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“Life,Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are the unalienable rights promised by theAmerican Constitution to all her citizens. Among them, the third right – thepursuit of happiness- is the most elusive to define and acquire. A few yearsback, the nationwide best seller “Stumblingon Happiness (Vintage books, 2007)” by the Harvard Psychologist, DanielGilbert, in some sense raises more questions than answers. In my own life, Ihave defined “happiness is a positivederivative http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=5844 “ which I firmly believe.

Inany case, the purpose of this blog article is not to discuss this ephemeral anddifficult matter. Instead I submit that human being often used a surrogate forhappiness, namely “The pursuit of superiority or the feeling I am better thanthe rest”. Even though the idea of improvement and optimization is basic to allof us, to openly pursuit and display superiority is not socially acceptable.Civilization and society have developed elaborate customs and rituals to getaround this difficulty. In academia, the “opinion of your peers” is a workablebut still imperfect scheme for the recognition of being superior. From this wederived numerous “objective” measures such a SCI count, H-index, awards, andelection to prestige membership to make concrete the standing among one’speers. However, for the majority of the populace, such measure is notavailable. Instead WEALTH becomes a convenient substitute. But the raw displayof wealth is again considered to be gauche and socially lacking grace. Thus,customs and rituals are again devised to enable person to display wealth withsome measure of social acceptability. One of the earliest study of this socialphenomena I know of is the book by Vance Packard (The Status Seeker 1959) which describes how social hierarchy aremaintained via the used of various “status” symbols. Luxury and expensive goodsare examples of such status symbols, whether it is automobiles, designerclothes, or Tiffany or Cartier jewelry. But there is one problem with such symbols – there are also available tothe general not so wealthy public. A person of average means can acquire asingle piece of luxury good if s/he wants it badly enough. Consequently, suchluxury good will lose its superiority appeal when it becomes too popular. Agood example is what happened to the American luxury auto brand – Cadillac. TheCadillac car used to represent the ultimate in auto luxury in the US. To ownone is to declare you have “arrived”. But beginning mid 20^thcentury, ownership of Cadillac cars became too widespread particularly amongminority and some criminal population who wish to display legitimacy and upwardsocial mobility. As a result, wealthy people begin to avoid the brand. It tookyears for General Motors to shed this stigma and sales of Cadillac only beganto recover in this century. The fact is that status symbols are dynamicallychanging and the American public is forever concerned with what is “IN” andwhat is “OUT”. For symbols to remain status symbols it must somehow managing toretain “exclusivity” and yet be “desirable and popular”. This is a toughbalancing act well known to marketers. One way to maintain exclusivity is tomake the goods very expensive – expensive way beyond what the quality of thegoods justify. In other words, the customer is paying for the brand name. Womencosmetics are well known examples. Name brand cosmetics often contain the sameingredients as the much cheaper no name counterpart. But via clever advertisingand celebrity endorsement, a product can command the higher price. The pursuitof the name brand is of course also well known in China. Stories aboundnowadays of Chinese tourists purchasing huge quantities of name brand goods instores abroad. Diamond sales in China have become big business for Europeandiamond merchants.

But I wish to conclude the article by telling anextreme story of the pursuit of exclusivity and brand name:

Thereis a limit on how much one can charge for restaurant food. Thus price cannot beused to maintain exclusivity in the restaurant business. But someone has comeup with a clever way. I seriously doubt how many people in the world, includingeven the well informed have heard of the Spanish restaurant - elBulli – locateda couple of hours drive outside of Barcelona, Spain (note 1). But thisrestaurant is open only six months every year. Its award winning chef, FerbanAdria uses the other six months to create different and new menu items for eachyear (e.g., Liquid nitrogen frozen cocktails which are to be eaten not drunk).The restaurant only accepts reservation (over two million requests) via e-mailon a single day each year. Acceptances are determined by lottery to only 8000dinners. He lectures at Harvard on molecular gastronomy, his restaurant hasbecome a Harvard Business School case study in marketing, and he jointlyteaches a course on the science of cooking at Harvard. Eating at elBulli is notabout a good meal but a once-in-lifetime experience that participant can bragabout and feel superior with for years afterwards. Here is an example onhow-to-marketing and something for new Chinese Billionaires to aspire to.

(note1. I only became aware of this exclusive restaurant recently because of myHarvard connection. Otherwise, I’ll just be another ignorant public compared tothe privileged few who have dined there.) (Note added 7/7/2011. This week the Economist magazine has a featured article on the "Mystery of the Chinese Consumer" which describes Chinese consumer behavior that westerner find strange.

http://www.economist.com/node/18928514?story_id=18928514&fsrc=nlw|hig|07-07-2011|editors_highlights )

(Note added Aug. 6 2011. Alas, Elbulli annouced today that it will close in 2011 and re-open as a culinary institute in 2014. This will certainly give additional bragging rights and status to those who have already dined there. Just like a painter who dies, his painting will go up immediately in value. Chef Adria is a marketing genius.)