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.
well....its really an interesting topic brought into discussion by the author and for the most part of this blog i completely agree with the blogger...but there is something more that i feel is that its not only the status symbol and the price tag that an XYZ brand bears but it also comes with a sense of self satisfaction and a certain level of comfort.....moreover, its not the right thing to comment on or judge about anyone's characteristics....its basically all about human perception and a mind set....
ReplyDeletewhen we talk about facts others need to listen and provide counter facts... every vip wants to be a cK, because one who loves vip will be delighted if he gets cK so there is nothing about "perception", here the people concerned are the one who loves beautiful things, there is no excuse for being a miser.. one can either be neighbours envy (cause you worth it)or envy others (because they have it)... see plain facts, no mind game of perception ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first comment made as after-all a brand can b defined as an extension of oneself and a lot of what v do is a way to communicate with/to others- who v r, what v want, how v want to be perceived; be it blogging, orkutg., picking up ur wardrobe 4 the day. Its kinda lost if no one takes a second luk at it, if u don't feel it in the eyes of the beholder. I know it ain't rational, but when has been man been totally rational!!
ReplyDeleteThe Swoosh on ur shoes, that laptop bag with Reebok on its zip; infac u choosing to buy from Ramu kaka's shop instead of XYZ is also a choice of brand............