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Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods... And How Companies Create Them (Revised and Updated)
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Sales rank 404,197
Customers rating (based on 37 reviews)
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First published to media acclaim in October 2003, Trading Up revealed how today’s middle-class consumers are seeking higher levels of quality, taste, and aspiration than had ever been possible before—in their choices of cars and clothing, vodka and beer, golf clubs and dolls, and much more. The book identified a major opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators, managers and marketers, in every category of consumer goods and services. Now Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske have thoroughly revised this BusinessWeek bestseller with new research and new insights into the still- growing phenomenon of trading up.
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| Publisher | Portfolio Hardcover | | Release date | 12/2004 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $26.95 | | Our price | $21.56 (you save 20.00%) | | Used price | from $0.01 |
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 Great insights!
I loved this book! It confirmed a lot of what I suspected just from my own habits and those around me. And there's lots of great advice and examples for people trying to get into the growing "new luxury" market.
Good introduction
If you want a basic economic study that has surprising resonance - even prescience - about the current mortgage/credit meltdown, this is the one.
Interesting treatment of how we perceive value
Perhaps the most interestly aspect of this book are its insights through a series of case studies into how people perceive value in the material culture around them. The authors are fascinated by how, given some modest shifts in fit, form and function, some products will be perceived both at the point of sale and on an on-going basis as giving much more satisfaction than others. While the book is intended to be neither exhaustive nor profound, a blending of some of the methods of cultural anthropology, semiotics, and marketing offers perspectives that comparable treatments do not.
New Criteria for Self-Definition
In the original and now in this revised edition, Silverstein and Fiske brilliantly examine "New Luxury": a rapidly developing socio-economic trend as America's middle-market consumers are trading up to "products and services which possess higher levels of quality, taste, and [key word] aspiration than [other] goods in the [same] category but are not so expensive as to be out of reach...[trading up to products and services which] sell at much higher prices than conventional goods and in much higher volumes than traditional luxury goods and, as a result, have soared into previously uncharted territory high above the familiar price-volume demand curve." The significance of this paradigm shift has profound implications for literally anyone who competes each day for consumers' attention, consideration, and (most important of all) business.
Think about it. How to explain the spectacular success of diverse companies such as Starbucks, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Lexus and BMW, Williams-Sonoma and Bed, Bath & Beyond, Restoration Hardware, Victoria's Secret, Prada, Coach, Panera Bread, and Callaway? Granted, most consumers cannot afford to purchase everything from companies such as these but an astonishing number of consumers are not only willing but eager to pay a premium for at least a few of the products offered.
Why? Silverstein and Fiske offer several reasons. New Luxury merchants never underestimate their customer; they shatter the price-volume demand curve; they create a ladder of genuine benefits (i.e. technical, functional, and emotional benefits); they escalate innovation, elevate quality, and deliver a flawless experience; they extend the price range and positioning of the brand; they customize the customer's value chain to deliver on the benefit ladder; they use influence marketing to "seed" success through brand apostles (i.e. "evangelism"); and finally, they continually attack the category like an outsider. What Silverstein and Fiske offer is this volume is a rigorous analysis of those companies which continue to be most successful in the New Luxury economy. They also explain in detail precisely HOW they achieve such success.
 Emotionally Based Fluff
I'm really disappointed by this book.
The "case studies" are short and extremely basic. For example, take Cadillac's "case study". Two or three pages about the history of Cadillac. The perceived problem with the Cadillac brand is stated in one paragraph. "Fifty-seven year old executive Gary" tells us the quality and innovation of Cadillac products declined.
While I'm sure Gary is an excellent judge of quality, I'd like to see some of this backed up. The JD Power and Associates or Consumer Reports reliability surveys aren't included and neither are reviews of problematic Cadillacs written by experts. They claim Mercedes-Benz provided more features than Cadillacs, but there's no side-by-side comparison of similar models. They interviewed two BMW officials, but no interviews with independent automotive experts or Cadillac executives. Actually, there's rarely balance in the writing. There are brands that have no criticism and brands that are wholly criticized.
At the end of the Cadillac chapter, they claim that reviving New Luxury brands is "unlikely," meaning that Cadillac may never be able to successful compete against Lexus or BMW. However, throughout the book, New Luxury buyers are supposedly people that seek out quality. If that was true, wouldn't New Luxury buyers return to Cadillac once they improve the product? So what is it? Are New Luxury goods high-end products that are actively sought for in the market or are they products completely dependent on marketing schemes?
The Cadillac chapter is representative of the rest of the book. The chapter on kitchens has statements like, "The quality of our appliances represents us." The notes section reveals the chapter is based on interviews with two officials (Whirlpool and Crate & Barrel) and a focus group of washer and dryer owners who made the authors "think twice about the boundaries of the relationship between person and machine."
If you're wondering about Gary, he made out okay. After his son began making fun of his Cadillacs in the 1970s, he switched to imports.
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