Janus Thinking

Ahh, wine. Beginner and expert connoisseurs alike can appreciate it for different reasons. I was reminded of this earlier this month when I saw this story about wine psychology in the New York Times. Food writer Robin Goldstein has written a book called "The Wine Trials" in which he found, in a survey of 500 volunteers, that less expensive wines were being rated higher than more expensive wines in blind tests. However, there’s more to the story than that–he found that novice wine drinkers don’t appreciate the same things as more experienced drinkers, and that, as Eric Asimov notes in the article:

Most people in the wine trade understand that consumers have any number of reasons for their buying decisions, whatever their psychological and financial state. Some are reassured by easy-to-understand labels with friendly animals. Others want only naturally produced wines or bottles with a modest carbon footprint. Some are status-seekers and score-chasers, while others are contrarians, or only drink red wine.

The story also mentions how people seem to appreciate wine more when they think it’s more expensive (something we’ve noted on Janus Thinking before). When people are interpreting an item and figuring out it’s value for themselves, how much should the price matter, and how much will this differ among beginners and true connoisseurs?

[Photo by rpeschetz]

Here’s a follow-up to two items we’ve covered on Janus Thinking before. The first–remember this bibliochase chair of many books? You can now purchase a similar sofa–the Flexform Oltre–to cater to all your reading and lounging needs. It looks very cool, though I wonder if those pillows might start pushing books out the sides.

And this diamond-encrusted Mercedes? At the time I wasn’t sure of the car’s provenance, but thanks to its resurfacing on Boing Boing Gadgets this week (and thanks to the commenters on the site)–I now can say that the car is actually encrusted with Swarovski crystals, and was made to promote a German car accessory maker’s new ‘crystal collection’ of car accessories. More photos and info here.

Is it personal investment and independence (by the designer or the founding family) that makes a luxury brand special? Such is the suggestion of this article in Forbes last week. Recently Millward Brown, a market research company owned by WPP, put together a list of the world’s most powerful luxury brands using WPP’s Brandz database, which according to the article is the world’s largest repository of brand equity data, including over a million interviews with consumers about their attitude towards brands.

Louis Vuitton was on top, but there were several companies on the top end of the list (including Armani and Hermes) that are private or still have a family as a primary shareholder–by having a majority or entire stake in the company, these companies can focus on quality and design without having shareholders breathing down their necks about higher profits.

There’s also a nice quote about the longevity of luxury from Nikhil Gharekhan, senior vice president at Millward Brown:

Luxury brands do very well because they command high levels of emotional loyalty. They ensure that the loyal customers are going to come, and, therefore, revenue stream is assured. Even in times of recession these brands don’t cut costs; they continue to deliver top quality. It’s almost a justification to splurge on these brands.

Forbes also has a slideshow of some of the luxury brands on the list here.

Do private luxury brands have an advantage over their public peers?

[Photo by Donna Grayson]