“You want my eternal admiration?” my friend Marci asked me. “Go talk to that girl.”
He pointed out a tall blonde, with very upright posture and a confident “don’t mess with me” walk, who was dressed in an expensive-looking and fashionable outfit. She had just turned the corner from Passeig de Gracia, Spain’s most expensive shopping street, full of luxury brand stores, to a less glamorous side street.
Don’t you worry.
This is not an email about pickup. Rather, it’s an email about a strange shopping behavior, which has gotten the name “split-brain spending.”
Split-brain spending involves buying most things discount so you can splurge on luxury items.
For example, the fashionable, attractive, intimidating blonde I saw yesterday took a few more steps and went inside an Aldi, a discount supermarket that’s something like Kmart in the US, if you remember those before they went bankrupt.
I didn’t follow her in there, and so I didn’t find out whether she shops in Aldi regularly in order to afford an occasional $1,500 Louis Vuitton bag or $400 Prada sunglasses or $700 Hermes silk scarf.
But apparently, it’s a common-enough phenomenon.
The Wall Street Journal wrote up an article about it back in 2023.
At that time, inflation was a relatively new experience for most folks.
People were getting stressed and exhausted by it, and they vented by “revenge spending” on luxury things like clothes or international travel or maybe a fancy leather couch.
That’s why between 2020 and 2023, the luxury market outstripped overall retail sales, with 70% growth for luxury, compared to overall retail’s modest 25% growth.
I checked this morning, and it seems the luxury market constricted in 2024 for the first time in 15 years.
Even so, the bigger point still stands, and it stands in all economic seasons.
People will buy to treat and spoil themselves, even if they are conscious of spending normally, or even if they don’t have all that much money overall.
“Economists call this an attempt to reclaim agency over their finances,” says that WSJ article.
So my point for today is to give your customers that opportunity, even if you normally sell budget offers or give away stuff for free. Add in some high-ticket “spoil and splurge” items that tap into split-brain spending, and allow your customers to buy a feeling of control over their lives.
In my email yesterday, I asked what offers you might have bought for $200 or over, which really delivered value in your life, beyond simply being fun to consume or exciting to buy.
I got a number of replies to that, mainly about courses. But I also got a message from a reader named Robert (not sure he wants me to share his last name). Robert wrote about a $300 hair drier his wife bought, and he said:
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This may not be the answer you’re hoping for because I don’t know if you’d be able to promote it. But it delivered and amazed my wife.
She used to break a sweat drying her hair because she had so much. I wasn’t lucky enough to catch it on sale, but it’s been worth every penny. She told her sister, and her sis bought two (one for each home).
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Maybe I’m out of touch, but I would never imagine a $300 hair dryer before Robert sent it in. And yet I think it supports the idea in this email well.
Or maybe like Robert says, it’s just a product that solves a legit problem for a specific segment, and is worth every penny for that reason.
On that note, let me repeat my offer from yesterday:
I’m always on the lookout for great products to promote. The problem is, lots of stuff looks great on the outside. But does it actually deliver results? That’s where I’m hoping you can help me.
What’s a product or a service that you paid $200 or more for over the past year, which really delivered?
It could be an info product, a physical product, a service, or something you paid to have done for you. And by “really delivered,” I’m not talking about being fun and diverting, but of giving you real value in your real life.
If you’re game, hit reply and let me know of stuff you’ve paid for that was a good investment.
In turn, I’ll reply to you and tell you three offers I’ve bought over the past year or so, all of which cost around $1k, all of which delivered real value to me, and all of which happened to be sold via infotainment.
Do we have a deal? If so, hit reply, and fire away.