Last weeks Mint lounge triggered off this post. There is a columunist whom i regularly follow and she had written about how people mindlessly spend on brands to keep up appearences. It reminded me of a page in my international marketing book which mentioned about a drastic dip in the sales in United States of The italian Haute Couture trio.... a la Armani, Prada and Gucci because of a new govertment rule "all products substantially modifed/manufactured should carry the name of the location of modification/manufacture. Now scarves for all these brands are made in China ( chineese silk is of uncomparable quality) but the USA consumer market was not willing to pay premium prices for products with "made in china" labels. One lady commented " i dont care if they are made in CHina, it just should not say so in the label".
That got me thinking why do people buy brands? apart from the obvious quality issues which by the way are not always applicable a brand is for the most part a status symbol. More crudely put it is " look i am so rich i use xyz brand" . Now dont get me wrong.... i am all for " if you have it you have every right to flaunt it" but if the flaunting is primarily meant for "those other people" then maybe we need a crash course in " how 2 realize that u r supercool without any props " course. Point being dont be a pseudo person ( refer Catcher in the Rye'). If you enjoy jewellery go ahead splurge, wear a different piece every day. But carrying a hideous looking Louis Vitton brown handbag with ur head full of" i know its ugly but its L.v" thoughts is what makes you a psuedo person. If you dont drink , dont stand with a glass of bubbly endlessly ( u r cool anyways, remember :) . On the other hand if you really do like it, go ahead and have one on me.
