History Main / UpMarketing

This doesn't always go for the upper classes. Anyone with a decent salary and [[CrackIsCheaper an expensive hobby]] can be the upmarket for that hobby.

* Just to focus on how good your product is. This is often going right for the {{old money}} crowd, who are old money because their parents and grandparents spent their money wisely. They spend hundreds on a pair of shoes, not because it has a designer label, but because it will last years and years and still be good as new with a nice polish.

* {{Pinball}} unintentionally found itself in this market with the demise of arcades in North America. As the machines are big and bulky by necessity, prices are invariably in the 4- to 5-digit range, and this doesn't account for repair costs due to pinball machines' tendency to break down with even moderate use. When the main buyers for these machines dwindled, the main audience shifted to home buyers, who buy them for personal use. The only people who would shell out this much cash for quick amusement and put up with the repair costs, as well as having the floor space at home, are the up-market. It says something when Creator/{{Stern}} released a cheaper, stripped-down version of its ''[[Pinball/BatmanStern Batman]]'' table that cost $800 less[[note]]Bear in mind that this price reduction alone can pay for a UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}} and 3 games[[/note]] and sold it at Costco, and the main reaction from pinball aficionados were cries of RuinedForever despite the more expensive normal ''Batman'' table still available. In other words, the very act of broadening the audience down-market was seen as blasphemous.

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* ''SteelBattalion'' used a humongous proprietary controller and therefore was out of the price range of most gamers at US$200 MSRP. Needless to say, it was a commercial flop, but remains a CultClassic.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cadillac_lovely_wife.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:When you drape your lovely wife in [[PimpedOutDress fancy dresses]], [[PrettyInMink furs]], and [[EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry jewelry]], think of Cadillac.]]

* InUniverse in ''Literature/TheWidowOfDesire'' Natalie Stuart founds a fur company with her husband, and the main demographic is conservative OldMoney career women. The ads are tailored to their tastes, some showing modern women and their ancestors wearing tasteful but luxurious mink coats.

* Ads for [[PrettyInMink fur coats]]. [[FurAndLoathing When there used to be such ads on TV]], that is.

* The [[AdvertisingCampaigns "What becomes a legend most?" campaign]] for Blackglama mink.

** Slightly subverted in that actual professional gamers play on stage on such peripherals, and gaming organizations like TSM and Cloud9 would be extremely averse to letting their players play on such equipment if it wasn't actually better quality (they really don't want to lose over something like peripherals).

* InUniverse in ''Literature/TheWidowOfDesire'' Natalie Stuart founds a fur company with her husband, and the main demographic is conservative OldMoney career women. The ads are tailored to their tastes, some showing modern women and their ancestors wearing tasteful but luxurious mink coats.

* Common for dedicated peripherals. Why play an FPS with a normal keyboard and mouse when you can have a keyboard and mouse spefically designed for FPS? Why play racing games with anything but a steering wheel & pedal peripheral? Why play MMO[=RPGs=] without that "glow in the dark" keyboard extension featuring all your hotkeys and quickslots? Why play flight simulators in anything less than a full cockpit, complete with stick, throttle, rudder pedals, [=MFDs=], other assorted switches for various subsystems, and maybe even topped off with a motion platform?

* As for appealing for hardcore fans, the home video market in Japan, which is largely a form of ConspicuousConsumption. Collectors will brag to each other about how much they've spent in those [=DVDs=] and Blu-Rays (among other things--some membership clubs cost tens of thousands of yen per year and consist solely of newsletters; the money spent is seen as an act of dedication to the franchise). This backfired big time for [[Creator/NamcoBandai Bandai Visual]] when the studio tried to use the same strategy for western markets, unaware that such a market in the west is too small to turn a profit with.

* {{Opera}} is often seen as fare for highbrow snobs and rich people, reflected in marketing that shows gents in tuxes and ladies in evening gowns enjoying [[AtTheOperaTonight a night at the opera]]. Despite this, opera tickets aren't really much more expensive than comparable tickets for headlining pop or rock concerts. Opera companies realize they need to appeal to a broader demographic to secure funding. And in many European countries you will actually be able to get opera tickets for less than the price of a similar night out as the government subsidizes "high culture" so that everybody can enjoy it (the same often goes for theater). Regardless, people still go to opera in their finest evening gowns even if the tickets were 15€ a pop.

* {{Opera}} is often seen as fare for highbrow snobs and rich people, reflected in marketing that shows gents in tuxes and ladies in evening gowns enjoying [[AtTheOperaTonight a night at the opera]]. Despite this, opera tickets aren't really much more expensive than comparable tickets for headlining pop or rock concerts. Opera companies realize they need to appeal to a broader demographic to secure funding.

* TonyRobbins, in his recorded spiel on the subject of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VALS VALS]], describes Merril Lynch's ad campaign going from a herd of bulls, representing their "bullish" position, to a single, very well groomed bull walking through a china shop and not knocking anything over. This implies that their customer is an "Achiever" who is above the rabble.

Well, you have two choices. The first choice is to sell the product at a loss, so that the mainstream can afford it. This is ''only'' advisable if it's sold with another product profitable enough to offset that loss, which is the old "Give away the razors to sell the blades" strategy. The second choice is to not bother with the mainstream at all. Instead go for as much of the market that can afford it. This is known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upmarket the upmarket]].

* Stella Artois invoked this with the slogan 'Reassuringly expensive', although it became known as 'wife-beater' (because the British can't hold their liquor - Only ten pints? Are you some kind of pansy? - and because, despite the up-marketing, it's largely sold to proles).

* {{Pinball}} unintentionally found itself in this market with the demise of arcades in North America. As the machines are big and bulky by necessity, prices are invariably in the 4- to 5-digit range, and this doesn't account for repair costs due to pinball machines' tendency to break down with even moderate use. When the main buyers for these machines dwindled, the main audience shifted to home buyers, who buy them for personal use. The only people who would shell out this much cash for quick amusement and put up with the repair costs, as well as having the floor space at home, are the up-market. It says something when Creator/{{Stern}} released a cheaper, stripped-down version of its ''[[Pinball/BatmanStern Batman]]'' table that cost $800 less[[note]]Bear in mind that this price reduction alone can pay for a {{PlayStation 4}} and 3 games[[/note]] and sold it at Costco, and the main reaction from pinball aficionados were cries of RuinedForever despite the more expensive normal ''Batman'' table still available. In other words, the very act of broadening the audience down-market was seen as blasphemous.

More shadily, this method of selling may be invoked by an [[HonestJohnsDealership Honest John]]-type ConMan who artificially marks up prices in an attempt to [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted part a fool and his money]].

* {{Opera}} is often seen as fare for highbrow snobs and rich people, reflected in marketing that shows gents in tuxes and ladies in evening gowns enjoying [[AtTheOperaTonight a night at the opera]]. Despite this, opera tickets aren't really much more expensive than comparable tickets for headlining pop or rock concerts. This portrayal is gradually changing as the tighter economy makes it harder to secure funding for the arts, and opera companies are realizing they need to appeal to a broader demographic.

-->"America's best dressed women wear Coro jewelry."

-->''"Ambassador, with these Rocher, you're really spoiling us!"''
-->--[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMlP_Moo0bE Commercial]] for Fererro Rocher chocolates

Compare/Contrast PanderingToTheBase. See also ConspicuousConsumption, which is what most of these marketers hope you will do. Can overlap with BrandNamesAreBetter, when a given brand has the perception of higher class even though the product might be no better than a generic brand.

* Just to focus on how good your product is. This is often going right for [[BlueBlood the old money crowd]], who are old money because their parents and grandparents spent their money wisely. They spend hundreds on a pair of shoes, not because it has a designer label, but because it will last years and years and still be good as new with a nice polish.

** Ironically, this ad campaign [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1379948/Youre-spoiling-Mr-Ambassador-And-making-chocolates-laughing-stock-That-Ferrero-Rocher-advert-wasnt-joke--Italians-idea-style-class.html wound up backfiring a bit]] in Britain, where the brand started being perceived not as sophisticated and classy but pretentious and elitist. So Rocher changed their marketing to show that their chocolates were the favored candies of [[ClassicalMythology the Greek gods]]. Make of that what you like.