Which ancient civilization positioned their distinctive purple dye as a luxury product exclusively for royalty, creating one of history's first examples of premium brand positioning?

Before modern marketing departments and digital storefronts, ancient civilizations had sophisticated approaches to commerce and brand positioning. Merchants and artisans developed distinctive techniques to differentiate their products in bustling marketplaces from Mesopotamia to Rome. This trivia question explores how a famous ancient civilization strategically positioned their most renowned export to dominate Mediterranean trade for centuries.

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Phoenicians, who extracted the rare purple dye from murex sea snails and maintained a trade monopoly
Egyptians, who produced purple dye from rare desert flowers that only bloomed during specific lunar phases
Minoans, who developed a secret purple dye formula using octopus ink mixed with specific minerals from Crete
Babylonians, who created purple dye from fermented berries and positioned it as a divine color blessed by Marduk