Mobile phones and cars are used in public and many people associate their personal identity with them. Here are the key values I believe are provided by each of your example:
iPhone: signifier of good taste, ease of use (relative to Android), being well-off (in developing countries)
Xiaomi: middle class or upper-middle class status (in China), good value for money
I agree that current iPhones and Xiaomi phones do not provide much better features relative to their competition (no-name Android phones in the case of Xiaomi). Their values lie elsewhere.
Tesla Roadster: cutting-edge, environmental sensibility
In fact, by sales volume, Roadster itself was not a success. Tesla only sold 2,450 of them in 30 countries [1]. Model S provides much better value for cost and correspondingly achieved much stronger success.
Luxury products in general tend to be associated with social exposure. Maybe luxury mobs or floor cleaning liquid exist but either they do provide some special features for a niche or their sales volumes are relatively tiny.
iPhone: signifier of good taste, ease of use (relative to Android), being well-off (in developing countries)
Xiaomi: middle class or upper-middle class status (in China), good value for money
I agree that current iPhones and Xiaomi phones do not provide much better features relative to their competition (no-name Android phones in the case of Xiaomi). Their values lie elsewhere.
Tesla Roadster: cutting-edge, environmental sensibility
In fact, by sales volume, Roadster itself was not a success. Tesla only sold 2,450 of them in 30 countries [1]. Model S provides much better value for cost and correspondingly achieved much stronger success.
Luxury products in general tend to be associated with social exposure. Maybe luxury mobs or floor cleaning liquid exist but either they do provide some special features for a niche or their sales volumes are relatively tiny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster