NOT WHAT STYLE IS USED, THAT STYLE IS USED
Here's an interesting MSNBC article on the success of cars with "extreme styling" that many people find ugly but others love. "It's better to polarize some shoppers than to generate mass apathy," Chris Denove, a partner at J.D. Power, tells MSNBC's Martin Wolk.
On average, such love-it-or-hate it models moved off the lot four days faster and carried a profit margin that was $609 higher than cars that ignited little passion over styling, according to the J.D. Power survey.
"Extreme styling, when it is successful, will allow the manufacturer to charge a price premium and more importantly avoid costly incentives," Denove said. The finding"not only helps explain the growth of extreme styling vehicles, it suggests we've only just seen the tip of the iceberg," he said.
Today's aesthetic imperative doesn't mean the world is adopting Virginia Postrel's good taste. It means more people have opportunities to find pleasure and meaning in the look and feel of their persons, places, and things.