The IKEA Effect

Last year I bought a lamp to use at my computer desk, on big time sale and it was called 'Sandy' so I knew it had my name on it, so to speak.  I ordered it on line and love the darn thing, it's so cool, actually a bit too cool for me but hey.

So last night I was involved with the Rachel Zoe marathon where she has one of her lackeys completely furnish a 7000' house in two weeks.  The guy was sweating bullets but what did he pick?  YES, two of my lamps for her living room!  I sat through the whole show waiting for her to tell the world how much she hated them but she didn't-  she LIKED them, she really LIKED them. Of course I also had to suffer through a Kardashian getting outfitted in twenty red gowns and some tiny black underpants before we got back to the lamps.  Why are we subjected to those women and their underpants at every turn?  I bet SHE doesn't' have my cool lamp!

Today I went to the dermatologist for a melanoma check and walked out a free woman with Latisse in my bag.  Yup, I am gonna grow me some eyelashes, and I am very excited.  The doctor told me she has to actually trim hers.  Like, what does one DO with eyelashes?  Am I too old for eyelashes? I've never had any so I will have to learn how to bat my eyes next.  Just like a girl.  Wow.  I'll tell you if it works.

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(note red line showing that now I am Serious?)

This article, from the Huffington Post, kind of helps explain the pricing we see on homemade stuff,  like quilts!  (via Liza)  We (that's actually the Royal 'we') have some 'splaining' to do!  This kinds resonates with me because I have personally wrestled a few IKEA items to the ground and frankly they are now precious to me and I won't get rid of them!

Treating that cheap, self-assembled IKEA coffee table like it's a prized heirloom? You're not alone, according to a recent study from the Harvard Business School.
Through a series of experiments, the Harvard researchers found that "labor alone can be sufficient to induce greater liking for the fruits of one's labor: Even constructing a standardized bureau, an arduous, solitary task, can lead people to overvalue their (often poorly constructed) creation."
The researchers decided to test this concept -- which they call the IKEA Effect, after the Swedish retailer -- after noticing that they all were holding on to "lousy mugs and lousy bowls that we built when we're in college," Michael Norton, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School and one of the study's researchers said. In addition, companies are increasingly offering consumers the opportunity to customize and co-create their products, he said.
Norton and his team wanted to answer a key question: Will consumers pay more to build things themselves?
The answer might be yes. In one of the researchers' experiments Norton and his team sat two people in a room to build Lego toys and at the end told the participants that they would have to bid for the toys if they wanted to take them home. The highest bidder got to take home both. The participants always bid more than they needed to, in order to take home the toys.
"They assume that the other person will love their little frog as much as they do," Norton said.
The researchers findings parallel previous work on "effort justification" a concept that explains, among other things, why people say their jobs are both their most rewarding and least pleasurable activities, according to the study.
The trend even extends to rats, who also find food that they fend for to be more pleasurable than food they're provided, according to the study.
The tendency to overvalue do-it-yourself products may explain why IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer, according to Bloomberg, and the chain is booming internationally. IKEA plans to triple its expansion pace in China, Bloomberg reports.
But the study has implications beyond IKEA, Norton said. Companies will often undervalue products or ideas produced elsewhere, while overvaluing their own because of the time and effort it took to come up with them, Norton said.

To take this theory another step, I see this attitude all the time in quilt pricing-  some hideous stuff priced way out in the stratosphere because the 'value' is all time and technique, not design and execution.  Folks see a 12" square listed at some really hugh price and they think THEY are worth that too regardless of art background, selling history, and exhibiting in 'real' places, not just church basements.  Tsk tsk.  What are your thoughts?

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                                                                                    (you can tell by the line)

Hazel is a fan of Man Ray.  Who knew...