History Main / UpMarketing

* {{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, the main reaction from pinball aficionados were cries of DarthWiki/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.

* The UsefulNotes/NeoGeo was among the most expensive home video game consoles ever released, with a bundle including two controllers and ''VideoGame/MagicianLord'' going for $650, and additional games costing $200 each [[note]]adjusted for inflation, a single Neo Geo cartridge would cost ''at least'' as much as a brand new contemporary console in 2019[[/note]]. Since mainstream appeal was out of the question as a result, Creator/{{SNK}} upmarketed the console for only the most hardcore of gamers.

Compare ConspicuousConsumption.

See also BrandNamesAreBetter.

Compare/Contrast PanderingToTheBase.

* Focus on the value and high quality of your product. This is often the way to appeal to the OldMoney crowd, who ''are'' old money because they (and their parents and grandparents) spent their money wisely. They ''can'' drop hundreds on a pair of shoes, but they won't unless those shoes have a design that will never look dated and can be worn for years but still look like new after a good polish.

Of course, the big spenders don't go for just anything. They have to feel they are getting their money's worth. So your advertising has to demonstrate that your product justifies its cost. There are three common methods of doing this.
* Focus on the value and high quality of your product. This is often the way to appeal to the OldMoney crowd, who ''are'' old money because they (and their parents and grandparents) spent their money wisely. They ''can'' drop hundreds on a pair of shoes, but they won't unless those shoes are so well made that they can be worn for years and still look like new after a good polish.
* Focus on the class and sophistication of your product. This appeals to both Old and New Money -- who wouldn't want to seem sophisticated? -- and is likely the most common form of appealing to the upmarket.

* When the iPhone was first released, an enterprising developer offered an app called "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich I Am Rich]]." With a eye-popping sticker price of $999.99, the app did literally nothing except display a picture of a glowing red gem and the mantra, "I am rich, I deserve [''sic''] it." That is, the whole purpose of the app is transparently to demonstrate that you can afford to throw away $1000 like it's nothing. The developer reported that he had many satisfied customers before the app was pulled from the App Store, although several claimed [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted they had clicked the purchase link by mistake]]. There were [[FollowTheLeader similar products]] available for Android and Windows phone users as well.

* Intel's Extreme Edition [=CPUs=] have been priced at $999 or more for the opportunity to own the (usually) fastest and most core-packed processors currently on the market that are not among their professional/corporate oriented Xeon server/workstation line[[note]]Some were even taken from the same dies.[[/note]], and also get access to quad-channel RAM and enough [=PCIe=] lanes to run 4 [=GPUs=]. The only More recently it has been expanded to the -X series, which includes that and several somewhat lower tier options that are still (mostly) above the mainstream choices Intel offers.

* Intel's Extreme Edition [=CPUs=] have been priced at $999 or more for the opportunity to own the (usually) fastest and most core-packed processors currently on the market that are not among their professional/corporate oriented Xeon server/workstation line[[note]]Some were even taken from the same dies.[[/note]], and also get access to quad-channel RAM and enough [=PCIe=] lanes to run 4 [=GPUs=]. At first they were also the only More recently it has been expanded to the -X series, which includes that and several somewhat lower tier options that are still (mostly) above the mainstream choices Intel offers.

* ''Series/CrimeSceneTheVanishingAtTheCecilHotel'': A key plot point in the docu-series involves the manager of famous HellHotel ''The Cecil'' rebranding three floors as ''Stay On Main'' as a hip youth hostel catering to foreign travelers. ''Stay On Main'' has a separate entrance and lobby, modern branding, and fresh paint and bedding in the rooms. However, guests share elevators with the property's other guests. The ''Stay on Main'' is successful and attracts, among others, Elisa Lam to the hotel.

* "Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?" was a famous series of TV ads that aired in the [=1980s=] by Heublein to convince America and Britain that their 50-cents-more-expensive jar of Dijon mustard was "fancy". Arguably, the most surprising thing about the whole story was that the ads actually worked, and rappers are still citing Grey Poupon as a symbol of luxury to this day.

* "Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?" was a famous ad campaign by Heublein aired in the [[=1980s=]] to convince America and Britain that their 50-cents-more-expensive jar of Dijon mustard was "fancy". Arguably, the most surprising thing about the whole story was that the ads actually worked, and rappers are still citing Grey Poupon as a symbol of luxury to this day.

* Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?

* When the iPhone was first released, an enterprising developer offered an app called "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich I Am Rich]]." With a eye-popping sticker price of $999.99, the app did literally nothing except display a picture of a glowing red gem and the mantra, "I am rich, I deserv [''sic''] it." That is, the whole purpose of the app is transparently to demonstrate that you can afford to throw away $1000 like it's nothing. The developer reported that he had many satisfied customers before the app was pulled from the App Store, although several claimed [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted they had clicked the purchase link by mistake]]. There were [[FollowTheLeader similar products]] available for Android and Windows phone users as well.

* {{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 DarthWiki/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.

You've created a wonderful product for your company. It's practically top of the line. It's reliable, sturdy, comes with a lot of great features, and everyone loves its design.

However, all this quality comes at a price. Namely... well, the price. It costs too much for the mainstream market to afford it. What do you do?

** In Season 2 (1962), Sterling Cooper gets Heineken beer as a client. Both Heineken and most of the SC team want to focus on increasing the brand's bar distribution, but Don Draper says the brand should play up the "[[MadeInCountryX Imported from Holland]]" angle to expand grocery-store sales by getting rich housewives to buy it as a trendy alternative to wine. He even concocts a pilot program focused on grocery stores in the "rich belt" of New York's northern suburbs--including where he lives. Sure enough, at a dinner party at his house with his colleagues, Don's wife Betty includes "Heineken beer from Holland" as an alternative to French wine (as part of an "around-the-world"-themed menu). His colleagues laugh (and adopt the strategy). (Betty was none too pleased with being a guinea pig, and Don was ExiledToTheCouch for what Betty took as a manipulation.)

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.]]

* Focus on the class and sophistication of your product. This appeals to both Old and New Money -- who wouldn't want to seem sophisticated? -- and is likely the most common form of appealing to the upmarket