The $9 shirt that started the fuss
In 1997, I warned marketers about a growing trend.
Writing in my book Selling the Invisible, I called the result of this trend "The Deadly Middle."
A month short of eight years later, Sharon Stone made this phenomenon famous when she appeared at the Academy Awards, both as a presenter and a Best Actress nominee. Following her friend Ellen DeGeneres's suggestion, Stone had gone to the closet just before that evening and picked out her five favorite pieces.
She finally chose three: A Valentino skirt, an Armani dress which she wore as a coat, and a black Gap T-shirt.
In 2008, a threesome of authors brought this trend to wider attention with their book Trading Up. Americans were buying either the best/most expensive/most prestigious item, or the least expensive one (naturally dubbed, "Trading Down"). Items that didn't offer the best of something—quality/status or price—were at risk.
Those products were caught in the Deadly Middle.
What might explain this? Again, it's our desire for comfort-and our corresponding aversion to discomfort. Think of the feeling of owning something special and uncommon. It activates your sense of self. Knowing that we have purchased a special item also makes us feel wise; it's why expensive clothing often is called "investment clothing."
Similarly, buying the least expensive item appeals to the part of our ego that praises us for spending wisely. It salutes us for not spending $40 for a black t-shirt when a $9 black Gap tee looks just as flattering, and leaves us with $30 more to use for something else.
But what about the item that is neither exceptionally good—and recognized by others—nor the one that saves us the most?
What satisfaction do we derive from a product that is neither aged Kobe Beef nor the $1 Special Burger?
Very little. Choosing those products makes us uncomfortable, because they offer us too little satisfaction for our investment.
That's the problem with a merely good product for a good price: It's not great at anything.
It's caught in the Deadly Middle.
