Apple products: ordinary luxury

Today's Wall Street Journal has a great article positioning Apple products as "nonluxury luxury products". The money quote:

Starbucks, Amazon.com and Apple are prime examples of the new nonluxury luxury. In addition to coffee, music and books, Starbucks sells a sense of well-being, all the stuff of the good life. Amazon curates literary choices for its customers. With its personalized music and looks, an iPod, Mr. Salter suggests, is as bespoke as a custom suit. In fact, says John Hayes, chief marketing officer of American Express "every single one of Apple's products can be defined as a luxury brand."

Of course, this insight appears not in the main news section of the journal, but in the Fashion Journal. Go figure: good marketing is now categorized as fashion.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Luxury, Marketing, Wall Street Journal