Whether we realize it or not, brands dictate our world. They’re always surrounding us, thus we are constantly being marketing to in one way to another. From the bracelets on our wrists, to backpacks, to earphones, to the cup in our hands, almost everything we use has a brand pasted on it. These brands enable connotations in our mind. They tell us information about the product and arbitrarily about the person wearing it.
When we become aware of how much brands really influence our actions, interactions, and perspectives in life, the truth is quite sobering...
It’s not to say that brands don’t have a good use in our lives. Brands carry information about a product's’ value and can actually add to our experience. They help us see what is worth spending our money on and what is not. But the danger comes in when we let those things dictate our lives - when the companies are successful in making us feel like we can’t live without their having their brandname on a product and when we judge the status of people based on a 2 centimeter logo.
The danger sets in when we see someone wearing a brand and then assume something about who they are as a person. When we are attracted to people solely because of the pony on their shirt or the apple on their computer. These things can be positive, as they may be a source of bondage and familiarity. At the same time, our attraction to brands enables our relationships to revolve around superficial, material ideas before judging people by their actions, beliefs, or words.
We worship these big-name brands so much that we'll pay hundreds of dollars more solely for the tiny little logo on a pair of leggings, sunglasses, etc. But why? What do these little things prove? They provide an arbitrary symbol of status. It's arbitrary because the poorest person could fool anyone with a the presence of a tiny logo. We even can buy fake versions of sought-after brands, thus lacking the quality of the expensive product because we are so desperate to have the “cool” or rich or whatever vibe that brand seems to give off.
My senior year of high school, I became a little obsessed with these realizations I’d had about how much brands and marketing affects our world. I read about food companies who release smells when you walk by to draw you in, stores that underpay people to mass produce, and small, local businesses that suffer from corporate companies’ overwhelming yank on the market. I read about the psychology behind marketing and discovered a whole new world that I couldn’t get enough of - “Neuroeconomics”.
Neuroeconomics is the study of the way that brands and companies affect our logic. Brands were put into place to try and sway the vast amount of choices we have while shopping for an item. Branding started as a way to “display value” of products to consumers. When first introduced, brands solved decision problems and allowed for more widespread knowledge between the consumers and specific products.
Therefore, brands serve as a way for us consumers to make sense of the world.
But we’ve made it so much more than that…
Everywhere we look we see brands, meticulously placed to sway our thoughts. Every accessory, screen, and sign around us display images that send messages - messages that companies want us to believe so that we will spend more money on them and create a culture around their brand.
Our decisions with brands are ones we commonly make unconsciously. Our habit-derived pleasure is what motivates us to choose one brand over another.
My senior year I conducted in a class where I gave each student two pieces of chocolate of "different" brands. I gave them one piece at a time and had them shut their eyes to experience the flavors...
I had them try the first piece and told them it was the Hershey's chocolate. I told them “Close your eyes and really try to experience the taste of the candy bar. Now rate the flavor 1-10 on a piece of paper.”
Next, I had them try the other piece of chocolate and told them it was a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate. Once again, I had them lose your eyes and enjoy the flavors and then rate it on a scale of 1-10.
The trick was, I actually only exchanged the Hershey's chocolate for Giradelli for half of the class.
As I hypothesized, the whole class rated the “Ghirardelli” chocolate significantly higher than the Hershey's - even the ones who received Hershey's for both times.
This experiment showed how our emotional connections to brands often have a much larger impact on whether or not we buy something that the actual experience it brings to us. To put it simply, even though half of the class tasted the same chocolate twice, they still rated the one I said was Ghirardelli higher because of the ties their brain has with that brand.
Where Ghirardelli chocolate is commonly known as a luxurious, expensive, and quality brand, Hershey's chocolate is known as a more common and bland brand. The student’s habit pleasure machine predicted the quality of a reward and, despite the way it actually tasted, they ranked Ghirardelli higher.
This prediction was shaped by the student’s memories of having it before and their knowledge of it’s value. If your predicted value is higher than the experience you end up disappointed, but if your predicted value matches your “good experience” with the product, your brain approves, and you may become a loyal supporter of that brand.
Their expected reward of that product is larger, making the product seem more valuable, making you more likely to pay more for it. This may be why Ghirardelli is on average a lot more expensive than Hershey's, yet is still a thriving company.
Now, what does any of this have to do this anything?
The chocolate experiment is just one example a consumer decision, but we make hundreds every day. Brands drive our economy; clothes, food, cars, the list never ends, and they build our concepts of what is popular. It reveals how we go through life, blindly led by trends constructed by businesses with the goal of making money.
It’s not to say that marketing is the root of all evil and brands are the going the lead to the world’s destruction. But I think more people need to become aware of how vastly we let these arbitrary little things sway the direction of our lives.
I myself am, by no means, exempt of being one of these people who buys into brands, but I try my best to not buy into every single one. I try my best to not judge people based on a tiny logo on their shoe or purse. Because as silly as that sounds, that anyone would do that, I think most people do these things all time, subconscious or not.
This purpose of this article is not to bash people working in marketing, or even big businesses and brands, it’s simply to spark an awareness about the huge effects of these things. I hope people can become more aware of how much we let these little tiny things overwhelm our actually feelings, thoughts, or moral beliefs.
