“Perceived value”

Without that element, there would be no explanation for Marketingbeyond Brand Awareness working.

Even then, it doesn’t explain a lot of how Marketing does its work (namelly the stuff they took from Psychology and use to do stuff like create associations between brand and feelings on people’s subconscious).

And don’t get me started on other techniques that prey of human cognitive weaknesses (for example, FOMO would not work with the fabled homo economicus)

Anyways, a ton of present day enshittification (and that includes this kind of price inflation) relies on people having a well entrenched positive perception of a brand after years of having a relationship with it (i.e. chosing it as customers) and there being quite a lot of momentum behind it. It also relies a lot on using a “slow boiling” effect to keep people from spotting the full picture of the changes.