Admit it. What you're buying is not what they're selling...
What am I really buying when I purchase a Claudia Pegus dress?
Well, on one hand I am buying 2 yards of silk that was probably made by some cheap labour in the Far East and cut and sewn by expert hands in the West Indies.
But on another level when I purchase a dress from the Woodbrook based atelier what I am really buying is hope, the hope that somehow Pegus’ dress will make me feel beautiful, disguise my flawed hips, and win the right kind of attention. (This actually happened with the pink suit in the photograph that was published in the Huffington Post)
My husband buys aftershave to me for no good reason. It actually serves no real purpose in my eyes except for that little fact that he smells fascinatingly sexier with it on. That has its own consequences.
After shave = sex appeal. My Claudia Pegus dress = hope.
The moral: what companies sell and what customers want are two different things. I mean what do you really buy when you go home with an Iphone, a can of Axe aftershave, a Benetton trousers?
The question points to a deep lesson I think and that is, every once in a while as a seller of goods or services, it is wise to place yourself in the shoes of your customers and ask the question: What are they really buying?
The answer, 99 times out of 100, is often not what you think you’re selling.
http://www.mangomediacaribbean.com/blog/trackback.cfm?4D73F6C7-D1C1-CB78-168D6666E5F5BC22
Judette Coward Puglisi (MSc, Dip IR, BA), Managing Director. Find out more 
They know that you are buying that aformentioned Claudia Pegus dress because of whatever positive emotions you associate with the brand. And as for hope that it will slim your hips and whatnot... well no one purposely buys an unflattering dress :)
These companies have done their research and know their consumer probably better than their consumer knows his/her self.
A sort of, Perception and Supply and Demand if you will.