The Premium Experience

" Premium Experience " is a phrase that we sometimes encounter in photographic and general advertising. It signifies the desire of a manufacturer to present a product in such a way that the buyer values it at a higher level before they buy it...and can be induced to spend more money on it. The concept is entirely valid if the product does indeed exhibit some special quality or ability - but customers may sometimes wonder at its use. Let's be blunt - in the last ten years we have occasionally been presented with items in the trade that have had the " Premium Exerience " cachet, but on examination have proven to be less a product of the engineering and design department than the advertising boys at the end of the assembly line. No names, no pack drill, but alert readers will have seen some come and go. This is not to decry the value of advertising and promotion. Heck, I'm advertising and promoting every weekday in this column and I very much want you to come into CE and buy things based upon what you read - but I am hesitant to attach the term " premium " to anything. At least anything short of a life insurance policy or a soda cracker. Devotees of haggling will have encountered another use of the term - when you make a winning bid in some auctions, the auction house will attach a 10% fee in addition to what you have bid as a " Buyer's Premium ". This is the use of the word to suggest extra value when in truth is is merely a way of extracting more money from you. Some also note that GST is payable and oddly enough it is payable to them...I believe Captain Starlight was somewhat more honest when he presented a loaded pistol to the occupants of the mail coach and demanded that they stand and deliver. However you perceive the word, it does suggest that there are levels of excellence in the equipment that you are being asked to pay for. Good, better, and best was the conventional way it was stated in the Sears Roebuck catalogue underwear pages. It was all very well to have this sort of distinction in the scanties market - it's less than comforting when you are talking about the multi-thousand-dollar camera trade. For that kinda dough, you hope that there are no holes in the DSLR, that the elastic works, and that you cannot put it on back-to-front.