Cost effective
I’d like to present a little character sketch, if I may. A character sketch about a man named Tom.
Tom is in a liquor store browsing the whisky shelves. Tom likes scotch. The bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label he has at home is almost finished, and he needs something new. Tom glances around… VAT 69? No… too cheap. Cost is important, but he doesn’t want a ‘cheap and nasty’ bottle of no–name turpentine. Tom looks up, if only fleetingly, to “the top shelf”. All the fancy–pants well–to–do whiskies are there, the kind of whiskies he imagines well–paid CEOs drinking in their high–rise apartments: Aberlour, Chivas Regal, Glenfiddich. Tom sighs.
“Why in the world would anybody buy a bottle of Glenfiddich?” Tom ponders, “I mean, it’s only whisky.”
Tom is right. It is only whisky. Glass for glass it’s the same strength as Johnnie Walker Red Label, the world’s leading brand scotch whisky; and the bottles are the same size, to boot. What possible benefits could a bottle of Glenfiddich scotch whisky convey Tom? Sure, it’s a single malt compared to Johnnie’s blend, and it’s aged twelve years to Johnnie’s wholly–unspecified age, but it costs almost twice as much. He can get a bottle of Johnnie for thirty bucks… or he can get a bottle of Glenfiddich for fifty–eight. The way Tom sees it, he ain’t gettin’ any drunker… just poorer.
Tom leaves the store with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label.
Of course, Tom is missing the point. Glenfiddich is a superior whisky by virtue of taste… sheer enjoyment; it’s classy and it doesn’t care that you and your wallet have an inferiority complex. Of course, if you don’t like scotch you could easily switch Glenfiddich for Moët & Chandon’s fine French Champagne. Then you could swap Johnnie Walker with oh, I don’t know… some other champagne. The point is, some people are willing to pay for quality, some people are willing to pay for branding, and some people just pay because they have assloads of cash. The rest of us pay for whatever we can afford.
Now, switch Glenfiddich for Apple Computer and Johnnie Walker for Dell, and understand why Apple can never “conquer” the PC market. Cost is too important a factor.