Companies target people that are psychologically geared with certain needs as in all marketing. It is purely psychological. the needs could be purely functional for a product that works with no added hyperbole (status). Thus a $35 dollar reel is created that does the job intended and made well. Than there is the added hyperbole to target one with an ego and need for status. Thus a $875 dollar reel is created to meet that need. Both reels function equally well both made as well. One may use more expensive metal for the arbor and reel but both structurally last as long.

As a remarketing coordinator in the automobile industry I see this for what it is and how we use it to (pardon the pun) bait and hook our target. The reality is amazing and it is all based on psychology and using it to sell them a product that though costs infinitesimally more than the next model down is no more superior to it except in the way we create perception in the minds eye of the consumer. Read that (consumer) as fish.

It blows my mind quite frankly that one would pay 800 900 plus for a reel that is designed to just pull line out and reel it in. That is a medium sized motorcycle engine, a very nice TV, a very nice bicycle, and on and on. But hey status is in the mind of the beholder. Tenkara is as well as is western style fly fishing. Both catch fish and not everyone is looking for a trophy. Some just love them little buggers called blue gills, some love Atlantic salmon. There is no one rig that does it all eh? But I digress. There are so many ways to fish and if a human being has found a way to fish that gives them pleasure than that my friends is all that matters. After all to quote Chris Stewert "it is just fishing". Cane poles are fun too and that kid or adult kid over there that has fished that stretch all his or her life is catching more fish "somehow" than that new comer wearing and carrying 2000 bux worth of gear.