The art of ‘manipulating consumer psychology’ explains why a Starbucks glass can be sold for 20 million dong

Recently, the Starbucks cup hunting fever phenomenon has surprised many people. A mint-colored Starbucks glass by this brand opened in Vietnam for a price of VND 490,000 and sold only about 5-8 units per door. At the same price, there are still a long queue of young people lining up at its stores to try to collect a set of mugs.

Immediately after running out of stock, this mint cup was sold for 5 times the original price, equivalent to 2.5 million VND and still has buyers. Even on many websites, there are places for sale up to 20 million VND for a pair of rare Starbucks glasses.

In fact, Starbucks has launched such a series of cup sales in the past and many people are willing to pay 4-5 times to own their favorite collection.

So what’s going on? How is a plastic cup so easily made to be so expensive?

The price of the brand

In fact, what consumers here buy is the brand. A “Made in China” plastic cup will be very different from a coffee cup bearing the Starbucks logo.

Of course, consumers will think that these mugs are beautifully designed, synchronized and scarce because the company only sells limited, and at the same time they also carry a certain meaning of celebration on a certain occasion. At Christmas 2020, Starbucks also launched the red cup in Vietnam and created a craze for collectibles.

But all of the above reasons would be ridiculous without a logo printed on these items. This is similar to when you go to buy branded goods, the Chanel, LV product lines will have more price if the brand is printed on the product.

Of course, buying a Starbucks cannot boast like brand-name bags, but the branding strategy of this coffee business chain is not less than luxury brands.

Previously, Starbucks focused on the customer experience when drinking coffee at each branch, today it is more focused on the brand business. The price at Starbucks is not affordable anymore and many people enter the shop just to take selfies, showing class rather than actually enjoying the coffee culture.

Even many coffee connoisseurs believe that Starbucks now sells brands and no longer sells the beverage that made them famous.

As a result, the use of items with the Starbucks logo on it has become a trend to show class, from coffee mugs to unrelated items like earrings.

In addition, the branding makes Starbucks attract a large fan base similar to Apple and the iPhone. These fans are the main contributor to the collection movement, pushing up the prices of Starbucks-printed cups.

In addition, another factor stimulating demand for Starbucks logo printing products is the Covid-19 epidemic. According to CNN, the Covid-19 epidemic also contributed to Starbucks competing with fashion brands such as Gucci, Chanel or LV. Many Western consumers during the season have tried to buy these coffee chain-printed items on electronic markets such as Poshmark or OfferUp.

Experts say being quarantined makes people remember the feeling of having to wait in line when buying at Starbucks, recalling the pleasure of showing off classy selfie at the brand’s upscale stores. In return, they buy items imprinted with the Starbucks logo to appease the delight during the season.

Manipulating consumer psychology

In addition to promoting the brand well, Starbucks successfully applied the psychological theory of Sigmund Freud, one of the first psychologists that most human decisions are unconscious and unreasonable.

Since then, Starbucks has very well manipulated supply and demand to create virtual crazes that made the market of their logo-printed cups become crazy bubbles.

Surely many people still remember the late 1990s stuffed animal bubble when a simple toy worth just a few dollars was blown to more than 13,000 USD and sold by hand 3,000 times higher than its real value.

Ty Inc company then created a fever of fake goods when controlling sales as well as stores selling stuffed animals. Customers won’t be able to buy enough stuffed animals without going through several stores. Accompanied by information about stopping production, limited quantity, then speculation advice because price will increase later.

This move by Ty Inc is quite similar to what Starbucks has been doing. It closed its online sales business in 2017 and only sells its logo-printed items through designated branches or stores in limited quantities.

Back to the story of Tu Inc, it was thanks to the artificially scarce stimulus and the craving of this customer that a series of rare stories happened. The media was flooded with information about Ty Inc’s products like a Connecticut man stepping on children to buy stuffed animals, a 77-year-old man in Chicago stole 1,200 stuffed animals for speculation.

Then a murder in West Virginia related to the Beanie Babies worth a few hundred dollars. Even smuggled drug shipments are now loaded with stuffed animals. In 1997, Ty Inc sold 100 million animals in just 10 days.

It is thanks to the spread of the media that Ty Inc’s products are more popular, as well as the Starbucks cups. Images of people lining up to buy Starbucks cups, and websites for collectors with the price of millions of dong sprung up like mushrooms.

At its peak, Ty Inc jokingly claimed that even if they dipped a stuffed animal in feces, people would buy them. However, perhaps this statement is only true when the ball is not deflated. Ty Inc’s product prices and sales fell as much as 90% in the early 2000s. Even due to the sell-off, many animals cost only 1% of their original cost.

With the story of Starbucks, the situation probably won’t be that big since they mainly sell coffee and brands. As long as Starbucks maintains its appeal, its logo-printed products will still have buyers.

Of course, Starbucks will also avoid the streaks of falling like Ty Inc’s when controlling the supply and creating a virtual fever. No consumer wants to buy a Starbucks when they are sold on the sidewalk. Even if it does, it will not cost 4-5 times the current original price.