How Luxury Brands Brainwash You to Buy

        ## Topics and Main Speaking Points

1. **Introduction** — How billion-dollar luxury brands target aspirational buyers using neuroscience and marketing psychology
2. **Louis Vuitton: Manufactured Exclusivity** — Creating artificial scarcity to drive urgency and desire
3. **Dior: Premium Pricing & Price Priming** — Why all prices are made up and how presentation justifies them
4. **Gucci: Selling Status** — The emotional sale and what buying a product signals socially
5. **Balenciaga: Neuromarketing** — Using brain science to understand and trigger emotional responses
6. **Chanel: Brand Association** — Linking your brand to a specific feeling or idea
7. **Rolex: Extreme Exclusivity & Customer Experience** — Selling the waitlist and justifying premium pricing through service

Louis Vuitton is the most valuable luxury brand in the world. They sell over $15 billion worth of products every year and lead the luxury fashion market with higher profits than any competitor.

But here's what most people don't see: these billion-dollar brands don't just target the rich. They target the aspirational buyer — and they use neuroscience and marketing psychology to get inside people's heads and influence their decisions.

I went to Beverly Hills to shop the top five luxury fashion brands in the world and expose exactly how they do it. I wore covert mystery shopping glasses to capture footage and see these tactics firsthand. And I'm going to show you how to apply these same strategies to your own business to dramatically increase your profits.

If you don't know me, I'm Sabri Suby. I'm an investor on Shark Tank, and I've generated $7.8 billion for my clients.

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## Louis Vuitton: Manufacturing Exclusivity

Before walking into Louis Vuitton, I knew some of the tactics they're famous for deploying in-store.

These brands go to extreme lengths to manufacture exclusivity. Their "limited stock"? It's all a fugazi. Do you really think they don't have the funds to produce enough inventory to meet demand? Of course they do. It's by design. They keep stock low to increase urgency when items are available — and to make products more desirable in the first place.

My bodyguards and I went in. I told them to pretend I was a billionaire sheikh from Dubai to see how they'd treat me.

Immediately, we hit our first challenge: we'd accidentally gone to the women's store. We headed to the men's store to find a passport wallet. Right away, we were assigned a personal shopper.

I found the wallet I wanted on display. And what do you know — they told me this specific item had "insane demand" and wasn't available at this location.

I didn't give up. We drove 40 minutes to another Louis Vuitton store. Again, a personal shopper greeted us immediately. I asked for the passport wallet, and she took me to the travel section.

Here's where it gets interesting. She mentioned the wallet was "hard to come by." While she checked the back, she tried to upsell me on $1,000 sunglasses and a $4,000 duffel bag.

They ended up having the wallet — but somehow, it was "the last one in stock."

Whatever you choose, they validate it immediately: "That's our most popular item. We only have one left."

By limiting supply, things become infinitely more desirable. People laugh and say it's extreme, but they do it because it works.

And it's not just luxury fashion brands. Think about Apple. You can't just walk in and buy their newest products whenever you want. Each location gets limited inventory. If you call ahead and ask for a specific iPhone, they say, "I don't know — we get a batch sent to the store each day and we don't even know what's coming."

That manufactured exclusivity is what gets people to show up in droves.

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## Dior: Premium Pricing and Price Priming

Next up: Dior, the number two luxury fashion brand in the world. They do over $11 billion in sales annually.

They have this tote bag that retails for $3,500. It costs $57 to make. The internet has gone completely wild about it.

I went in to see it for myself. It's Egyptian cotton, woven. Honestly, I didn't think it was anything special. But I respect it — because here's the thing:

The very first thing I do when a client wires me $50,000 is get on the phone and tell them: you need to double your prices.

Unless your business model is to service the entire market at scale — where nobody can compete with you on price — operating at the lower end of the market is a fool's errand. You don't want to play the race to the bottom. You never win that game.

All prices are made up. When it comes to setting your price, the setting matters.

Think about how you present your product. If it's physical, where did you shoot the product photography? What's it next to? What do the models look like? What's the lighting? The aesthetic? The overall vibe?

Very few people understand price priming. That's where you prime the prospect based on the environment, the associations, and everything they're exposed to before you make your offer. These brands have mastered it.

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## Gucci: Selling Status

Everyone knows Gucci. It's the loudest fashion brand out there — the belts, the loafers, the jumpsuits. I went in to get dripped out and see what tactics they'd use on me.

The first thing I noticed was the man at the door whose entire job is to let you through their velvet rope.

I told them I wanted to get as drippy as possible. They took me to the back of the store, offered me sparkling water, and I asked to try on a tracksuit.

They left me waiting for about 10 minutes. My guess? A tactic to get me to browse more. I looked at shoes, belts — and then they called me to the changing room.

The tracksuit was ridiculous. The entire set cost around $5,000. You're definitely buying the brand and status with that one.

Here's the insight: we all seek social status. From the schools we attend to the jobs we hold to the clothes we wear — everyone wants to signal a certain status. We all want to be perceived as higher status than the people around us.

Most businesses think about features and benefits when they sell. But they don't think about what buying their product represents from a status standpoint. What does it signal? What status does it unlock?

With these luxury brands, you're not buying the material. You're not buying the cotton or the craftsmanship. Yes, they talk about quality — but that's how they justify the sale. It's not how they get you to buy in the first place.

It's an emotional sale. They're selling you the status of having that big Gucci logo on your tracksuit. They know the rappers, celebrities, and influencers are wearing it. You want to be like them. Buying this is the cheat code.

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## Balenciaga: Neuromarketing

Before I get to Rolex, I have to tell you about my visit to Balenciaga.

These guys are known for their outrageous designs — like their $1,800 leather chip bag and $4,000 tape bracelet. I asked to try on their biggest oversized hoodie and Kanye's favorite oversized Croc boots. I almost lost it.

Their products are so wild that there has to be some other reason they sell over $1.4 billion a year.

They're masters of trolling the internet — and they use something called neuromarketing.

Neuromarketing is the study of how our brains interact with ideas, objects, and ads. These big brands spend millions of dollars a year on it. They use technology like fMRI to study blood flow in people's brains when they're exposed to certain products. They set up fake shops and supermarkets with eye-tracking software to measure heart rates when people see certain products, ads, and store layouts.

I'm not saying you need to go to these crazy lengths. But here's what I will say:

The very first thing I do when I sit down to write an ad, a video sales letter, or an email is ask myself: what emotion am I trying to elicit?

I don't start with the subject line or the hook. I start with: how am I trying to make the prospect feel?

All the masterful copy, all the features and benefits — people don't remember that. But they will remember how you made them feel.

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## Chanel: Brand Association

Chanel is the fourth-ranked luxury brand in the world.

Inside the store, I asked to see their most popular item: the classic Chanel bag. Of course, they tried to use exclusivity against me.

"Caviar gold hardware. This one is $10,400. This one is $10,800."

When I asked to buy three bags for my daughters, they claimed there was a limit of one per customer. A few minutes later — miraculously — they found three of the exact bags I wanted. They said I could buy all three because I had myself and my two bodyguards with me.

But here's what stood out about Chanel: they lean heavily into their feminine, timeless style. Everything — from how the hostess greets you, to the lighting, to the products themselves — radiates the same energy.

They want to link an association between a feeling and their brand.

It's the same thing Volvo does with safety. Nike does it with determination. Apple does it with simplicity.

It's simply a link between an idea and a brand. They hammer it in across all their communication until that link is formed.

This is also why these brands spend millions on influencers. They're taking a relationship that influencer already has with their audience and flipping it to create brand association and liking.

So zoom out and ask yourself: what is the link I'm trying to form with my brand?

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## Rolex: Extreme Exclusivity and Customer Experience

Rolex is the fifth-ranked luxury fashion brand in the world, doing over $10.1 billion in sales annually.

Everyone knows it's almost impossible to get a Rolex. I've been all over the world searching for a timepiece and can't find one. I went in hoping to buy a watch for my wife.

Here's the thing: it's nearly impossible to actually buy a Rolex in the store. They don't hold anything for sale.

I walked in with the exact watch I wanted. They said it wasn't available, but they'd take my phone number and call me when it was in stock.

I asked what female watches they had. "Today, I only have exhibition pieces. Nothing for sale." What about men's? "Again, nothing. Everything here is exhibition only."

They claim their watches are in such high demand they can't keep inventory. But it's all a fugazi to sell the exclusivity of the brand.

They've learned they're way more profitable selling the waitlist than actual watches.

But how do they justify such a premium price if they won't even sell to you in-store?

Here's the truth: charging premium prices is something most business owners can wrap their heads around. What they don't like to think about is what kind of service they'd need to provide to justify that price.

You can't just say, "Let me charge double or triple for what I've got." A transaction only happens when perceived value exceeds price.

What I've found from working with thousands of clients around the world is this: an incredible customer experience is made up of many small things throughout the entire client journey. They add up to the overall experience.

That's exactly how luxury brands operate. They know your name. They know what you've bought in the past. That's the only way you can get the products you actually want.

They're not trying to sell you one bag or one belt. They want you buying from them repeatedly — forever. That's how they make obscenely high profits.

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## The Bottom Line

Those are the strategies to dramatically increase your profits:

1. Manufacture exclusivity to drive urgency and desire
2. Charge premium prices and use price priming through presentation
3. Sell status — understand what buying from you signals
4. Lead with emotion — what feeling are you trying to create?
5. Build brand association — link your brand to a specific idea
6. Justify premium pricing with exceptional customer experience and lifetime value