Yup US prices.
Something that Cadillac has surely considered is the Chivas Regal effect:
According to marketing folklore, the Chivas Regal brand of scotch whisky was struggling to gain market share and its sales were low. Its owners doubled its price -- without changing the whisky -- and saw unit sales double. Consumers saw the increased price as evidence that this must be a quality brand. In the 1980s, some U.S. universities adopted the same kind of policy, and the Chivas Regal effect became more associated with tuition costs than whisky. Colleges started to raise tuition fees to bring in more money and typically saw a significant increase in enrollment. At the time, parents equated higher tuition costs with a better standard of education.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7569473_chivas-regal-effect.html
It's certainly worked for Porsche.
That’s really interesting. Apologies for going O/T but I heard a pretty cool example of the Chivas Effect on a recent podcast. It was an interview with David Choe, a talented pop / graffiti artist.
When Choe started out, he was eking out a living, selling his art for a couple hundred bucks a pop. Then he discovered, randomly, he was really good at poker — so good, in fact, that his winnings obviated the need to sell art for a living.
But still an artist at heart, and not needing the money, he kept painting but also decided: why not jack up the price of his work by 10x, and see if that Chivas Effect wouldn’t kick in. Sure enough, it did. He blew up, was suddenly everywhere.
The craziest part of the story? Once he got some artistic recognition, some nerdy kid with a little startup called “Facebook” contacted him in 2005, asked him paint to his office wall, and not for cash (which was in short supply at the time) but an equity stake. Yup. Choe’s now worth ~$200 million.
