the psychology of premium

Paying £16 for a bottle of water sounds a little unhinged.

Until you look at what people are paying for.

Credit to Kelly Mackenzie for the awesome visual here!

Everything in this picture is water. 
But some of it comes free out of a tap, and the priciest bottle costs $16.

And people still happily pay way more for some of them, over and over again.

Because the water barely affects the price.
The price comes from everything wrapped around it.

Here's what's doing the work:

1️⃣ The packaging
↳ A heavy glass bottle feels more premium than a crinkly plastic one before you've even opened it.

2️⃣ Where it comes from
↳ Evian has the Alps. Fiji has an island in the South Pacific.
↳ The origin story is 1/2 the reason it feels special.

3️⃣ Where you find it
↳ The same water feels different in a hotel minibar than it does at a gas station.

4️⃣ The price tag itself
↳ A higher price tells people to expect higher quality, before they've even tasted it.

5️⃣ What it says about you
↳ Liquid Death comes in a tallboy can that looks like it belongs at a punk show.
↳ But that's why people buy it, for how it looks.

This matters way beyond water.

If your product could be swapped for a competitor's tomorrow, your brand is the thing protecting your margin.

And when there's no brand doing that job, the only lever left is cutting your price.

What's the most you've ever paid for something that was basically the same as the cheaper option?

♻️ Repost for the founder who keeps competing on price.
And follow me, Jacob Rokeach, for more on brand and creative systems that scale.