Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #387431 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-29
• Released on: 2004-12-29
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks traced the cultural forces behind the rise of what he called the bohemian bourgeois class. Now Silverstein and Fiske take a close look at its buying patterns. Both authors have v-p-level experience at the Boston Consulting Group studying retail practices, and they display deep familiarity with "new luxury" goods favored by a growing segment of the American middle market with more disposable income than ever. They're talking about people who take shopping tips from Oprah and Martha, swear their washing machine makes them happy, and dine at "fast casual" restaurants instead of burger chains. Many chapters focus on companies that produce specific luxury items. Victoria's Secret, for example, was a small, seedy store before it was purchased by a visionary retailer convinced American women would be willing to pay higher prices for attractive lingerie in a boutique setting. There's also the case of Callaway Golf, which was able to target new luxury shoppers to achieve a tenfold increase in revenue within just three years. Even the toy market can become a breeding ground for high-end items, like American Girl dolls, a line with an extensive back story that appeals to the luxury consumer's desire to "know" the pedigree of his or her purchases (just as some wine aficionados jump at the chance to display their mastery of California vintages). Despite the book's slight technical flaws, including a high degree of repetitiveness, its insights into a highly lucrative market (e.g., single women earn in excess of $374 billion annually) make this a must read for anyone interested in practical economics.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Many words can be written that underscore the truth about trading up--or, in these authors' words, "consumers who selectively trade up to better products and trade down to pay for other premium purchases." Writers have documented the trend of middle-market Americans to selectively decide that, say, a luxury automobile or vacation is worth the extra bucks while "sacrificing" other goods, such as dining out or clothing. With much perspicacity and no small amount of statistics, Silverstein and his coauthors underscore with eight practices what leaders need to do, including never underestimating customers to using influence marketing and seeding success through brand apostles. However, many of the examples they use are the "same-old" case histories--Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, Canyon Ranch, Samuel Adams Boston lager--that have been employed time and time again to illustrate other segmentation and marketing theories. Yet the concepts are valid; the caveats should be heeded. What's needed? Extraordinarly savvy marketers who can stay the course in the toughest of economies. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise
Incredibly smart and illuminating... Packed with insights into how shoppers think and behave.

Customer Reviews

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.