It's called "Predictably Irrational" by behavioural economist Dan Ariely. It is an effin' GREAT read. I highly reccomend it.
Anyway, the idea behind this is that we are much better relational decision makers than objective absolute decision makers. So we look at the options for a choice, and create value evaluations from the spectrum of available choices. One example sited is that if a restaurant puts a very high priced dish on the menu, the average amount spent per meal goes up, even if no one ever orders the expensive dish. Put another way, many won't buy the most expensive dish, but they will buy the second most expensive dish! Anyway, the item that is listed but never sold is called "the decoy". Another example is from a Wall Street Journal add. Three choices. Online only for $60. Print for $125, or Print and On-Line for $125. Then over 60% ordered the Print and On-Line combined. No one got the print only. Drop the Print Only option, and 60% ordered the on-line only version! So even though no one had ordered the print only product, it's availability changed the way the value proposition was percieved, and affected the purchase decision.
I really think that if the car justified the price then there wouldn't be this conversation...in an earlier example the WRX was used...when you saw a WRX you knew immediately what it was and had respect for what it could do...
The current JCW is nothing but a badge to anyone outside of the MINI world.
We are the enthusiasts and know what it represents, but a WRX is something that kids put up posters of on the bedroom walls! The JCW (aside from the badge) is just another MINI.
The WRX is a good example of a version of a base car becoming a model unto itself rather than just another trim level. No one thinks of it as an Impreza WRX, after all. If the current JCW continued where the GP left off, I think it would have a chance of doing the same thing. Maybe the key would be to evolve the Coupe and Speedster into JCW models only, and not have JCW hardtops and JCW Clubmen.
(But I still hope they come up with a Justa Cooper Coupe.)
