The Brand Delusion

A few years ago a fellow by the name of Richard Dawkings wrote a book called The God Delusion, which dealt with how insane the belief in God in its many disguises is and how the 90% of the planet who more or less believe in some for of a supreme being suffer from some form of a mass delusion. He goes on to desrcibe how harmful these delusions can be. For the record I hold the man in high regard, largely due to his formidable defense of the theory of evolution against the bull shit known as the "Intelligent Design"-theory, but this I didn't like. Believing in things that are not and cannot be proven to exist is delusional, wow Dick, tell me something I didn't figure out by the time is was 10. Even more so when there are even more retarded delusions hanging out there, the biggest one being brands.

Branding is the fine art of attaching emotions, ideas, values and feelings to inanimate objects that various businesses are designing, producing and selling. When you see a Coke sign, it makes you think and feel something, just as Ferrari, Appel, H&M, Gucci, Google, Albert Heijn, BMW, Euroshopper, etc. make you think and feel stuff. The companies who own these brands attempt to manage these thoughts and feelings through various advertisment medias, but the response is generally individual. Some of these are tangible attributes in the product, for example if you buy a BMW you can expect a quality car, while  Euroshopper  is usually the cheapest option on the self, but sometimes this is not the case.

Why do companies do this then? Simply because it adds to the value of the product that the customer perceives. When the value goes up, you can charge a higher price, and you really need to since you spent a ton of money on ads to create those emotional attacments.

Now here comes the delusion part. You are deluding yourself if the added value is purely in your head. For example if you buy Ferrari you can be assured that you will get a fast, well made car, or when I buy Pepsi I get soft drink that tastes good, to me. But for example I fail to see how having some guys name on my underware adds to my underwear wearing experience or to anyone elses for that manner. Some implied brand values are even more insane, as an occasional Axe user I have yet to meet the horde of beautiful models attempting to gang rape me. When it comes down to it the Hugo Boss underpants aren't really different from the unbranded ones next to them, the only difference being the price.

So when looking at any brand, you have to look at whether or not the intangible things the company is trying to sell to you have anything to do with the tangible aspects of the product. Sometimes the two even contradict each other. Pepsi is a clear example of this. If I wanted to look like Thierry Henry, I wouldn't go near Pepsi bottle and if I wanted to be anywhere near his level of an athlete, I sure as hell wouldn't be anywhere near a place that shows Pepsi ads.

If you think of all of this what is the sense in paying ten times more for having some dude's name on your underpants, a dude I have never met and of whom I know very little of, on my underpants? If you believe that I say that you are the one who is deluded, even more so than the crazy dude who believes in his imaginary friends in the sky. At least his delusions are mostly free.