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Comment by fncypants | Hacker News Reader

Brought to mind Yeti coolers. Unnecessarily expensive, but that's why you have/want them.

> Well, the price, for one thing. Yetis work like a Veblen good, which are luxury items that turn the laws of supply and demand upside down. Take Swiss watches: “A guy who buys Rolex watches doesn’t want a cheap Rolex,” Williams says. “Part of the prestige of that brand is when you wear it, everyone knows they cost at least $8,000 and up. If Rolex brought out a low-end model, it would kill their brand.” It’s why the iPhone 5C — a low-priced iPhone — flopped. [0]

[0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/why-are-coolers-so-expen...

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Yes, Yeti coolers are generally the most expensive coolers. But if that was the only reason for their high price point, we would see alternative rotomolded coolers of similar quality that are significantly cheaper, not just the 10-33% we tend to see in the market.

Yeti 45: $300

Engel 45: $275

RTIC 45: $200

Sure, $300 is quite a bit more expensive than $200, but they're also not the same:

- Yet 3 years vs RTIC 1 year warranty

- Yeti performs better

- Yeti has better design (form & function)

- You can pick up a Yeti at your local REI vs RTIC is only available DTC

- Yeti is a household, lifestyle brand, that's done the work to create this market (alternatives would most likely not exist without Yeti doing this work)

The difference between a Rolex and another watch that has the same capability is a couple orders of magnitude apart in price. $200 vs $300 on a cooler isn't that big of a difference.

But then why did the 5C flop, rather than succeeding in the short term and killing the iPhone brand?

I'd wager it's because it wasn't nice, not because it wasn't expensive. Low end phones aren't nice to use, and people who buy Apple buy it for the polished user experience.

If they sold their flagship phone at entry-level prices then I'd expect it to do as you suggest, selling like hotcakes but devaluing the brand. Even then it wouldn't do half as much damage to the iPhone brand as a $100 Rolex would do to the Rolex brand, because iPhones have a lot of utility that makes them worth having whereas a watch is, these days, almost entirely a vanity item.

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