I mean, companies like Yeti are genius in marketing, no doubt about it. They basically create a product, probably marginally better than the rest (probably not even that), but have the audacity to charge 10x more. This seems to tap into the psych of a regular consumer: holly molly, why is that cooler so much more expensive than the regular one? It must be super good. With this mind-set prior to purchase plus $300 gone from the credit card, the buyers inevitably find whatever reasons to justify the purchase: the cooler holds ice longer than the others, the design is better, it's tougher, etc. And this turns into a fad. Since the only people who can initially afford Yeti are pretty well-off, naturally their also well-off friends, family, colleagues want to follow up to "keep up with the Jones". Viola, marketing genius.

To me, this is boarder-line scam. Just as people who get scammed try hard to protect the scammer, Yeti fans will fight hard to convince any doubter that Yeti produces the best cooler. But I believe if we ever conduct a double-blind study on cooler performance, the Yeti fans probably couldn't tell a Yeti cooler from a styrofoam one.

That said, I am not criticizing Yeti at all. If it can comfortably sell a $39.99 dog bowl which looks pretty much the same as a $3.99 one in Walmart, it deserves the praise. It is a luxury brand (I believe luxury brand has a new name now: life-style brand. Same stuff just not to freak out the millennials) no matter how much it wants to deny or spin it.

While Yeti fans convince themselves that they pay premium price for higher quality and better feature, they are actually paying for their ego. As showing off via expensive watches, jewelries, cars, etc. is out-of-reach for the general middle class Americans, and as the need to show off is always there, a $300 cooler or a $40 dog bowl is the best target: it's ridiculous enough to function as a show-off object, practical enough to help the owner disguise the true intention of show-off (you have to be humble, right?), and still affordable.

In fact, judging from this perspective, maybe Yeti is worth the price it charges. How rare can you find a $300 product that satisfies a consumer's psychological, social, and physical needs? I bet Yeti soothes a lot of people's mid-life crises, especially if they are not rich enough to afford a Corvette or Harley Davidson (Tesla! It's Tesla now!).