These decisions, if you can call them that, cast the consumer and provider into a symbiotic relationship. The consumer spends more because the act of spending itself communicates taste, wealth and privilege, and desire. The company, naturally, is dedicated to the same proposition, but in reverse, by providing consumers with the tools of that communication. It knows that if its products work as mating brands—the market equivalent of peacock feathers—then higher margins and profits will follow, frustrating the brain and making the heart jealous.
