A few weeks ago, without really meaning to do it, my wife and I embarked on a mission we’ve somehow avoided for decades: buying a complete cookware set.

Until now, we’ve fairly happily made do with our eclectic collection — a mismatched symphony of wedding gifts, relics from furnished properties we rented out in another life, and a few impulse purchases that went on to serve us through countless meals.

It’s stuff that never really wears out. It will surely outlast us.

But after completing a whole-home renovation not long ago, we decided it was time.

I was completely unprepared for what we’d find.

The price range is staggering. A 10-piece set might cost $200 at Costco, $850 from All-Clad, or an eye-watering $12,000 from Hestan.

And don’t tell anyone, but they all look remarkably SIMILAR.

Same basic shapes.

Similar sizes.

Identical fundamental components.

Lids, handles, and metal vessels designed to hold food while it cooks. Revolutionary stuff.

Yet somehow, a 10-inch frying pan can legitimately cost anywhere from 30 bucks to over 1,000.

I’ve suddenly become educated on things I never thought I’d care about.

The relative thermal conductivity of various metals.

The significance of a fully-clad construction versus a disk bottom.

The precise angle of the handle’s ergonomic curve.

“This one has five layers,” the salesperson explains reverently at one store, “Stainless steel inside, aluminum core, copper layer, more aluminum, then stainless steel exterior.” He uses a strong magnet to show us how the steel content varies from one set to another.

That’s about when we hit our first barrier. After falling in love with a gorgeous copper set, we realized it wouldn’t work on our induction cooktop.

Copper is one of the most super-awesome heat conductors on earth. But induction, just like that magnet, needs an iron surface to be any good.

Back to square one.

This whole experience reminded me of an email I wrote a while back about lighting products. The price range is similarly vast, but with lighting, any fool can see visible differences in craftsmanship, design and materials.

With cookware, the differences are subtler, more technical, almost philosophical in nature.

In I Need That, I write about how products with essentially identical functionality can command dramatically different prices based on the narratives they tell and the identities they help buyers express.

A pan ain’t but a pan — it’s a statement about who you are as a home chef.

That statement, and the status it represents, is one of the largest sources of value and price differentiation there is.

The Cuisinart buyer might see themselves as practical and value-conscious.

The Le Creuset enthusiast identifies as tradition-minded and design-aware.

The Matfer Bourgeat customer communicates that they demand nothing but the absolute finest.

You see the same dynamic play out in watches, jeans, whiskey, pens — and many other categories where the functional differences don’t even come close to explaining the price variations.

Product Payoff: Beats by Dre headphones blew up the audio market by challenging price ceilings. Audio experts frequently ranked their performance below competitors selling for half the price, yet Beats captured 15.3% of the headphone market by transforming headphones from audio equipment into fashion accessories. When Apple acquired the company for $3.2 billion in 2014, they were adding a fellow brand that had successfully escaped the commodity trap by elevating a functional product into a status symbol.

Action for today: Examine your product category’s full price spectrum. Where does your offering sit? More importantly, what identity are you helping customers express through their purchase?

It’s all about the story customers tell themselves and others when they choose your product.

What’s the craziest price spectrum you’ve encountered as a consumer?

Tap that reply arrow and share your own head-scratching shopping experience.

Or reach out to my amazing team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.