Why do we pay more for premium fuel?

[zeuss000]

In Saturday's "Courier Mail" motoring advice column "Ask Smithy" the bloke who writes the column claims that

".....we were let in on a little secret and that is that the regular unleaded we are buying is no different to the premium on sale. It seems it's more economical for oil companies to produce one type of fuel instead of two. What they do is guarantee the octane rating of the fuel they produce, in the case of regular unleaded that's 91, whereas premium is a minimum of 95. They don't talk about the maximum octane rating. In that case we are wasting our money buying premium when regular is the same fuel. That was last week, what they do this week is anyone's guess.
Why do we pay more for premium? Simple, clever marketing"

Is this for real guys??

Cheers
Ed