What’s in a (brand) name?

There’s a lot of things that will gain you respect in this world, but the ‘bigger is better’ crew will have you believe that wearing a billboard for a ‘prestigious’ brand will catapault them from ‘ordinary man’ status to the uber-elite.

We’ve all seen it before – the young, trashy guy or girl walking down the street in their best trackpants, while sporting gaudy Dolce & Gabbana shades or one of those Guess handbags with the logo splashed over it 10 times over in a giant font. 

The perception that having access to a certain brand is being part of an exclusive club may not be that far off – but recent research shows that when it comes to fashion, the more exclusive the product, the less obvious the branding. 

The image below (which I have borrowed from news.com.au’s article) shows a demonstration from the study whereby the unmarked Gucci bag on the left cost well over $1,100, and the loudly branded bag on the right was about $650. The study showed clearly that not only did forgers prefer the louder bags (due to sales volume), but that those people with real status preferred the bag on the left every time. The same results were found with a number of fashion items.

Sunglasses are no different – it was shown recently that 28% of sunglasses priced at over $600 carried visible branding and/or logos, while 87% of those priced $100 to $200 had visible brand names.

One particular study found that with every 1cm decrease in the size of a Mercedes Benz logo, the price of the car went up by US$5,000.

For the manufacturers and owners of the individual brands, this means they walk a fine line between sales volume (appealing to the masses) and maintaining their brand exclusivity which wins them over with their real target audience.

A perfect example of just how badly a brand can get it wrong is that of Pierre Cardin. A highly respected brand over a long period of time, Pierre Cardin by the end of the 1980s had licensed its name to more than 800 products, including toilet seat covers.  Not the most exclusive club I'm sure you'll agree!

To illustrate, just imagine Wakuda Tetsuya – one of Australia’s finest chefs - opening a chain of several hundred restaurants - one on every suburban street corner around Australia! It just loses the gloss of what is really a great institution - and something exclusive.

At the end of the day, while our thirst for big brands all seems a bit silly sometime, this highlights all of our need to belong to an exclusive club – it’s just one of the ways we seek it out.

Deliriant Isti Romani – These Romans are mad!