Wednesday, March 30, 2011

What's in a Brand Name?

What’s in a brand name? Are you truly spending the extra money for quality or social status?  The usual answer that we are just buying it for the brand name rather than the quality.  We won’t as a society admit that we just buy stuff to show people that we can afford nice things are trying to be what society is considering ‘in’ at the time.  When you look closer at the actual ‘quality’ of a product there isn’t much of a difference if any.  You can up to $35 for an article of clothing that is virtually identical to a $12 piece of clothing from a Wal-Mart.  When a consumer goes into a clothing store they never go up to a shirt and the first thing they look at in the consideration of buying the shirt is this shirt going to last a long time.  There are the exceptions but most people will buy it just for the brand name, the article is on sale or they are brand loyal. 
The only way to get companies to put more into their quality is to force the companies to remove all their brand names and symbols off the outside of the clothing.  They only thing that will distinguish one companies clothes from the others is how well it’s made.  This sounds all good but wouldn’t be practical. No one wants to look the same as every other person.  They want to be different and have that difference of social class.  If someone works as hard as they possible can and wants to buy nice things then they should.  They have proven that they deserve what they’ve worked for and should be looked at being higher up then Joe-Do-Nothing.  So how do we make a fair competition?

Sunday, March 6, 2011

How do you market youself?

How do you market yourself?  How do you make yourself come off to your friends, family or people walking on the street? Do you make yourself look how you feel?  This question came to me this week.  Do you as a person show your true colors or do you come off as fake?  I asked this to myself and looked at my friends and people I know personally.  You would be surprised how many people try to perceive themselves as something they’re not.  Whether it’s your personality or the way you dress, people don’t tend to show their true colors.  If you ever confront a person and tell them they are fake 99 out of 100 will say of course not but it is hard to find someone who is truly honest or shows who they truly are. 
                The question is usually who you want to be rather than who am I.  This is really discouraging when you stop and think about it.  Nothing seems to be an original thought any more.  Everything is a copy or a rip off of someone else’s idea.  So next time you’re getting changed or meet someone for the first time, ask yourself, am I showing this person me or someone who I want to be?