The Rolex Submariner costs US $9,150.

Not because the ceramics, steel, and mechanisms justify that price.

Not because Rolex performed some magical positioning alchemy that convinced customers to value precision timekeeping at automobile levels.

But because that price falls within the acceptable range — the Overton Window — that customers have established for premium Swiss watches.

The Overton Window, borrowed from political theory, describes the range of ideas considered acceptable at any given time.

In pricing strategy, it represents the boundaries of what customers consider reasonable for your category, regardless of your positioning efforts.

Here’s where most product makers get confused: they believe value is whatever they can position it as.

That if they craft compelling enough messaging, highlight sufficient benefits, or create attractive enough packaging, with the right font choices, they can command ANY price point.

This is dangerously naive.

A startup watchmaker cannot simply decide to price their timepiece at $9,000 because they’ve in their own minds logically positioned it as “luxury.”

The customer’s mind, which rules the day, immediately asks: “Compared to what?” This reference frame includes established players, historical pricing, and category expectations that took decades to establish.

Those decades, and the path to getting there are an important part of the matrix.

We are indeed irrational decision-makers — but our irrationality follows predictable patterns.

It’s NOT off-the-rails irrationality.

We don’t evaluate products in isolation. In fact, we refuse to. We frame every purchase through context, comparison, and category norms.

In I Need That, I explore how successful products work within existing price windows while gradually expanding them through demonstrated value. The companies that successfully shift pricing perceptions do so incrementally, not through positioning sleight of hand.

Product Payoff: Tesla didn’t launch with a $100,000+ Roadster because Elon Musk was a brilliant marketer who repositioned electric cars as luxury items. They started there because high-end sports cars ALREADY commanded that pricing, giving them an existing window to enter. As Tesla proved electric vehicles could deliver performance and prestige, they gradually expanded the window downward with the Model S, then the more affordable Model 3.

Each step built credibility within established price expectations rather than trying to create entirely new ones. Today, Tesla has fundamentally rebuilt the Overton Window for electric vehicles — but they had to do it by working within existing frameworks first.

Action for today: Get to know your product’s pricing Overton Window by researching what customers actually pay for comparable solutions — not just direct competitors, but adjacent categories that solve similar problems. Identify the boundaries of acceptable pricing in your space, then determine whether your strategy should work within those constraints or attempt gradual expansion through demonstrated superiority.

Remember this: customers anchor their value judgments on existing reference points, not your internal cost calculations or positioning aspirations. (All within what they are willing and able to spend.)

Have you encountered products that seemed overpriced until you understood their category context?

Tap that reply arrow and share how your perception of “reasonable” pricing shifted based on comparison frameworks.

Or reach out to my team of seasoned product marketing consultants at Graphos Product.