The Luxury Brand Image: Why Apple Makes Unnecessary Expensive Products

Apple is often referred to as the luxury brand in the tech world, and it's this image that drives their product strategy. To maintain this premium status, they must price certain products extremely high, even if they're not necessarily necessary or desirable. Take, for example, the Mac Pro wheels. These wheels are a staggering $700, which is more than some people would pay for an entire computer system. But why does Apple make such a product? The answer lies in the company's desire to keep up their luxury image.

Apple regularly doesn't need to make money back on every single product they produce; instead, they often subsidize less successful products with their more successful ones. This strategy allows them to maintain their premium brand image without sacrificing too much revenue. However, this approach also means that they're willing to sacrifice certain products in order to keep up the luxury status. The Mac Pro wheels are a perfect example of this.

Keeping the Luxury Image: A High-Priced Product Strategy

Keeping a perceived high quality isn't easy; it doesn't come effortlessly. Apple is in a highly competitive tech world where other companies are throwing their absolute best at them, trying to make as much money as possible. To stay ahead, Apple must be strategic with their pricing and product offerings. They're not allergic to pricing things competitively when it benefits their business, but they also need to maintain their luxury image.

This is where the high-priced products come in. By choosing to only produce one version of a product, like the desktop tower computer, Apple can maintain its premium status. The price point is just one factor that contributes to this perceived quality. Studies have shown that people will assume higher priced items are better quality simply because of their price tag. However, competition in the tech world is brutal, and Apple cannot simply raise all prices across the board.

The Role of Media Attention: Creating Buzz Around Expensive Products

Media attention can be a powerful tool for creating buzz around expensive products like the Mac Pro wheels. Virtually every article written about these wheels mentions other apple products, often shedding light on the company's history and highlighting other products that could have been purchased for the same price as the wheels themselves. This creates the illusion of exclusivity and scarcity, which is essential for maintaining a luxury brand image.

In essence, all press is good press when it comes to creating buzz around Apple products like the Mac Pro wheels. By embracing this strategy, Apple can create a perception of high quality and exclusivity that drives sales. The question remains, would you buy the Mac Pro wheels even if they were $200 or $25? The answer is likely no, but that's not the point. The point is that these products exist because Apple wants them to.

The Consequences of Prioritizing Luxury: A Perfect Sacrifice

Ultimately, the sacrifice made by Apple with the Mac Pro wheels is a perfect example of prioritizing their luxury status over practicality and customer needs. By choosing to make such an expensive product, they're creating a perception of high quality that may not be entirely justified. However, it's also clear that this strategy is effective in creating buzz and driving sales.

The 300 coffee table book and the $17,000 gold Apple Watch are other examples of how Apple prioritizes its luxury image over customer needs. While these products may seem extravagant or unnecessary to some, they're a perfect fit for the company's brand strategy. By embracing this approach, Apple is able to create a perception of high quality that drives sales and maintains their luxury status.

The Merch: A Bonus

Finally, it's worth noting that the merch, including the Mac Pro wheels, is also on sale. This may not be as exciting as buying one of these products at full price, but it's still a chance to get your hands on something unique and exclusive. Whether or not you'll actually buy any of these items remains to be seen, but they're certainly an interesting addition to Apple's product lineup.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Mac Pro wheels are just one example of how Apple prioritizes its luxury status over practicality and customer needs. By making expensive products like these, they're able to maintain their premium brand image and create a perception of high quality that drives sales. While it may seem extravagant or unnecessary to some, this strategy is effective in creating buzz and driving revenue for the company.

Whether you'd buy the Mac Pro wheels at any price is debatable, but one thing's for sure: these products exist because Apple wants them to. And who knows, maybe they'll even inspire someone out there to create something amazing with their purchase. The only way to find out is to check out the merch and see if it sparks some creativity.

Links:

* Linus from Minus Tech Tips made a great video touching on this topic.

* A study shows that people will assume higher-priced items are better quality simply because of their price tag.

References:

* Study link (insert link here)

* Linus from Minus Tech Tips video (insert link here)

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwow hey what's up guys mkbhd here welcome back to quarantine content just a little entertainment for you while we're all staying inside i'm your host marquez brownlee and uh you might have heard by now that apple was selling these wheels for the mac pro you remember that clip at the end of our mac pro review of it just kind of rolling away because there are no locks yeah those wheels now on the surface it's not actually clear why anyone would actually need wheels to their computer considering your computer just sits at your desk anyway but hey you know what there's nothing wrong with selling a product that very few people actually need but they are a 400 option when you configure them alongside the new mac pro and if you don't do that you decide you want them later for some reason you can buy them to install yourself separately for seven hundred dollars seven hundred dollars for these wheels i have some thoughts so there's a lot of reactions i could give a lot of things i could say about these wheels about how ridiculous they are how stupid they are how insulting it would be that they would even offer that but i decided to take a step back and actually try to consider why they exist in the first place now as you saw by the unboxing i actually have the wheels and i gotta say having them in person which very few people obviously do there are some really nice wheels objectively these might be the nicest computer wheels i've ever seen now i don't know about you but when i think of computer wheels i'm thinking of like the dusty plastic like those standard casters you see in schools these wheels are complete and total overkill uh they're entirely metal and rubber and you can tell as soon as you pick one up it's hefty like there's weight to it how much weight you might be asking well one wheel weighs more than twice an iphone 11 pro so you can tell it's basically solid metal they come with this metal dual sided hex tool with a black rubberized sleeve around the middle for grip that just says china there's also two nearly identical installation guides in the box for some reason but one of them with more languages than the other why would they make two of these instead of just printing it all on one i don't know and the wheels themselves they fully articulate 360 degrees at every joint so the top joint rotates totally around and also says china on the top of it and then there's two fully independent fully articulate super smooth rubber treads so kind of like a car with torque vectoring it can create an even tighter turning radius than if it was a one-sided single tire so all that being said are these wheels actually good to cost 700 no of course not still if this if this piece of metal with tiny microchips and ram and a motherboard and batteries and cameras and software tying it all together and the screen costs 400 then the material cost is clearly not there but you know sometimes you can argue the value of something is higher based on the value it delivers to the person who buys it but still the value of these wheels is just putting the mac pro on wheels with no brakes and the mac pro has to be plugged into the wall to be on anyway so that argument doesn't really work really the only reasonable argument you can come up with having actually seen these is okay these are such high quality wheels that the tooling required to make them cost so much and the volume that they're going to sell is so low that they have to price them super high to make their money back on selling these wheels but apple doesn't need to make their money back on every single product they make they regularly don't do that and they often subsidize their less successful products with their more successful ones so why would apple make these 700 wheels if they know that the answer i think to keep their shine see apple loves to keep this image of a premium luxury brand it's what allows them to charge more for a lot of stuff but everyone knows every every luxury brand's got some luxury products that you know are so expensive that people aren't really mad that they can't get it but it's super easy to make fun of we see this with brands we talk about all the time supreme gucci rolex bugatti you know there's a ton of them and no matter what you think of them you've heard of them and you know what they stand for now let's be perfectly clear apple is a tech company obviously but in this tech world they are the luxury one and keeping that status keeping that perceived image of high quality isn't easy that that doesn't just come effortlessly you know they're in a competitive tech world where other companies are throwing their absolute best at them and trying to make their best possible products and make as much money as they possibly can and so that competitive landscapes crafted the likes of the 329 ipad which is an incredible deal in the tablet world and of course the recent 400 iphone se that's super competitive again one of the best deals ever from their camp so they're not allergic to pricing things competitively especially when it benefits their business but on the other end of the spectrum to keep their premium luxury image they of course need high priced products see this is something i've talked about in some previous apple related videos because as much products as they do make i've wished that they would make more to fill in the gaps because often in some categories they will choose to keep up their image they will choose to just make the expensive version of that thing like when making a desktop tower computer they only make one and they made the expensive one now there are many things that can change the perceived quality of an item you know the actual hardware quality and fit and finish and materials and even the name and the design of the packaging but the price is also one of those things there have been studies done and i'll try to link one of them below where you put two essentially identical things next to each other and price one item higher than the other and if you ask people which they think is the better higher quality item they'll pick the more expensive one people literally just assume with no other context that the higher priced item is better but here's the thing competition is brutal especially in tech so you can't just raise all of your prices across the board and then boom suddenly you're a luxury company it's not that easy so apple is uniquely positioned in a way where they can be competitive where it matters but then they can also on the other end sacrifice some products for the memes in the name of keeping up their luxury status and i guess why not make something extreme while you're at it linus from minus tech tips made a great video touching on a lot of this which i'll link below where he also brings up another great point tell me if you've heard this before media attention all press is good press virtually every article written about the mac pro's crazy wheels mention other apple products shed light on the mac pro and on apple's history sometimes literally even list a couple other apple products that you could buy for the same price as those wheels so you can see how it feels like all press is a good press so apple can choose to make that sacrifice with certain products and the mac pros wheels that's a perfect set that's a perfect place to sacrifice were you gonna buy these anyway if they were if they were 200 bucks if these were 25 bucks were you gonna buy the mac pros wheels no so this is a perfect no-brainer you know what else is a no-brainer the thousand dollar monitor stand the 300 coffee table book the 17 000 gold apple watch so while pretty much no one in their right mind should buy any of these it makes perfect sense that they exist and the more you talk about and comment about their crazy 700 wheels the more apple kind of just gets exactly what they want more attention unless it's this video either way that's been it thanks for watching hope you learned something and uh i guess i gotta go find something to attach these wheels to now to feel like i spent them for good reason it's probably not gonna happen but either way the merch also by the way is also on sale all those links that i talked about are below the like button check them out thanks again for watching catch you guys in the next one peacewow hey what's up guys mkbhd here welcome back to quarantine content just a little entertainment for you while we're all staying inside i'm your host marquez brownlee and uh you might have heard by now that apple was selling these wheels for the mac pro you remember that clip at the end of our mac pro review of it just kind of rolling away because there are no locks yeah those wheels now on the surface it's not actually clear why anyone would actually need wheels to their computer considering your computer just sits at your desk anyway but hey you know what there's nothing wrong with selling a product that very few people actually need but they are a 400 option when you configure them alongside the new mac pro and if you don't do that you decide you want them later for some reason you can buy them to install yourself separately for seven hundred dollars seven hundred dollars for these wheels i have some thoughts so there's a lot of reactions i could give a lot of things i could say about these wheels about how ridiculous they are how stupid they are how insulting it would be that they would even offer that but i decided to take a step back and actually try to consider why they exist in the first place now as you saw by the unboxing i actually have the wheels and i gotta say having them in person which very few people obviously do there are some really nice wheels objectively these might be the nicest computer wheels i've ever seen now i don't know about you but when i think of computer wheels i'm thinking of like the dusty plastic like those standard casters you see in schools these wheels are complete and total overkill uh they're entirely metal and rubber and you can tell as soon as you pick one up it's hefty like there's weight to it how much weight you might be asking well one wheel weighs more than twice an iphone 11 pro so you can tell it's basically solid metal they come with this metal dual sided hex tool with a black rubberized sleeve around the middle for grip that just says china there's also two nearly identical installation guides in the box for some reason but one of them with more languages than the other why would they make two of these instead of just printing it all on one i don't know and the wheels themselves they fully articulate 360 degrees at every joint so the top joint rotates totally around and also says china on the top of it and then there's two fully independent fully articulate super smooth rubber treads so kind of like a car with torque vectoring it can create an even tighter turning radius than if it was a one-sided single tire so all that being said are these wheels actually good to cost 700 no of course not still if this if this piece of metal with tiny microchips and ram and a motherboard and batteries and cameras and software tying it all together and the screen costs 400 then the material cost is clearly not there but you know sometimes you can argue the value of something is higher based on the value it delivers to the person who buys it but still the value of these wheels is just putting the mac pro on wheels with no brakes and the mac pro has to be plugged into the wall to be on anyway so that argument doesn't really work really the only reasonable argument you can come up with having actually seen these is okay these are such high quality wheels that the tooling required to make them cost so much and the volume that they're going to sell is so low that they have to price them super high to make their money back on selling these wheels but apple doesn't need to make their money back on every single product they make they regularly don't do that and they often subsidize their less successful products with their more successful ones so why would apple make these 700 wheels if they know that the answer i think to keep their shine see apple loves to keep this image of a premium luxury brand it's what allows them to charge more for a lot of stuff but everyone knows every every luxury brand's got some luxury products that you know are so expensive that people aren't really mad that they can't get it but it's super easy to make fun of we see this with brands we talk about all the time supreme gucci rolex bugatti you know there's a ton of them and no matter what you think of them you've heard of them and you know what they stand for now let's be perfectly clear apple is a tech company obviously but in this tech world they are the luxury one and keeping that status keeping that perceived image of high quality isn't easy that that doesn't just come effortlessly you know they're in a competitive tech world where other companies are throwing their absolute best at them and trying to make their best possible products and make as much money as they possibly can and so that competitive landscapes crafted the likes of the 329 ipad which is an incredible deal in the tablet world and of course the recent 400 iphone se that's super competitive again one of the best deals ever from their camp so they're not allergic to pricing things competitively especially when it benefits their business but on the other end of the spectrum to keep their premium luxury image they of course need high priced products see this is something i've talked about in some previous apple related videos because as much products as they do make i've wished that they would make more to fill in the gaps because often in some categories they will choose to keep up their image they will choose to just make the expensive version of that thing like when making a desktop tower computer they only make one and they made the expensive one now there are many things that can change the perceived quality of an item you know the actual hardware quality and fit and finish and materials and even the name and the design of the packaging but the price is also one of those things there have been studies done and i'll try to link one of them below where you put two essentially identical things next to each other and price one item higher than the other and if you ask people which they think is the better higher quality item they'll pick the more expensive one people literally just assume with no other context that the higher priced item is better but here's the thing competition is brutal especially in tech so you can't just raise all of your prices across the board and then boom suddenly you're a luxury company it's not that easy so apple is uniquely positioned in a way where they can be competitive where it matters but then they can also on the other end sacrifice some products for the memes in the name of keeping up their luxury status and i guess why not make something extreme while you're at it linus from minus tech tips made a great video touching on a lot of this which i'll link below where he also brings up another great point tell me if you've heard this before media attention all press is good press virtually every article written about the mac pro's crazy wheels mention other apple products shed light on the mac pro and on apple's history sometimes literally even list a couple other apple products that you could buy for the same price as those wheels so you can see how it feels like all press is a good press so apple can choose to make that sacrifice with certain products and the mac pros wheels that's a perfect set that's a perfect place to sacrifice were you gonna buy these anyway if they were if they were 200 bucks if these were 25 bucks were you gonna buy the mac pros wheels no so this is a perfect no-brainer you know what else is a no-brainer the thousand dollar monitor stand the 300 coffee table book the 17 000 gold apple watch so while pretty much no one in their right mind should buy any of these it makes perfect sense that they exist and the more you talk about and comment about their crazy 700 wheels the more apple kind of just gets exactly what they want more attention unless it's this video either way that's been it thanks for watching hope you learned something and uh i guess i gotta go find something to attach these wheels to now to feel like i spent them for good reason it's probably not gonna happen but either way the merch also by the way is also on sale all those links that i talked about are below the like button check them out thanks again for watching catch you guys in the next one peacewow hey what's up guys mkbhd here welcome back to quarantine content just a little entertainment for you while we're all staying inside i'm your host marquez brownlee and uh you might have heard by now that apple was selling these wheels for the mac pro you remember that clip at the end of our mac pro review of it just kind of rolling away because there are no locks yeah those wheels now on the surface it's not actually clear why anyone would actually need wheels to their computer considering your computer just sits at your desk anyway but hey you know what there's nothing wrong with selling a product that very few people actually need but they are a 400 option when you configure them alongside the new mac pro and if you don't do that you decide you want them later for some reason you can buy them to install yourself separately for seven hundred dollars seven hundred dollars for these wheels i have some thoughts so there's a lot of reactions i could give a lot of things i could say about these wheels about how ridiculous they are how stupid they are how insulting it would be that they would even offer that but i decided to take a step back and actually try to consider why they exist in the first place now as you saw by the unboxing i actually have the wheels and i gotta say having them in person which very few people obviously do there are some really nice wheels objectively these might be the nicest computer wheels i've ever seen now i don't know about you but when i think of computer wheels i'm thinking of like the dusty plastic like those standard casters you see in schools these wheels are complete and total overkill uh they're entirely metal and rubber and you can tell as soon as you pick one up it's hefty like there's weight to it how much weight you might be asking well one wheel weighs more than twice an iphone 11 pro so you can tell it's basically solid metal they come with this metal dual sided hex tool with a black rubberized sleeve around the middle for grip that just says china there's also two nearly identical installation guides in the box for some reason but one of them with more languages than the other why would they make two of these instead of just printing it all on one i don't know and the wheels themselves they fully articulate 360 degrees at every joint so the top joint rotates totally around and also says china on the top of it and then there's two fully independent fully articulate super smooth rubber treads so kind of like a car with torque vectoring it can create an even tighter turning radius than if it was a one-sided single tire so all that being said are these wheels actually good to cost 700 no of course not still if this if this piece of metal with tiny microchips and ram and a motherboard and batteries and cameras and software tying it all together and the screen costs 400 then the material cost is clearly not there but you know sometimes you can argue the value of something is higher based on the value it delivers to the person who buys it but still the value of these wheels is just putting the mac pro on wheels with no brakes and the mac pro has to be plugged into the wall to be on anyway so that argument doesn't really work really the only reasonable argument you can come up with having actually seen these is okay these are such high quality wheels that the tooling required to make them cost so much and the volume that they're going to sell is so low that they have to price them super high to make their money back on selling these wheels but apple doesn't need to make their money back on every single product they make they regularly don't do that and they often subsidize their less successful products with their more successful ones so why would apple make these 700 wheels if they know that the answer i think to keep their shine see apple loves to keep this image of a premium luxury brand it's what allows them to charge more for a lot of stuff but everyone knows every every luxury brand's got some luxury products that you know are so expensive that people aren't really mad that they can't get it but it's super easy to make fun of we see this with brands we talk about all the time supreme gucci rolex bugatti you know there's a ton of them and no matter what you think of them you've heard of them and you know what they stand for now let's be perfectly clear apple is a tech company obviously but in this tech world they are the luxury one and keeping that status keeping that perceived image of high quality isn't easy that that doesn't just come effortlessly you know they're in a competitive tech world where other companies are throwing their absolute best at them and trying to make their best possible products and make as much money as they possibly can and so that competitive landscapes crafted the likes of the 329 ipad which is an incredible deal in the tablet world and of course the recent 400 iphone se that's super competitive again one of the best deals ever from their camp so they're not allergic to pricing things competitively especially when it benefits their business but on the other end of the spectrum to keep their premium luxury image they of course need high priced products see this is something i've talked about in some previous apple related videos because as much products as they do make i've wished that they would make more to fill in the gaps because often in some categories they will choose to keep up their image they will choose to just make the expensive version of that thing like when making a desktop tower computer they only make one and they made the expensive one now there are many things that can change the perceived quality of an item you know the actual hardware quality and fit and finish and materials and even the name and the design of the packaging but the price is also one of those things there have been studies done and i'll try to link one of them below where you put two essentially identical things next to each other and price one item higher than the other and if you ask people which they think is the better higher quality item they'll pick the more expensive one people literally just assume with no other context that the higher priced item is better but here's the thing competition is brutal especially in tech so you can't just raise all of your prices across the board and then boom suddenly you're a luxury company it's not that easy so apple is uniquely positioned in a way where they can be competitive where it matters but then they can also on the other end sacrifice some products for the memes in the name of keeping up their luxury status and i guess why not make something extreme while you're at it linus from minus tech tips made a great video touching on a lot of this which i'll link below where he also brings up another great point tell me if you've heard this before media attention all press is good press virtually every article written about the mac pro's crazy wheels mention other apple products shed light on the mac pro and on apple's history sometimes literally even list a couple other apple products that you could buy for the same price as those wheels so you can see how it feels like all press is a good press so apple can choose to make that sacrifice with certain products and the mac pros wheels that's a perfect set that's a perfect place to sacrifice were you gonna buy these anyway if they were if they were 200 bucks if these were 25 bucks were you gonna buy the mac pros wheels no so this is a perfect no-brainer you know what else is a no-brainer the thousand dollar monitor stand the 300 coffee table book the 17 000 gold apple watch so while pretty much no one in their right mind should buy any of these it makes perfect sense that they exist and the more you talk about and comment about their crazy 700 wheels the more apple kind of just gets exactly what they want more attention unless it's this video either way that's been it thanks for watching hope you learned something and uh i guess i gotta go find something to attach these wheels to now to feel like i spent them for good reason it's probably not gonna happen but either way the merch also by the way is also on sale all those links that i talked about are below the like button check them out thanks again for watching catch you guys in the next one peace\n"