Thinking before buying Premium

Brands have become a status symbol in the age of conspicuous consumption. We pay for the sign value, not the product quality. But is it sensible to pay extra for exclusivity? We must be mindful of how we spend our money, as most profits go to the top management. We can rely on micro, small and medium enterprises, women's self-help groups, and tribal groups for affordable, quality products. We must also support traditional arts to preserve our heritage. Lastly, we should look for brands that make responsible products.

Companies spend a lot of capital to establish their brands. Brands have customers’ trust and provide standard services. According to French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, brands have a “sign value”, which makes them different from unbranded products. So, in the age of conspicuous consumption, do unbranded products stand a chance?

Over time, we have been conditioned to behave in a corporate-friendly way. Branded products are expensive and exclusive. We don’t pay for the product, we pay for the brand. We pay for the complex supply chains and immense resources required to run them. Most people are willing to pay extra for a product to feel exclusive. But most of the time, exclusivity is not about the quality of the product; it is just about the marketing. Furthermore, how sensible is it to pay extra for feeling that exclusivity? In the words of Ernest Hemingway, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow beings. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

During medieval times, most Indian villages were largely self-sufficient. Though this self-sufficiency also caused a sort of stagnancy, today, isolation is not only detrimental but also hard to achieve. U.S. author Donald Miller has said, “In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.” Moreover, our lifestyles today require various specialised goods and services that can only be arranged by big companies. So the new question is whom do we rely upon to satisfy our needs? We must be thoughtful about how we spend our money. Most of the profits go to the top management in the companies and it does not help in the upward mobility of the common people. They do create employment, but that does not seem to be proportional either. It is utilised to diversify their brand portfolio mostly. But there are a lot of individual hawkers, micro, small and medium enterprises, women’s self-help groups, tribal groups and so on which provide goods at affordable prices. They do not have the luxury of advanced marketing, but they have great products to offer. Unfortunately, various traditional arts are fading away without support. This is not just about their livelihoods but also about our heritage. Not all products could be bought from them, but certain products such as edibles, khadi textiles, attar, artefacts and so on could definitely be bought from them.

Products that come from complex supply chains are not only expensive but also have a larger ecological footprint than those that come from traditional methods. In the wake of the health and ecological crisis, western consumers are turning to minimalist, vegan and organic products. This must inspire us to find our own creative ways of dealing with such issues. India has a long history of creating responsible products which enjoyed a great market prior to the Industrial Revolution. But such industries were damaged to make way for European goods. Indian philosophy never persuaded us to fill the gaps in our personalities by relying upon commodities. This does not mean that brands should be ditched at once. Rather, several brands have started making more responsible products and they do deserve attention. All we need to do is to think before we buy.

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