“You have got to be kidding me.”  These were my first words upon seeing a couple of the items in Tag Heuer’s new accessory e-boutique.  Are my eyes playing tricks on me?  Has TAG Heuer lost its mind?  Or is TAG Heuer just trying to insult our intelligence.  Let me list the absurdities:

• 8 GB usb storage keychain fob – $360!!!!!!
• 30 GB usb storage – “avant gard credit card size” – $700!!!!!!

And let me then add:

• The belief that your watch brand can sell anything at any price?  Priceless.

See for yourself at http://www.tagheuereboutique.com/.  No one in their right mind would pay such money for items like this that will a) be completed outdated in about 6 months (if you are lucky), and b) can be had for a fraction of the cost today – literally (see below).   

This is reall too bad, because there are actually some cool items in Tag’s eboutique – for example a nice Heur Monaco leather jacket, which oddly enough can be had for about the same price as the USB memory card ($700).  Too bad TAG Heuer has completely ruined the perception of value of all the good items in its store by pricing these “IT devices” like they are the last bits and bytes of memory on Earth.

I guess the bigger question is, why does Tag Heuer keep trying to extend its brand into areas that it obviously has NO CLUE as to what it is doing and what the key drivers of value are? 

8 gigabyte “Tag Heuer” branded USB stick

Yours for only $360.00!!

I’m sure it is soooo much more functional than this 8gb flash stick offered by Sandisk – $19:

30 gigabyte “Tag Heuer” branded USB card

Yours for $700.00 – what a steal!

If I were TAG Heuer I would quickly drop a ’0′ off the end of those prices and say that it was just a typo.

Related posts:

1. TAG Heuer Meridiist is Dead On Arrival
2. TAG Heuer Quietly Expands Authorized E-Commerce Initiative
3. “Survey Says…” Raymond Weil to follow Tag Heuer with Authorized Online Sales?
4. Tag Heuer Contest: The Duel, Steve McQueen vs. Lewis Hamilton