Do you question the outrageous prices on selected everyday products? Wondering why some services soar in cost from others? Whether you’re being duped or taken for a ride on a pancake that charges a day’s worth of meals?
We don’t blame you — from bound notebooks to bowls of noodles, our goal as consumers is often to stretch the dollar as far as it can while the producers are poaching for your bucks.
With brands that are ‘for’ their product, and brands that are ‘by’ the product, we are torn between companies that serve from the heart or cater for the revenue — which causes their goods to differ on more than just the price.
Matsuda Eyewear
Although Prada and Dior have their own line of designer eyewear made from cutting-edge material — a pair of Matsudas are a work of art that takes up to 250 steps to complete. Marrying form and function by hand.
Consumers are slowly breaking from the hive mind mentality and going towards more personalised and unique aspects of products. Items that bear a personality from craftspeople and their careful selection of materials to fulfil a purpose, rather than meet the demand.
Waltzing Matilda USA
Apart from your designer labels you know and love that profess handcrafted and stitched goods — Waltzing Matilda is a brand that specialises in creating pieces of art from repurposing old and used leather items.
From old cars to World War timepieces, though they may not be luxurious — the novelty of stories behind a product has been involuntarily driven the market of professional craftsmanship from industrialised items.
Rolls Royce
The carefully produced Rolls Royce that bears genuine wooden parts and leather hides tied along with professional attention to detail only peaked sales at a modest 4000 units in 2014.
Comparatively, with SUVs, Pickup Trucks, Motorsports, and even their Electric division — Toyota’s aspiration to cater to the broadest market has turned them into the world’s largest automaker with 10 million unit sales in the same year.
Of course, brands have their respective goals as an entity of service. Whether it’s being the most recognised in their industry, breaking sales records annually, or simply just to be the best in their craft — they all have a place in the market.
Although not everyone needs their morning Joe to be carefully processed and their footwear to be therapeutically engineered by hand — there’s something to be said about everyday people excelling at their expertise.
Million dollar companies may have the masses by catering to everyone with dampened costs and general standard, but artisans could be appreciated for crafting stories, signatures, and authenticity through their work — if more consumers opened up to the avenue.
What product/service is your brand exceptional for?
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