Name Brand Status

       Stop whatever you are doing right now. Whether you are in your dorm room, apartment, classroom, Ludwig, wherever; just stop and look around. How many brands do you see around you? More specifically, how many name brands? Personally, just looking at my shoes I see the brands Nike, Sperry, Ugg, and Toms. Looking in my desk room, I see at least three different kinds of Apple products. Even looking in my refrigerator, I see brands like Heinz, Pepsi, and Kraft.

       Everyone knows exactly what each of these brands actually are. For example, when you say, "Hand me my North Face", everyone in the room knows you are talking about your fleece jacket. But no one is just going to say, "Hand me my black fleece jacket" because you are talking about the popular brand North Face.  Having these popular brands gives us a social identity. It's almost as if without these brands, we don't have any status.

       Interestingly enough, along with the rise of every popular brand comes a less popular, less expensive knock off version. Think specifically of shoes: there are knock offs for Toms, Uggs, and Sperrys. I personally own a North Face fleece knockoff that I got for less than ten percent of the cost for the real deal. There are so many different types of tablets in an effort to be like an iPad. With all these knock offs available, the consumer either has two options: 1) completely ignore the less expensive version because it is not as good and doesn't bring the same level of status, or 2) become obsessed with the knockoff because to them it brings them the same amount of status as the original would for a margin of the cost. But either way, we are still focusing on the status that the name brand brings! Why do name brands have this power over our spending?

COMPARE:

Danskin Women's Sport Fleece Jacket for $13.96 on the left

North Face Women's Denali Thermal Jacket for $199.00 on the right

             



       Why is it that we will spend way more for a product that is from a name brand? I think that name brands speak to the insecurity in us that says we aren't good enough. It's almost as if by buying these items that we are telling the world, "I am good enough!" By wearing the logo, it tells the world that you were able to spend the money, that you have status, and that people can benefit by being around you. It becomes less about the brand you support and more about promoting oneself. We use these brands to show that we are superior to everybody else who doesn't have these brands. So as humans, we have a desire to be known, to be accepted, to be thought highly of. And brands help us do this, I guess.

       I think that companies know this about us. Why else would the knock off industry be so large? I think that companies aim at our insecurities, and advertise their products as something that will make us secure. I think this is what fuels our consumer society: we buy because we think we are improving ourselves. This is why (unless you are a college student) at the grocery store most people will buy the name brands even for cereal. Marketing companies use our insecurity against us to fuel their businesses.

       Our world tells us that we need status and high position. It tells us we need money, fame, and recognition. But the Bible tells us, "Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited"(Romans 12:16). It is interesting how we are called to be something completely opposite of what our world tells us we need to be in order to be important. Since our world thinks we need status and name brands, it is even more important that we keep Christ-like humility in mind. It is okay to buy name brands, but maybe we just need to be aware of why we buy the things we buy. It is important to be cautious of buying products just for the status that comes with the label.