If you have the determination to read this long post and follow ups, I think you will gain another perspective on how to tackle this categorization problem. I will post in 3 parts due to time considerations: an introduction to concepts, a proposed criteria, and case-based discussion.
Part I. Introduction to concepts
While there have been many suggestions of individual criteria and many attempts to sort brands into categories, it is obviously apparent that there is no consensus thus far. However, as a psychiatrist by trade, I can see a very nice solution that follows our Diagnostic of Statistic Manual (DSM). Briefly, the way we use the DSM to make psychiatric diagnoses is based on a hierarchy of criteria that includes both including and excluding features.
For example to define a Major Depressive Episode (MDE):
- Five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period and represent a change from previous functioning; at least one of the symptoms is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.
- depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). Note: In children and adolescents, can be irritable mood.
- markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day (as indicated by either subjective account or observation made by others).
- significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain (e.g., a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day. Note: In children, consider failure to make expected weight gains.
- (4) insomnia or hypersomia nearly every day.
- psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down).
- fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.
- feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional) nearly every day (not merely self-reproach or guilt about being sick).
- diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day (either by subjective account or as observed by others).
- recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
- The symptoms do not meet criteria for a Mixed Episode.
- The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
- The symptoms are not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse) or a general medical condition (e.g., hypothyroidism).
- The symptoms are not better accounted for by Bereavement, i.e., after the loss of a loved one, the symptoms persist for longer than 2 months or are characterized by marked functional impairment, morbid preoccupation with worthlessness, suicidal ideation, psychotic symptoms, or psychomotor retardation.
In this real example, you can see that there are Criteria A to F (EDIT: A-F does not display correctly. Please refer to the left-most numbers as Criteria A-F). These criteria are
hierarchical in that you must satisfy preceding criteria. For example while many may experience several symptoms from Criterion B, in order to meet the definition of MDE you must have Criterion A symptoms (which makes sense as how can one diagnose a DME without depressed mood?). In Criteron B, there are SEVERAL inclusive symptoms which must be met concurrently; in this case, 5 criteria are necessary for a diagnosis. This is done so that we can
increase the specificity or our diagnosis. In Criteria C-F, there are exclusionary symptoms which helps to ensure that we are indeed looking at a psychiatric unipolar depression and not a depression due to other etiologies.
But before I begin I want to make certain that there is indeed a difference between what we are calling "high-end" from "luxury"
BRANDS,
and it is this distinction that we are trying to define. Perhaps the best way to view this is via a car analogy, whereby we will divide some brands into "luxury" and "exotics". I think that without much argument, we can place such brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi within the luxury segment, and place brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti in the exotic category. While there are two obviously distinct groups, the question now remains as to why do we perceive these brands as they are? More specifically, what are the qualities that we value and hence make our judgments from?
You should notice that I have specifically emphasized "brands" as the topic of debate and have not adopted the sorting timepieces by an individual basis. My rationale is derived from the concept of brand dilution. Take for example, Toyota and Lexus. Now in this case, the parent company Toyota had realized that the brand name "Toyota" is associated with several characteristics such as economy, value-for-dollar, reliability and ubiquity. Thus, from a marketing standpoint, if Toyota were to create a pure luxury vehicle they would have a hard time convincing the market audience that it was one given Toyota's reputation as an economy vehicle. As a result, to facilitate the public's acceptance, Lexus was created. The point is, even if Toyota created the most powerful, fastest and quickest car in the world, it would still be a Toyota with associated connotations. This is true for other cars, such as the Nissan GT-R; no doubt that there is phenomenal performance that meets or exceeds the capability of a Porsche 911 but again, at the end of the day, it is still a Nissan.
Moving on, this thread has served a good purpose in flushing out those qualities that we value/devalue. A quick list I tabulated from the many posts include history, cost, degree of mechanical innovation or complication, design, public awareness, limited production, machine vs. hand finishing and quality of, targeted market and in-house vs. outsourced movements.
Alone these criteria are over-inclusive, which means that they need to be combined in some form to be specific. Again, back to my Depression example, many of us have felt depressed but not to the point of true clinical depression where it is a mental health disorder requiring intervention.
I will post Part 2 sometime next week.