Tiffany

"Except for start-date gifts, my rule was that important gifts shouldn’t be disposable: no champagne, no muffin baskets. Instead, rare first editions from Heritage books, ancient Greek coins, paintings and prints, even the occasional car—sturdy, thoughtful presents that would last. If a client was paying us $500,000 a year in commissions, and we spent $5,000 on a gift for him or her, it didn’t hurt us much and it made the client feel fabulous. Our gifts office spent more than $500,000 a year, and generated a ton of good will (though we did send one writer for The Simpsons the same Weber grill on three separate occasions). Every Christmas we gave Tiffany key rings or the like to the secretaries of our favorite executives, and we messengered over $500 to $1,000 to our favorite restaurant owners and maître d’s, those who’d made us seem more important at the beginning than we actually were—Ronnie,"

"Barrier. A strong brand can only be created over a lengthy period of reinforcing actions (hysteresis), which itself serves as the key Barrier. Again, Tiffany has cultivated its brand name for more than a century. What’s more, copycats face daunting uncertainty in initiating Branding: a long investment runway with no assurance of an eventual path to significant affective valence. Efforts to mimic another brand run the risk of trademark infringement actions as well with their attendant costs and unclear outcomes."

"Branding Tiffany’s Power lies in Branding. Branding is an asset that communicates information and evokes positive emotions in the customer, leading to an increased willingness to pay for the product."

"Context, context, context! For years I had heard the business mantra, “Location, location, location”—an ironclad principle that the key to the success for any retail establishment was picking the right address to set up shop. My own experience indicates that a far more significant contributor to success is context. A powerful example is Tiffany’s famous blue box. The box is the context that provides a strong indication of what you can expect to find inside. Whatever is in that box may not be the exact gift you were anticipating, but it must be entirely consistent with your expectations of something that belongs in a Tiffany box. The box enhances the value of the object inside; and conversely, the object inside supports and further defines the meaning of the blue box. That’s not location. That’s context!"