I very much agree with the point you make on how wine brands have positioned themselves in rather outlying (even exotic) ways to attract certain markets.
I also think this relates to another important issue that marketers around the globe are encountering; the decline of price as a manner of elite differentiation.

You are talking about an elite group, (that is very influential to the rest of society by the way), but that it’s differentiated factor isn’t hard cash. Many brands are having to work around this issue to better understand their market and offer something that lures them in.

I’m way out of topic now (haha), but it just reminded me of it; I’ll probably extend myself in a further post.

So…anyway, I agree with you, especially with the Tiffany’s part; although I don’t think you or any other human being can deny tha attractiveness factor of Tiffany’s..

Ciao,
Ron.

Young, just starting out, not a ton of cash, but wine is one of those good ‘grown up’ gifts or things to bring to dinner…Yellow Tail, The Little Penguin, and one of my NZ favorites (with the always memorable whilst still unreasonably lengthy name), Cat’s Pee On A Gooseberry Bush.

Affordable, soomething to talk about, and it tastes good? That takes the affluence barrier to feeling lost in either prices you can’t afford or bottles that all seem to look the same.

And yes, Tiffany’s definitely has the best brand — it was our first stop in checking out engagement rings…but one look at what THAT much money was actually getting us…it didn’t take much for us to walk down the street to Birks instead (Where they had different but equally as nice blue boxes). :-)