Sitting in my room, I look around and everywhere I look, I see brand names. Wow I say, I have officially been branded. Branding, in its simplest of meanings, means, to mark with a hot iron. And all these multi national companies (MNCs) sure do go through a lotta effort to make sure each one of us is branded. Advertisements are what has helped these MNCs achieve their aim. You switch on the television and there are advertisements, you read the newspaper and they are there too, but the place affected by it the most is the internet. Most of the sites on the internet have advertisements on them. Most people might say that they are not affected even a wee bit by them, but the fact of the matter is that deep down inside they are actually being branded. Speaking with context to the Indian market, if you go to a computer store you’d realize, that barely 20% of the buyers know what they are buying. And not even half of this 20% know what it actually means. Rest of them are satisfied by the fact that it is a Intel Pentium 4 machine of that it’d be fast because it has core duo in it. People haven’t even heard the name of AMD and are hence hesitant to buy an AMD machine. It is the advertisements that have prejudiced our opinions. What is worse is that the consumer doesn’t even realize that he has no use of a Dual core processor and yet is ready to shell out twice as much for it. Such is the power of advertisements.
Ask people which company makes the best phones, and the most probable reply you get is going to be Nokia. Mention the word Blue Berry and will start thinking in lines of a fruit. People here have been brainwashed by advertisements n these brainwashed people brainwash their friends and family by praising their phones. I own a Sony Ericsson phone and, I can prove to any rational, nonbiased and non-prejudiced party that the sound and picture quality of my phone is better than any equivalent Nokia phone.
I am not even going to start about the Fashion houses of the likes of Versace and Prada... Because I totally fail to understand the logic behind the colossal price tags on their fashion accessories. Why would someone in their right mind buy such expensive pieces of clothing? According to a dictionary, clothing is defined as, a covering designed to be worn on a person's body.
The question that requires answering is how much is too much??? We do not even realize the extent to which some companies go to ensure that you are branded. There was once this report of a study funded by an advertisement company which claimed that people retain the most when they are looking for information.
So people, de-brand yourself, and don’t let the advertisements have the better of you. Question people who claim their product is the best as to why they think so. And please don’t let the brand ambassadors they sign up affect you. Unless they are given free goodies, I doubt these ambassadors ever use the product they endorse.
Signing out for now...
Bye
1 comment:
I agree with you when you say that people need to go beyond adverts to see what they NEED versus what they think they need/want.
But a major reason that people buy Nokia/Intel is because of the advertising. And I'm sure the biggies at AMD are aware of that. It's a consumer driven society we live in, and while it's not the BEST thing to have happened, people are always going to want something better than the other guy. I suppose Prada's going to be around for a long, long, LONG time...
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