10 ms·

A way to sell in an imperfect market is with branding. You, as the seller (or manufacturer), won't risk your hard earned reputation by selling a couple of lemon

by ghgr 9y ago

A way to sell in an imperfect market is with branding. You, as the seller (or manufacturer), won't risk your hard earned reputation by selling a couple of lemons. Something like in the kitchen appliances market. You can't try a dishwasher nor a washing machine at the shop, but you know that you cannot go wrong with Bosch (no affiliation, I'm just satisfied with them). The interesting part in my opinion is that in the mattress market this branding system seems not to work.

sjg007 9y ago
Works great until the brands start cutting corners.
- tinco 9y ago
  And Bosch is on of those brands, to my knowledge. Bosch is one of the main examples of a split brand: They compete with Miele and the other premium Germany made brands with their deluxe models that are still made in factories they control, but they also compete with Zanussi etc with their basic lines, without the 15+ year warranty, and definitely not made in Germany. Here I'm not sure the name Bosch is worth anything, and you might as well buy a Zanussi, our student flat had all Zanussi stuff and nothing broke in the 10 years they had them.
rocqua 9y ago
Branding depends on a reputation. That reputation needs to be established by either word of mouth or general reviews. For mattresses, word of mouth isn't that good because people have different preferences. Moreover, general reviews have essentially been corrupted by 'astroturfing' reviews. That is, almost all mattress reviews that are prominent are financed by a manufacturer. They then use publishing clout or heavy SEO to be found over any possible remaining reviews. Besides, single user reviews aren't that valuable because of personal preference and lack of comparison mattresses. Thus, it is really hard for an honest reviewer to start. They need capital to get sufficiently many mattresses. Then, they need to be found, thus going up against the heavily SEO'd dishonest sites. Finally, they need to stand up to all attempts from the mattress companies and dishonest reviewers to actually survive. Finally, bad-mouthing brands' product quality is again stymied by personal preference and the small number of mattresses anyone sleeps on.

by ghgr 9y ago

sjg007 9y ago

Works great until the brands start cutting corners.

tinco 9y ago
And Bosch is on of those brands, to my knowledge. Bosch is one of the main examples of a split brand: They compete with Miele and the other premium Germany made brands with their deluxe models that are still made in factories they control, but they also compete with Zanussi etc with their basic lines, without the 15+ year warranty, and definitely not made in Germany. Here I'm not sure the name Bosch is worth anything, and you might as well buy a Zanussi, our student flat had all Zanussi stuff and nothing broke in the 10 years they had them.

rocqua 9y ago

Branding depends on a reputation. That reputation needs to be established by either word of mouth or general reviews. For mattresses, word of mouth isn't that good because people have different preferences. Moreover, general reviews have essentially been corrupted by 'astroturfing' reviews. That is, almost all mattress reviews that are prominent are financed by a manufacturer. They then use publishing clout or heavy SEO to be found over any possible remaining reviews. Besides, single user reviews aren't that valuable because of personal preference and lack of comparison mattresses. Thus, it is really hard for an honest reviewer to start. They need capital to get sufficiently many mattresses. Then, they need to be found, thus going up against the heavily SEO'd dishonest sites. Finally, they need to stand up to all attempts from the mattress companies and dishonest reviewers to actually survive. Finally, bad-mouthing brands' product quality is again stymied by personal preference and the small number of mattresses anyone sleeps on.