This may all be true. And people cite similar reasoning when they
pay rich premiums for Mercedes or Bentley. Luxury products have to
be great. But they also signal status. They improve your procreational
brand. This may not be apparent in rich neighborhoods, where it
seems that almost everyone carries various Apple gadgets. How cool
can you possibly be as the fourteenth person to open a MacBook in
Paris’s Café de Flore? In these cases, try looking at it the other way. If
Apple’s the standard, how much does a person’s attractiveness to the
opposite sex suffer when he or she boots up a Dell or pulls out a Moto
X to snap a picture?
I’m not saying, by the way, that the sexual bounce coming from a
luxury purchase will actually occur. Millions of iPhone owners sleep
alone at night. But buying the luxury item triggers an emotion, a boost
in serotonin that attends happiness and success. And maybe it does
make you more attractive to strangers—certainly a Dell won’t. The
decision to pay a premium comes from an ancient and primal urge
from the lower body—even while the brain yammers on about the
rational stuff. (I’ll explore this phenomenon further in chapter 7.)
There will be a lot of big losers on the other side of Apple’s luxury
coin. For example, 2015 was arguably Nike’s best year. The firm
increased its revenues by $2.8 billion.^38 By comparison, Apple grew its
revenues $51 billion.^39 That’s an Atlantic Ocean of discretionary
dollars people won’t be spending on other things.
The most likely to tank under the Apple onslaught are the mid-
level luxury companies, the ones selling stuff for less than $1,000
(J.Crew, Michael Kors, Swatch, and others). Their customers count
their money—and young consumers care more about their phones and
coffee than clothes. So, where do limited discretionary dollars go? An
old phone with a cracked spiderweb screen limits their options for
mating far more than last year’s jacket or purse. They might scrimp on
the $78 patterned Hedley Hoodie at Abercrombie & Fitch, the $298
quilted-leather shoulder bag at Michael Kors, or the Kate Spade Luna
Drive Willow Satchel, which goes for $498.
On the other hand, that $51 billion lost to Apple shouldn’t affect
platinum brands, such as Porsche or Brunello Cucinelli. Their
customers can afford everything, and don’t have to choose.