The Psychology of Premium Brands: How to Charge 10x More

Why do some brands just feel so premium? You see, we all had the same feeling. We go into a store, we see a product, and

we instantly think that must be expensive. Premium brands like Nike or Ralph Lauren or Lululemon or others have

mastered more than good design. They've actually mastered how to advertise in a way that makes you want to pay 10 times

the price for a certain product. So, how do these premium brands make you want to pay 10 times the price? You see, these

brands have spent billions trying to crack the human brain and understand customer psychology. The same timeless

principles that these brands use, I've been using them to scale over 50 plus e-commerce stores in the past 5 years,

running campaigns that have generated millions of dollars for all the brands that we worked with. And in this video,

I'll break down the core principles for premium advertising. We'll go through timeless campaigns to today's social

media landscape and how you can use the same psychology to position your brand as a premium business, command higher

prices, and create a category of one. You see, when you take a look at the world's most prestigious premium brands,

you find out that they're kind of scattered in terms of industry. You've got German car companies, you've got

fine Italian clothing brands, you've got premium coffee brands. They all look different on the surface. Yet, we all

agree that they are all premium. The common denominator that all of these businesses have is that they can command

higher prices. And that's because when you strip away the logos and the trends, what you find is timeless principles

that are used and reused and reused to cultivate that premium feeling. So there's three main principles that all

premium brands share. One of them, the most important one is exclusivity. You see, there's something inherently

magical about exclusive items. It's a feeling of owning something that not everyone can own. And you see,

exclusivity is not scarcity. It's more about creating a narrative. It's more about creating a story around the

product that elevates that product beyond its functional value. And what happens is the product itself becomes

secondary. The ownership, the status, the story, the luxury of it, everything that isn't the product is the most

important factor that makes it more desirable. Some of the most recognized brands of all time have been applying

this principle for decades. To get a grasp of one of the best examples, we need to go back to 1929 and look at

Packard Motor Company. At the height of the 20th century, the automobile market was dominated by mass

market manufacturers like Chevrolet and Ford. What happened is cars became more and more affordable, leaving little

space to competitors and so brands like Packard Motor Company were threatened to become irrelevant. And so this company

led by Henry Joy took a very bold counterintuitive approach. They launched a campaign for discriminating clientele

and the goal was to speak to a very niche subsegment of the market that was valuing craftsmanship. The story behind

the car, how it was made, the features, the benefits, all the luxury that was in it by using a very specific messaging

pattern. What happened is Packard was appealing to the elites and these elites represented a very unique space in a

crowded market. The campaign obviously was a major success and Packard is now remembered as one of the first companies

to position a business or a brand, not just as the product that it sells, but as the story and the prestige that it

embodies. So exclusivity isn't about making your product scarce or telling people that it's out of stock. It

actually comes from noticing that your product is actually better than the competition, but from an angle that

hasn't been used before, that is kind of unique. A great example comes from Madmen where Don Draper is working on a

campaign that's the Lucky Strike campaign. Despite increasing the skepticism and the backlash from the

public about tobacco and its health issues, they reposition the product as premium by emphasizing a unique quality.

>> Everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strikes is toasted. >> And this subtle reframing essentially

allowed customers and the crowd to identify this product as a premium luxury product rather than just another

cigarette. But exclusivity is not alone. Remember, we have three principles. If you only speak to how exclusive your

product is, you're not going to get the impact that you're trying to go for. The product must also speak to who the

customer is, their aspirations, their goals, their vision, their values, their principles. Everything about them needs

to be identified and condensed into the product. So, the second principle is identification. Exclusivity, it gets the

attention, but what keeps the attention locked in is identity. You see, premium brands don't just sell a product. They

sell a reflection of who the customer thinks they are and they double down on that story to emphasize the identity

that the product creates in the customer. You see, premium brands understand that when a customer buys an

expensive product, they're not just buying an expensive product. They are consciously and willingly signaling

something about themselves. So, in other words, think about the product becoming the mirror of who the customer is. So,

by the 1950s, Chanel Numero Sank was a product that was a premium product. However, new products started coming and

flooding the shelves. There was also a shift in customer behavior because women were becoming increasingly independent

and looking for products that reflected that confidence and sophistication. And so, Chanel faced a problem that many

premium brands face is how do you maintain desiraability without diluting exclusivity and reach out to a broader

audience. What they did was actually genius because instead of thinking about any product features or highlighting the

ingredients or highlighting this about the product or this specific thing, they thought about how to position their

product to appeal to the identity of who they were selling it to. And they launched one of their most famous

campaigns. Every woman alive adors Chanel Numero and this was extremely bold at the time, but it was genius.

every single level of society at the time aspired to be someone that could afford this product. And so it created

this insane demand for this specific product because their campaign positioned the fragrance as a symbol of

elegance, femininity, and sophistication. And so appealing to your customers means that you are reflecting

the traits that customers aspire to see in themselves. You're painting a picture of who they want to become as a person,

and you're positioning your product as the vehicle or the bridge between their situation and where they want to go.

Knowing who your customer is and reflecting that back through your product to make them feel as though they

they need to belong to your club is an amazing amazing strategy that you can use um within your products as well.

However, if you want to take it to the next level, we're going to talk about the third principle, which is

essentially how to tell a good story. Because exclusivity gets the attention, it makes people desire a product.

Identity makes them tie their sense of of who they are into that specific product. But storytelling is what makes

your brand unforgettable. And so the three tied together, it creates the perfect storm to unleash unfathomable

scale for your company. You see, storytelling isn't about creative logos or creative visuals or whatever. It's

about connecting your product. It's about creating a story. It's about it's about creating a narrative around your

product that connects the product itself with your customer and who they aspire to be. It's about creating a story that

connects the product with the brand with the consumer's life. And so what normally is a rather casual act of just

purchasing a product becomes an experience that is embedded with emotion, meaning and memory. And you see

timeless premium brands have understood this and have been applying this for decades now. They understand that across

industries and eras, the most effective marketing campaigns, the most effective portrayal of a product is really when

you invite the customer to be a part of the story you're creating. And you base that story based on who they are as a

person and who they aspire to be creating an experience and inviting them to be in an exclusive club. So by the

mid200s, Nespresso was facing a similar challenge. Espresso faced a classic challenge for any premium brand. Coffee

was everywhere. Espresso machines were becoming common. The product itself was functional. But how do you differentiate

yourself? How do you make it feel like it's a more sophisticated and more luxury and more premium product? Well,

Nespresso understood that they needed more than the tasty pod or an effective machine or a good machine. They

understood that they were not in the market of selling coffee. They needed to shift to selling a story, a story that

everyone wanted to be a part of. The solution, George Culin. Who else do you need? And so what they did is they cast

George Clooney as the face of the brand. Someone who was sophisticated, witty, good-looking, a discerning coffee lover,

someone that embodied the lifestyle that Nespresso wanted to communicate. And so Clooney wasn't just like your regular

celebrity actor or just someone with a with a pretty face. He was literally the embodiment of the story Nespresso wanted

to create. He was a symbol of the aspirations of the typical consumer of coffee. And so and so that's why every

single commercial was extremely attractive. It was a story. It wasn't just an ad. You were looking at a story,

an embodiment of what you wanted out of your life. And you were watching it live on TV. And the slogan, what else? Wasn't

just another slogan. It was simple. It was memorable. And it reinforced the idea that Nespresso wasn't just a

choice. It was a conscious decision for those who appreciate refinement and the good things in life. Look, these three

fundamental principles have not changed. They're still there and they're still being used and used and used and used.

And so what used to work on billboards and print ads and TV commercials is now being applied on social media. And

today's premium brands still rely on these three principles to position themselves as the only solution for the

sophisticated buyer. But the way they deliver those ideas has evolved. The first example, Lululemon. Lululemon

doesn't do limited editions as much as it does limited experience. The Sweat Life campaign invited only brand

ambassadors, loyal customers, and people that belong to the Lululemon family to really show their lifestyle. Effectively

saying, "This is a club you join, not a discount that you get." When it comes to identity, owning Lululemon says a lot

about you as a person. It tells people that you're a high performer or an aspiring high performer and that you are

mindful. And so, the videos that you see, these aren't models or people that are faking it just for the sake of the

ad. They're yoga teachers, runners, community leaders. These people embody who the customer aspires to be. And it

makes the customer see themselves as part of that tribe. Tribe that is fit, healthy, disciplined, and balanced.

They're not your typical static ads or your typical buy this get one free, whatever. They're really about showing

the lifestyle. They're mini documentaries, usually 15 to 30 seconds, and they show people in their routines.

They show someone in their morning run. They show someone meditating, someone training, and it really puts the

perspective of the customer because now they see the product as being part of a certain lifestyle rather than just the

product for what it is, which is a garment. Represent clothing is another example that is very valuable to

analyze. Represent built its business by drops. So, they don't stock forever. They drop. Once it's gone, it's gone.

And so, that's a great tactic for built-in exclusivity. When it comes to identity, it is a clear bias that they

took when it comes to portraying who the brand is for and who it isn't for. You can see the visuals, the founders story,

the YouTube channel, the documentaries, all the content that they put out is for a specific segment of the market and

they set out to dominate that segment of the market. And so they are hyperfocused and hyper aware of who they want to

convert into a buyer. Their social ads are just stories being told. And you see the founders really involved in um just

showing the lifestyle and really embodying that lifestyle and being the beacon uh that shows customers what the

brand is for. And so it creates that narrative that customers just love and want to be a part of. And that's really

really powerful storytelling. So seeing all of these brands like Lululemon and represent how they weave exclusivity and

identity and storytelling into their ads, it makes one thing very very clear. Premium ads are not about the visual.

They're about creating a world where your customers want to step into. So the real question is, how do you take all of

this theory and you extract all of these principles and you apply them in real life? How do you apply them to your own

products? That's the real question. And we have a threestep process that we personally use for premium brands that

premium brands that want to portray themselves as premium or brands that aspire to be premium brands and that

need help to really just craft their strategy and their positioning. We have a three-step process. It's very very

simple. So the first thing the foundational step is research and psychology mapping. It's what I call

psychology mapping because essentially what you want to create is you want to create a clear picture of the

psychological breakdown or the psychological profile of who your customer is and you want to understand

what are their triggers when it comes to recognizing exclusivity. I might go to someone and they might see a um a watch,

a luxury watch like for example a PC Philippe with some crazy complications that you know a watch maker spent

thousands of hours making. However, they might care about something else. And so we need to understand what does

exclusive mean to the customers. And so we create an aspirational identity for every single customer segment. We

understand that, you know, we've got people that are not aware of anything that's going on when it comes to your

product and we've got people that are very aware of your product. They're very aware of how it compares to your

competitors. And so, we need to understand what your customers value. That's the first step. The main

challenge then is to identify kind of the mood of your social ads because ads by essence have to be a little bit more

aggressive than your organic content or your uh typical publication that just isn't conversion driven. it needs to be

conversiondriven. Okay? And so what that means is you're going to be selling at some point or you're going to weave some

selling um you know psychology in it to encourage a certain decision. Now when we do that we cannot waver from the

direction that you sent out with your business. Like for example you know if Lululemon just starts blasting you know

40% off 50% off 60% off like all these crazy discount offers um you know every single month that will tarnish their

brand in the long term it's not good. short term they might make a few sales sure but in the long term it'll hurt

their brand identity. Okay. So we need to make sure that we identify the marketing vector that is going to be

consistent throughout every single ad that we launch. And so once we do that once we have that marketing vector we

need to see and set a spectrum of ad variance that we're going to use so that we have the latitude of testing as many

ads as possible. But we also want to understand that not every single format or not every single concept of an ad is

going to resonate with customers. And so we need to create this matrix if you will. I call it a spectrum. Just

essentially saying no to certain things because it's not on brand per se and identifying where we can have the

latitude in testing. And so we need to create a balance between the marketing vector that we set out and the creative

testing framework. And that's a logistical problem essentially. The other thing is optimizing for

performance. So essentially when you start launching campaigns, what you need to understand is you're not just going

to look at purchases, okay? You're going to look at fundamental metrics that tell you how your story is doing. You know,

your hook rate, your video hold rate, click-through rate. Obviously, there's also your retention. If you do cohort

analysis, and you want to see exactly if people are coming back, especially if you're in fashion and you've got people

coming back, that's a great sign that you're really weaving that storytelling and that identity and people are just

resonating with your brand. That's a good signal. And so when you're optimizing for performance, you don't

always want to be rorowaz, rorowaz, rorowaz or purchases, purchases, purchases. Yes, that's very important

obviously, but you also want to take into account the bigger picture. You want to understand, okay, how is your

brand scaling? Not just your revenue, how is your brand actually scaling, your brand equity? Are you converting new

people into the ecosystem? Right? That's the question you need to ask yourself. We did it very well. We've uh been

helping a brand called Slate Swim, which is a a premium swimwear brand based in LA. And we've been helping them for the

past four years. And it's essentially this evolution. How can we know our customers better than they know

themselves so we can show them a story that attracts them? How can we then set a marketing vector that is consistent

but doesn't really constrain us in how much um we can test and which formats and which ads and data points are we

going to take a look at to evaluate performance. And so for this brand for example, we took them from literally

zero to seven figures in sales and taking them to multiple seven figures in the next few months. So that's the

process of really understanding how to position your brand into a premium player in your industry and just carve a

category of one. If you want me and my team to implement this process for you, you can book a call by going into the

first link in the description. You'll be speaking with me and we'll see if this process is a good fit for you. Because

at the end of the day, premium ads are about creating a feeling in your customer. It's not about getting the

sale. It's really about getting the sale, but also doing it in a way that creates a feeling that makes them come

back. If you take anything from this video, let it be this. Exclusivity makes people want your product. Identity makes

them see themselves in it. And storytelling makes them remember you. And so, when you combine all of these

timeless principles, your brand is essentially going to be attracting customers at will that it can service.

And so I want you to ask yourself this question right now. What world am I creating for my customers? And why would

they even care to be a part of it? Hope you enjoyed the video. I'll see you on the next one.