. 14th, 2004 06:47 pmthe concept of luxury... Sparked by the realization that every new condo or apartment complex I've seen go up in Weymouth (where I live) and Quincy (where I work) since we moved here (over three years now) has been labelled "luxury condos". Once I noticed that, I realized I was seeing the word everywhere - even on apartment complexes that are old and run-down-ish looking.
So I'm wondering what builders / agents / marketers thinkk that word means to people. None of these places look like they would qualify as luxurious to me - they're cookie cutter places, built incredibly quickly with boring landscaping, and they look pretty damn small from the outside at least.
Has it just become one more word that once had meaning, carried a coonotation, but now is just a hollow marketing term that means nothing? Is it only used so that one development won't be looked down on because it's not labelled luxury, when all else is the same?
There was discussion recently on the spinning community about how for some goods, (in this case fancy hand-spun yarn, but true for other things as well) price becomes a part of the purchasing experience... an item's value can be enhanced simply by having a larger price tag - because it costs more, it feels more special, and we value it more highly, even if its absolute value is no different than that of a lower priced item.
So I wonder if that's what's happening here - slap a label of luxury on it, make people think they're getting more than they are. Because they already think that, jack the price up by $20,000, and confirm what they believe to be true about the quality of the construction, the value of their new home. And then of course, everything must be labelled as luxury, because well something that isn't just wouldn't be worth as much. And then it means nothing.
People are weird.
So I'm wondering what builders / agents / marketers thinkk that word means to people. None of these places look like they would qualify as luxurious to me - they're cookie cutter places, built incredibly quickly with boring landscaping, and they look pretty damn small from the outside at least.
Has it just become one more word that once had meaning, carried a coonotation, but now is just a hollow marketing term that means nothing? Is it only used so that one development won't be looked down on because it's not labelled luxury, when all else is the same?
There was discussion recently on the spinning community about how for some goods, (in this case fancy hand-spun yarn, but true for other things as well) price becomes a part of the purchasing experience... an item's value can be enhanced simply by having a larger price tag - because it costs more, it feels more special, and we value it more highly, even if its absolute value is no different than that of a lower priced item.
So I wonder if that's what's happening here - slap a label of luxury on it, make people think they're getting more than they are. Because they already think that, jack the price up by $20,000, and confirm what they believe to be true about the quality of the construction, the value of their new home. And then of course, everything must be labelled as luxury, because well something that isn't just wouldn't be worth as much. And then it means nothing.
People are weird.
