Brand vs Quality

I get super excited when someone gets me something from my all time favorite brand, or when my mom or dad says they’ll buy me one thing from a luxury store. I can tell you right now many people probably feel the same way, but why do we get so excited over something so heavily overpriced? The answer all comes down to how business-savvy the owner or CEO of the brand is. The biggest debate holding fashion, food, drinks and luxury brands in the air is brand versus quality! The better brand means better quality right? Wrong! Marketing has its devious ways of tricking customers into thinking things that just aren’t true.

Marketing can influence customers’ brains into believing in higher quality or better taste. One example of this is the Pepsi Paradox: an experiment held by Pepsi in 2004 about Coke and Pepsi. If you live anywhere on earth you probably have a favorite of these two rivals. The red or blue can?

Both my brother and dad love Coke, but my mom is a Pepsi person, so which drink is actually better? According to 64% of people, Coke is the way to go. This influences people to believe that Coke is the better-tasting drink. The Pepsi Paradox experiment argues the opposite. Blind taste tests were held in malls all across the United States. The people were blindfolded and were given two drinks and later chose which drink they liked more. Contrary to popular belief, the majority chose Pepsi. Remember, anyone who walked up to the stand could do it! The results of the experiment show how effective marketing is. Coke has a generally better marketing system even if Pepsi tastes better; Coke is more heavily advertised after the $500 million more they spend on advertising compared to Pepsi. This is only one example of how owners and business people have influence on you.

So what? Why does any of this actually point to me losing money? The answer is fairly simple. Brand is more important than quality when marketing to an audience. Another example to prove this is the Athleta theory. Have you ever heard of Lululemon? It’s one of my personal favorite athletic clothing brands, and don’t get me wrong, all their clothes are good quality, cute—-yet expensive. I know that I can find better quality and just as cute clothes at Athleta or Nike, but I never shop there because they aren’t perceived as cool. Shopping somewhere different from everyone else isn’t cool because the brand isn’t “trending.” But why does my brain get tricked like this? Why does my brain not realize the actual quality of products hiding under the brand name? The answer is all in marketing. Lululemon has tags telling you all about the amazing things it has to offer, whereas Athleta doesn’t. Also, Athleta isn’t “in” right now but who knows; that could change by next week!

So what makes a brand trendy? All you really need is one famous person to wear it and say how amazing it is for the money. One instance of this is when the soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo moved a can of Coke aside to grab a Pepsi. The next day, Coca Cola lost 4 billion dollars.

Brands do fluctuate and people always just follow along with what is trendy or popular. So truly, this article isn’t asking you which soda tastes better or which leggings you’re going to buy soon; it’s about the problem of keeping smaller companies from getting sales! My favorite Mexican restaurant has never been heard of but Chipotle has because of the brand name. The most famous singer isn’t the best singer in the world; they just have a stage presence and a good agency advertising them. The prettiest bag isn’t from a luxury brand!

And people tell me the brand doesn’t matter. So in the end, brand names could be scams. Good quality products are hidden but can be found.