Why do people buy expensive Japanese fruits?

Did you know there’s a market for insanely expensive Japanese fruits?

There is an market for insanely expensive Japanese fruits.

Last year someone in Japan paid $45,000 USD for a pair of cantaloupes. Yes – you read that right. Why would anyone want to pay that much for melons?

So I spent my my entire weekend searching for that exact answer… and I found it.

If you want to know the secrets behind charging 10,000 times MORE for the same type of fruit you can find at a local supermarket, read on.

Here are THREE reasons why people are willing to buy premium prices for everyday fruit.

THERE ALREADY IS AN EXISTING MARKET DEMAND IN JAPAN FOR expensive Japanese fruits.

If you tried selling 5 figure fruit in the US, would it sell? Probably not.

As mentioned in Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz, you can’t create desire for a product.

But what you can do is focus on the already existing desires of the market and bridge the gap onto a particular product.

In Japan, premium fruits are sent as gifts. So it’s not uncommon to spend $100-1000 in expensive Japanese fruits as a present for formal occasions like weddings, business transactions, and hospital visits.

While this is explains the demand for high end premium fruit market, it still doesn’t explain why people pay 5 figures for fruit… which leads me to my next point.

THERE ARE FOUR GRADES QUALITY FOR HIGH END FRUIT.

There are four grades quality for high end fruit.

If there were two pieces of fruit in front of you, could you tell the difference?
How would you go about selling a premium fruit?

You have to keep in mind – this is a “natural” product.

Mother nature doesn’t tell us there’s four different grades – someone created these four tiers of fruit in Japan.

Want a breakdown of the four grades? Here they are from lowest to highest grade:

• Yuki – (minor defects)
• Shiro (55% of fruit)
• Yama (25% of fruit)
• Fuji (0.1% of fruit)

Any minor defects are automatically considered Yuki. And Shiro, Yama, and Fuji are dependent on the physical appearance and sugar content.

Classifying the fruit builds natural “scarcity” built into the market since only 1 in 1000 fruit make the highest grade – Fuji.

But that’s not all – you can stack it with other factors to increase the exclusivity. For example – have you ever heard of a white strawberry?

There’s the “White Jewel” strawberry and only 10% will stay a White Jewel after exposure to the sun.

So imagine a Fuji grade White Jewel? But let’s take a step back. So what if we have a rare piece of fruit? Does it justify the $45,000 price tag?

And this leads to the last piece of the puzzle, which is the secret to charging 10,000x the price of a normal strawberry.

HIGH END FRUITS REQUIRE A HIGH LEVEL OF INTIMACY.

Let’s take two types of fruits.

Which one would you pick for a wedding or business gift?

• Melon 1: It’s mass produced and sprayed with pesticides. When it’s time to harvest, they’re tossed in a cardboard box, thrown on a truck. At the supermarket, you not only need to check for bruises, but also fight old Asian grandmas for the non-bruised melons.
• Melon 2: These melons are grown individually in a controlled environment. They are grown on raised beds so the farmers can individually hand water and control the water amount for each and every melon. After being watered, each melon is massaged daily with white gloves. In fact – farmers go through dozens of gloves massaging these melons these melons. After the massage treatment, the melons are wrapped with white paper to protect the melon from the sun. When ready for harvest, these melons are sold in individual presentation boxes on a pillow of premium silk.

Which one would you buy for that one time special event? And more importantly… why?

The unique selling proposition of a $45,000 melon isn’t the physical characteristics or sugar content. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT.

What sells the $45,000 melon is the the story of the process of how this product is created and the level of intimacy require to produce the product.

So imagine if you gifted these melons to someone you really cared about? How would it make them feel receiving a gift that was cared for with such high intimacy?

A lot more thought goes into the presentation of the $45,000 melon than a $5 melon thrown in a paper brown bag.

THIS IS THE TRUE POWER BEHIND MARKETING.

It isn’t just “selling” something for 10,000x. It’s about giving meaning to products for the customers receiving them.

If you’re into marketing and positioning, some resources I would check out:

1. Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz
2. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got – Jay Abraham
3. The Boron Letter’s by Gary Halbert
4. Full Stack Marketing Academy by Rich and Niche/Rich Ux

How are you going to apply these concepts?

If the science and art fascinates you, I highly recommend checking out a luxury brand, like Porsche, Mont Blanc, or whatever luxury items you’re interested and try to find similarities between them.

If you are a business owner, I’d love to hear if you’re considering applying these concepts to your product or service offerings.

Until next time,

Kevin

SIGN UP TO GET SHORT WEEKLY EMAILS ON MINIMALISM, HABITS, & PRODUCTIVITY.