W. Edwards Deming was an American statistician whose work on statistical quality control was largely ignored at home after the war and taken up in Japan, where the highest industrial quality award still carries his name. American industry rediscovered him in the 1980s, by which time the argument had to be made as a foreign import.
Bang for the buck
Bang for the buck. You get what you pay for. Penny wise, pound foolish. Cheap is expensive.
Four American sayings about price and quality. All four assume the two are linked, and none of them describes quality as a thing that could be assessed on its own.
Cost-benefit
American regulatory practice requires agencies to weigh the costs of a rule against its benefits, both in dollars, before it can be issued. Even public safety is assessed as a ratio.
The star rating
American commerce runs on aggregated customer ratings, displayed next to the price on every listing. Quality is expressed as an average of opinions, alongside the number that would buy it.
Good, better, best
The standard American merchandising structure: three versions of the same product at three prices, displayed together. The buyer is not asked whether the thing is good. They are asked how much quality they want to buy.
The price point
An American term for a position in a market rather than a number on a label. Products are designed to a price point, which means the specification is derived from the price rather than the price from the specification.
Consumer Reports
The American product testing organisation, founded in 1936, takes no advertising and publishes ratings alongside price. Its signature judgment is the Best Buy — not the best product, but the best product at its price.
Value
The central American product word, and it is a ratio rather than a property. Good value, value for money, best value. A thing is not good or bad. It is good or bad for the price.
Disposable and durable
Durable goods is a category in American economic statistics, defined as goods expected to last three years or more. Three years. The official threshold for durability in the United States is a period a German would not consider a product life at all.
Built to last
The phrase exists in American English as praise, and Collins and Porras made it a bestselling business book title in 1994 — about companies rather than products. When Americans reach for the phrase, they tend to apply it to institutions.