Cost vs Value

I’m now doing renovations to my showroom at an extremely low budget and I have to somehow create a miracle and transform the showroom into a showroom that people will give good comments to while displaying as many items for retail sales and yet create some level of exclusivity to make some items more up-market.

We all know we can’t have the cake and eat it, but what happens if that is your task? Darn, there will soon be a food fight.

Other then just doing renovations together with a few enthusiastic staff, there were lots of thoughts racing thru my mind and the issue of Cost and Value came to mind. Whats the difference between cost and value? At first it might seem almost the same thing, but when you really understand those terms, they are almost miles apart. I’m no business guru, but would love to share some of my thoughts.

Cost
The cost of something is how much it takes to actually acquire the darn thing.

Value
The value of something is how much someone is willing to part with in order to acquire the darn thing.

So i might buy a thing for $X, thats my cost. Now whats its value?

Scenario 1

I leave the thing at one corner to collect dust, i don’t talk about it, I just leave it. Some people touch it, some people drop it, now whats the value of it? How much someone is willing to part with in order to acquire the darn thing.

Scenario 2

I display the item nicely with good lighting, nice packaging, with a nice salesperson doing a demonstration. I market it and subtly tell people what its all about and somehow it gets a cult following, now whats the value of it? How much someone is willing to part with in order to acquire the darn thing.

9 Replies to “Cost vs Value”

  1. hi NP, guess it all boils down to perception. that’s the reality of value. the interesting thing about perception, and thence value, can be increased by clever positioning, and marketing of the item/product, on top of it’s inherent value.

  2. the world’s most cleverest people are marketing people.

    artists and marketing people rarely collaborate well.

    it cost a lot of time, blood and sweat for the artist to paint that painting.

    it cost 2 phone calls and a “hello, how ya doing?” for the marketing person to sell that painting.

    The marketer / curator gets paid triple the amt the artist receives. Guess who gets more “value”?

    Dumb artists plod on and paint for a measly sum.

  3. i agree man…but sometimes in business – u gota really find hard for ‘suppliers’ rather than the shop selling the products to get a cheaper price!

    hoho…there’s good & there’s a bad side lah…

    (‘ ‘,)

  4. meh. if you are talking about artists, monetary value is secondary. true artists will regard the appreciation of their masterpiece and satisfaction of producing art as the true value of worthy of his/her sweat and tears.

    commercial designers are different. they have to have some kind of marketing skills. Selling an idea to clients or presenting to team mates is a form of marketing anyway right?

  5. m although i agree with you on many levels, but i’m seeing a trend of “having the cake and eat it” kinda attitude towards life now. Is like if you had a choice to get $5 or $10 which would you take? The normal ppl would say $10 cuz it of more value… some would say $5 is enough, other might say i’m not money face, so i don’t wish to take… but i see the trend it “i’ll take both, i’ll take $15”.

    So i believe and old-school artist thinks that money is not important, but the new-school thinks other wise, they believe in staying true to their works and yet earning a decent or at times a filthy load of molah.

    Lets look at Philipe Stark & Karim Rashid. Comments anyone?

  6. Hail, Your site is like to a drink of fresh air, which helps not to choke in the world of awful sites your site is very pleasant and very cool! Thanks a lot!!! Success in your work, Scott Phillips

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