How Hermès Brainwashes You to Buy $70,000 Handbags

This is me about to try and buy the most expensive handbag in the world.

We don't have any stock available at the moment or the purchase we got as a whiskey list.

I asked how long the wait is, and they said, what, three to five years. But that's actually a lie. A quick Google search shows that each store has hundreds on hand. This is what's called manufactured scarcity, and it's just one of the dark psychological tactics that these brands use to brainwash the poor into buying and make billions. I'll be traveling the globe to expose the dark psychological tactics that they use. And you can steal this Playboy to double your sales, but in an ethical way, starting with the first brand, Prada. These guys do $4.2 billion per year and are known for their outrageous viral sunglasses that pretty much every rapper and wannabe rapper is rocking. So I head inside using my undercover recording sunglasses, and I immediately notice the door is locked. Good. How are you? And while this may seem harmless, it's all a part of their trap. We'll get to that in a second. Let's take a look at their sunglasses and the first. First psychological tactic. If you don't know me, I'm Sabri Subi. I'm an investor on Shark tank. I've generated $7.8 billion for my clients. It's like the ones that all the rappers are wearing. Yeah. Yeah. The sales associate showed me their base collection downstairs, but told me that if I wanted to look like all the rappers, I'd have to head upstairs. They took me to the back of the store, sent down a private elevator, where two men in suits were waiting for me at the top. Upstairs, I was outnumbered by Prada's henchmen, and my spider sense were tingling that things were about to get interesting. Hello. Do you like this? Every part of their retail experience is designed intentionally to confuse you. There are no price tags, no item names, and everything is designed so that you have no choice but to interact with their sales staff. And they hold all the power in the interaction. This isn't by accident. This isn't bad service. This is by design, and it's called information asymmetry. Luxury brands don't just sell a product. They control the entire buying dynamic. They control how much information that you have, whether or not you're allowed to buy, if you qualify to buy. When you walk into these luxury shops, it's often that prices aren't shown, that stock isn't visible, and when you ask the sales representative a question, they never give you straight answers. And the way that you can apply this in your business is by not making all of the information available up front. Is this the right size? Is it meant to be oversized like this? How do you like it? Most people think, hey, I just need to put absolutely all the details about all the products and services that I have on my website. No, no, no, that's what you do with commodity products. There needs to be an allure of you need to withhold some information that actually gets somebody to want to reach out to you in the first place and engage with your sales team. And the higher the price, the more that this game needs to take place. And you can hate this strategy, you can disagree with it, but you can't deny that it works. Because mystery creates status and lack of transparency creates desire. And if they're asking questions, then you are the one that's in control. But this is not even close to some of the tactics that I'm going to uncover later in this video. Here is the wild part. These luxury brands don't even manufacture their own glasses. Their thousand dollar shades are made in the same factory as cheap Target glasses. All of them are designed and sold by one mega corp called luxottica. You can literally go to their website right now and see all the luxury brands that they manufacture for listed under their portfolio. It's all about the logo that they sl onto it and how much they think you'll pay. Next up is Van Cleef. These guys do over $6.3 billion a year in sales and have been around for 118 years, but only recently have become insanely popular with influencers and Gen Z. Their bracelets are all over TikTok and cost only $500 to make, but sell anywhere between 8,000 to upwards of $50,000 for the full on iced out ones. Let's head inside and see what the hype is all about. Entering the store, I'm immediately confronted by security who redirects me and my wife to our own personal come to look at some of the bracelets. He escorted us to the back of the store. Which colors do you want? Okay. Notice how he said he'd bring out a few of them. This is not because he wants to show me more options to choose from, but because he wants to convince me into buying multiple of these bad boys. They encourage stacking, which means Instead of buying one of these $8,000 bracelets, they want you to buy two, three or the complete looks. I feel like I see these everywhere. I do. Okay. Why are they so popular? The most Popular jewelry in the world, huh? That is what we call tribe triggering. So human beings are pack animals and we are wired to seek belonging. We want to be a part of something, something that represents our beliefs, values and status. And brands exploit this by creating tribes. And when all the biggest celebrities like Drake, Lebron and the Kardashians are rocking these bracelets, people can't help but want one of them for themselves. Because not just buying that product, you're signaling who you are and who it is that you stand with. Even guys are wearing those. This guy was pulling out all the stops, okay. The force Tryon. He even whipped out a portable mirror out of nowhere. But why are these things so popular? The Internet. The Internet And China. China.

Everyone wants one in China.

Oh really? China. He sat me down to try and loosen me up before laying on the hard sell. Alrighty. We were in too deep and I needed an escape plan. I think you've given us time to think about, we're gonna go for a walk and come back. But basically, yeah, he really thought that he could swindle the Internet daddy. But don't worry, I bought one for wifey later in the week. These guys are masters at authority manipulation. Luxury buyers don't buy things for their utility. They buy things because the people that they receive respect, envy or look up to are already buying. And luxury brands know this better than anybody. They know is celebrities are out there rocking their products that that lists their brand more than any other advertising they could possibly do. And the way that you can apply this for your brand is to think about who are the celebrity authority figures in your space. And you get your product or service in their hands or in association with them and then that immediately propels and lifts your brand up and elevates itself and status. If you don't have access to these celebrity influences, that's okay. I'm going to show you the other ways that you can tap in to this herd mentality that is hardwired into humans brains. But this is just the start. The most sinister tactics are still coming up. So here are some tactical ways that you can apply this in your own business. Any press mentions that you've got, advertise how many reviews you've got from how many customers put out content that educates your market and helps people solve their problems without ever having to do business with you. And that builds trust. And then you become the brand that they link that with. That this person provides a lot of value. They help me solve all these problems and then there is a strong connection to that brand. And we won't be shopping Rolex today because they sent me this cease and desist for this short. But don't worry, I am going to be shooting an entire video except exposing the dark psychological tactics that these guys use. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss that banger. But before we move on to this next brand, let's zoom out for a second because what is happening behind the scenes is way bigger than what is actually happening in store. And this is all recent Insider information. Viral TikToks are coming out of China from factories that are calling out these luxury brands and saying that all the biggest brands are manufacturing 80% of their goods out of China and then marketing it as made in Italy and made in France. Why don't you just contact us and buy from us? You won't believe the prices we give you because they lied to us. This is just completely popping off. This is actually wild. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments. Now on to the next brand. Okay, so next up is Rolls Royce. These guys make some of the world's most expensive cars. There has got to be something going on underneath the surface. So let's go and find out. I told her that I wanted to look at their $500,000 Cullinan out on the cor. Sell. You're not selling. Yeah. Why not? Oh, you're the assistant. Okay. So I made my way into one of their Cullinan SUV's and waited for the sales associate to come my way.

Good.

How are you?

Very good. Thanks for.

Nice to meet you. How you doing? This is beautiful. And while these cars look pretty on the surface, Rolls Royce is actually owned by BMW. And if you look a little bit deeper, these things are nothing more than one of their cars. But with fancier finishings and commanding five times the price. And I had to confront about this.

We are subsidiary of BMW.

Okay.

So they have a big group.

Do these have the BMW engine in them or is that not true?

Everything is identical. There is no changes at all. We're going to change. These are just with nothing.

Got it. What's the availability line?

Nothing. Nothing 25 nothing only by order.

Your brain makes thousands of decisions every single moment based on how things feel, how they look, how they smell. This is what we call potential perception. Hacking. All profit in business is created by how much something costs to either make or deliver and how much that you can charge for it. And the difference in between those two is brand. And it doesn't matter if the product is exactly the same under the hood. It's all these sensory effects that impact how someone feels about your brand. Yeah, this is beautiful. Smells like money in here. Whether it's heavier, sleeker, smoother, all of these things, they weigh into the perception of how someone interprets a product. And these luxury brands are absolute masters at perception hacking. From the lighting in the store to how it smells to the security guard that's out the front, it's the whole sensory experience of the whole thing that is world creating. They create a world that you step into the dramatically impact your perception of the products that they sell and the price points that they can command because of all this. And the only way to do this is by having something that we call a hero mechanism, which is how you create a wedge between cost and price. But instead of paying a copywriter $8,000 to write one of these things for you, go to get Kong AI, and it will spit one of these bad boys out in 30 seconds. Now back to the video. And the way that you can apply perception hacking to your own business is you want to be thinking about your landing pages, your website, and thinking about, how is my brand perceived? What does the typography say, the spacing, the amount of white space on there? Am I using stock images, or are these high quality, crafted images if you can already make them feel magic? By the time that they've clicked on your website, they've filled out a contact form or they've purchased a product, and when it arrives, you are already manipulating their emotions and having that association either be a good one or a bad one with your brand. Everybody knows Louis Vuitton. These guys are the number one luxury fashion brand in the world and do over $15 billion per year in sales. And it's actually rumored that they burn their unsold stock. Look, let's go inside and see the tactics that they deploy on us. Hello. Good, how are you? I had my eyes set on the new Pharrell Williams collection, so they assigned me a personal shopper. But they weren't anywhere to be seen. Time kept passing by, so I took some time to browse around the store. I had a sneaking suspicion that this waiting game was just. Just that. Again, because everywhere that I went, there was flocks of sales reps that were free and available. But whenever I asked for anything. These are some sneakers, huh? They told me to wait for my personal shopper. All right. You guys are very busy, huh? Yeah, there's the busiest shop in the mall. They kept me waiting, so I kept Browsing. I seriously debated buying this 5500 duffel some shades and I was still waiting. So I took matters into my own hands and decided to raid the racks and get disgustingly dripped out. This wait time was definitely intentional. And it's called the invisible cart tactic where they get me to look around at all they had to offer and prime me for the sales rep to push me over the edge and close the sale. And finally, after nine minutes, my personal shopper appeared and things immediately started to get weird. I don't know if I was just being paranoid or not, but I felt like there was serious heat on me and maybe, just maybe, they recognized the Internet daddy. So I decided to bounce before things got too heated. But this isn't the only tactics that these guys use. Brands use narrative imprinting to attach a story to their product that change the way that you feel. It's not just about the utility of it. It becomes a self expression of your values and of your identity. Look at these two bottles of water. One costs $0.80 for 1.5 liters and the other costs $4.50 for 500 mil. They're both purchased for hydration. You buy it because you're thirsty. However, one cost five times the price. And it's not that the utility is any different. It's one attaches a story and a personal identity about what buying this water says about you. Liquid Death has positioned their brand as being edgy and rebellious and eco friendly. It's about a story and it's about the personal identity that somebody gets from purchasing this can of water. So when it comes to applying this to your business, you never want to sell the utility of your product. You want to sell how it makes your customer feel. What is that dream destination that it is that they're trying to get to? And once they arrive there, how is that going to impact their status? But I have a surprise coming up. After what I ask next, I don't know if I'll ever be able to step inside a store ever again. Meet Bernard Arnold, the CEO of the LVMH Group and one of the richest men in the world. Bernard Arnault is set to remain CEO of the world's largest luxury goods group.

For another nine years.

No, seriously. In 2023, he was actually the richest person in the world. Richer than Elon and even richer than Bezos. And he is the one man behind Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Tiffany and 75 of the world's biggest luxury brands. But he didn't build his wealth through fashion. He built it by a deep rooted understanding of human psychology. His brands don't just sell products. They manufacture status and engineer identity. And if you don't buy his products, it's likely that you've been brainwashed to at least desire them. He knows exactly what he's doing and it's working. So you can hate it, you can try and deny it, you can say that it's unethical. But there is one thing that you can't say, and that is that it doesn't work. This is the most expensive handbag in the world. The infamous Birkin bag. But guess how much this thing costs. $500? $5,000? Will this thing cost upwards of $40,000? And people line up for years just to get the opportunity to buy one of these bad boys. My house is on fire. I would take this one. Let's go in and see some of the tactics they use on us.

Hello.

Good afternoon. This guy greeted me and then straight up ignored me for 30 seconds. So I decided to break the silence. How long's the way? Okay. Well, it's a certain amount of people. Okay. I entered the store and security is everywhere. I asked to buy their nicest bag and they said this. I'd just like to look at one of the Birkin bags. Have a look. Little does he know, he's talking to the Internet daddy. And I am on a mission to buy my wife a Birkin for our anniversary.

Don't have anything available presently.

What's the kind of timeline so all.

The Birkin we got as a wish list?

I asked how long the wait is, and they said five years. What? Three to five years. So I can't buy it. To let them know that I have the money to buy, I flash my Rolex. Now that they knew that I was serious, they took me upstairs to their private showroom. They showed me the most expensive bags they had in store. And this is all a prime example of the luxury illusion effect. The luxury illusion effect is a psychological phenomenon where consumers associate higher prices with better quality goods. And that's exactly what Hermes does with the Birkin bag. These guys price anchor at over $100,000. When these bags are made with luxury materials and stones in them, and you go in there like, oh, my God, that bag's $100,000. And then when you look at the Kelly or the Constance, it just feels so much more affordable. Hermes drives up the value of their bags by making them seem scarce, but that is a lie. They're rumored to produce over 200,000 bags a year and keep supply low by burning any bag that isn't sold. And these bags only get sold to what they kept referring to as the Hermes family, which I am not a part of. And to become a part of the family, you need to spend years buying off the shelf products like their $1,000 belts, their $5,900 blankets. This is a mistake that I see so many brands make. They have one price point and then when they start to sell that product, there is no wiggle room in a negotiation to go from there and they just erode their margins. Instead, what you want to do is have three different price points. A low tier, a mid tier and a high tier. And then you want to use your high tier to do all of your price anchoring. You don't want to be talking about your low tier product because then when someone tries to go back and forth with you on price, there's nowhere to go. Instead you price anchor high and then most people will end up on the medium tier. And if they are very price sensitive, you always have the low tier to default to. And if you are a premium price seller, then that also says that this must be a very high quality product. But you're telling me the chances of me getting it is like next to zero, right?

I have to say it's only the fact.

So it's a fact.

It will be the fading, to be honest.

Now these guys pulled out all of the stops and I put all the tactics that they deployed in a cheat sheet that you can find in the description below. Apply these to your business, explode your sales. And if you like this video, you are absolutely going to love part one in the series. Go and watch that now.