Producers will raise prices; consumers will keep paying

By Alana Moscoso-Mendoza, Opinion Editor

Inflation and tariffs are bound to cause increases in prices in many products. Take rising grocery prices, for example; as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, many groceries have seen a stark increase in price. But, due to the fact that groceries are a necessity, consumers must keep paying the price for them—no matter how high it may be.

According to a study by Harvard “consumers were 30 percent less price sensitive—meaning less likely to abandon favorite brands and seek cheaper equivalent products—in 2019 than they were in 2006.”

This isn’t for no reason; producers will continuously raise their prices as a way to test the waters, and will never bring them down because they’ve learned that consumers will keep paying these ridiculous prices.

And the primary reason consumers keep paying? Brand loyalty. 

Brand loyalty is a concept in which consumers pay for products from a specific brand because they have overall positive feelings about or past experiences with said brand. Apple, the immensely popular organization selling anything from laptops, to phones, to tablets serves as a great example of brand loyalty; for years now, many individuals continue to purchase Apple iPhones instead of other tech brands, such as Samsung. 

Whether or not the other tech brands’ products perform better than Apple’s doesn’t matter. Loyal consumers will choose the brand they have pre-established connections with over the true superior choice. Apple is fully aware of this: at least, they’re aware enough to charge $20 for a cleaning cloth, knowing their consumer base will still purchase it.

And they did. In fact, it sold out on its first release.

The implications of this issue are endless, and could be used to comment on many different subjects. But what is most difficult to grasp is why individuals will let these parasocial relationships with companies (who, might I add, commonly do not care about their consumers, but rather, turning a profit) influence them to spend much more money on a product that performs the exact same, or even underperforms, its competitors.

What seems to be the most likely reason is ease. These positive thoughts of a company largely aren’t the individuals original thoughts; if they see a product is receiving high praise or trending, just like Apple products, it’s more likely that they’d harbor these same sentiments about a product they previously knew very little about. 

Humans have been gradually moving towards the ultimate goal of ease. While cliche, what comes to mind is the film Wall-E, where humans had eventually moved to an age in which they hardly had to move their bodies or form their own opinions. Why have your own thoughts about a brand when everyone else has thought about it for you?

Yes, putting actual research into the products one is purchasing with their own hard-earned money can be difficult. But in a day and age where millions of individuals are screaming the name of a brand–that likely paid them to do so–across the internet, it’s nothing short of necessary. 

These brands that many subscribe to–Starbucks, Sephora, Nike, for example–do create good or satisfying products. There is merely a very real fact that many of these same products that these brands are selling could be purchased elsewhere, and at a cheaper price. Just because Sephora is selling a highlighter for $64 doesn’t automatically mean it's a genuinely good highlighter. I promise you’ll find cheaper alternatives at a drug store. 

Being able to discern whether or not an expensive product is truly worth the money requires a generous amount of knowledge regarding the product, which, as a whole, is notoriously annoying to attain. Brands know this, which is why they hire influencers or celebrities or individuals who are generally persuasive to feed you information about a product that will seemingly justify its price. 

And this comes full circle to brand loyalty. Good relations, whether one is influenced to have them (which is the most common case), will always cause an individual to be more inclined to purchase products from the brand. These big brands–again, Apple, as an example–are only as successful as their reputation, which is only held up by the individuals they pay to do so, and their only purpose is to get as many consumers as possible on their side.

Which doesn’t really matter if you truly enjoy the products and are satisfied with their price point. I know, the entire argument is obsolete now, for many people, anyway–but if that isn’t you, then the next step forward would be to simply research. In fact, most of the knowledge of the entire world is easily accessible through the internet. 

Root for the underdog, because if you aren’t happy with the favorite, chances are it’ll most likely pay out. No product is one-size-fits-all: even the clothing that markets itself in that way. In order to actually feel fulfilled and satisfied in the society that we live in, figuring out which products most suit you is imperative. 

Invest in what was truly made for you, not a paid spokesperson who couldn’t care less about the product they’re supposed to be in love with.