First, I’m not an economist, nor do I have direct experiences in building and selling services in a large market. However you should read the below and I would love to hear your thoughts.
When consumers buy the second rate, low end item, doing so prevents the natural cost reduction and product improvement of the better built, longer lasting, feature rich and higher valued product. The concept is simple really. When consumers purchase the “lower priced” item based on price with the understanding they “get what they pay for”, this action is removing funding from the company that is building the better product they originally desired and oddly in turn keeping the price high on the originally desired item. It’s almost a catch 22.
Here is another view on this, typically, when a customer has a bad experience with a product (Presuming this was caused by the inferior product) they don’t usually rush out and buy the more expensive and presumably higher quality item in an effort to regain the expected experience they missed with the original low quality product purchase. Often the buyer is left with a bad feeling and will turn away from the entire product line which only doubles the impact on the company making the better product, as the lesser product has hurt the entire product sector and the reputation of the technology, service or similar is now tarnished from bad experiences.
Imagine buying fake milk, fake gas or imitation soap? Fake soap, yea, it looks like soap but it’s just white bubbles and provides no cleaning action. Similarly, an underperforming item in the marketplace drives money in the wrong pockets (when purchase is made based on price alone) and takes money from the true product developers who are working on building a better product and not trying to “Scam the public”. It hurts the companies who are providing the better product.
Just to clarify, when I say second rate, low end, I’m directing this towards the $5 MP3 Players, $1 hammer and the clothing that falls apart after 3 washes. When buying an item you have to be aware and consider what you are paying for.
Why do we let this happen? Why do we let these products that are only built to take your money and not built to give you a good experiences continue to exist? When you buy the wrong item, you are adding to the cost of the of the right one.