Establishing a brand in the market involves much more than raw economics; the value a brand is able to acquire is a variable directly related to various social elements and patterns. This is clearly seen by taking into consideration the fact that the name a product brings on its tag can shape and determine the value it carries in a wide variety of senses. In turn, these vary from the actual monetary value, to how it is perceived by customers as well as society in general. An example would be two extremes of clothing stores like H&M and Prada. Both stores sell similar products and many times of similar quality, yet Prada has a much higher value in all the senses mentioned above; Not only is it more expensive but it is also highly esteemed by society. For example if someone is wearing a shirt that has Prada written on it, he or she will most probably be regarded differently than someone who is wearing a plain white t shirt. Additionally the person himself or herself might also feel different about himself or herself according to the brand of the clothing he/she is wearing. Therefore, the brands end up having in them embedded and thus transmitting some kind of message, be it of the brand itself, or even the person carrying/wearing it. This is the reason behind the fact that brand names have stand throughout history. Reasonably speaking it does not make much sense to pay for something that is so much more expensive when it terms of utility and even quality it is mostly the same as something much more inexpensive. With this in mind we can thus conclude that indeed it is more a matter of social rather than economical pattern determining the value given to brand-names.
Very Interesting post. In my brand management class we learned that the reason people buy certain is because different brands give different emotional and self-expressive benefits to the customers. Also people are attracted towards PRADA rather than H&M is because PRADA has a certain personality to which the consumers want to align with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that brand name can shape a person's identity. It like a medium that tells people what social class you are in. Since the high end clothing always uses celebrity to advertise it, consumers want to align with those people by wearing that certain brand. It can also be said to be a medium between the person and his or her own self esteem.
ReplyDeletePeople build a relationship with a brand after having multiple positive experiences with it. A good chunk of advertising dollars are to convince someone that the make the right decision for buying a product. People hate spending money and but they love feeling smart. If they feel they made a smart purchase they will definitely buy from that brand in the future.
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