NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
ISSUES ON BRANDING What is in a name? This echo comes from trying to figure out what the situation requires us to know. Harmless enough, yes but this has a deep and profound influence. "Branding" is creating a mutually acknowledged relationship between the supplier and buyer that transcends isolated transactions or specific individuals to achieve superior and sustainable share and price premiums, even in the most adverse of markets (Lahiri, S. ). How does branding parallel with the fetishism of commodities?
Branding parallels with fetishism of commodities since when one packages products, it is an attempt of capitalists to save their profit-making businesses in an age of automated mass production. Author Klein states that Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age -- within a context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product." Klein, 2000: 6 as q in Sharpe, Matthew). There is a sense in which the process of human labor is sacrificed and the sensuous characteristics connected to the branding are critical here. (Eagleton, 1998: 208 - 9 as q in Sharpe, Matthew). What do we know about the "real value" of the branded commodities we buy? Consumers are not well-informed about the real value of branded commodities.
This is because companies take painstaking efforts to make their products attractive for the consumers. They have marketing strategies carved out systematically and built around their branded products. Companies have commodity differentiation which must be durable and capable of withstanding intense and critical scrutiny from consumers (Lahiri, S. ). Customers value chain must be enhanced and stand the test of other competitors offerings. It is a tough world that these companies are into and it is not surprising that they will go to all lengths to fortify their products.
There are added values to the product and services. Discriminating consumers could sense when they are being tricked into a buying a product that offers very little value. But a large percentage, because of time limitations and other things on their mind, would just buy products based on the claims their see and hear. Yet defining and delivering a product with a real value is essential in order to stay ahead of the game. According to author Lahiri, In the end, the goal is first to build the brand identification with a bundle of integrated offerings, and then to extend the brand relationship to the institutional level, where it affords the greatest opportunities for leverage. (Lahiri, S. ).
How does this incorporate the third world sweatshop workers and the majority of US workers who have less than full time jobs? Davies & Tanner (2003) states that in the employment of adult individuals, they have observed that a strong negative label drastically reduces employment opportunities for those labeled as such. They have noted that the earning power of persons labeled is curtailed, and that their working hours per week on the average is smaller. Severe forms of labeling include incarceration, while less severe forms of social intervention produced mixed results, generally with less severe adversarial result. It noted that interestingly, women are vulnerable to adversarial form of even less severe form of labeling. It may stem from the fact that women occupy a different niche of jobs from men, typically a job that is less forgiving of poor social skills.
Another interesting study is that done by Maria Heckert and Amy Best (1997) regarding men and women with red hair. Heckert & Best identified the duality of red hair to women, either as astonishingly beautiful women or as unsuitable partner as stereotyped. Men are singularly stereotyped as wimpy. Heckert & Best observed that both men and women exhibited a tertiary deviance by transforming their childhood negative label as a positive anchor in their adulthood. Labeling per se is not good or evil. Rather it can be used as a tool for marginalization of individuals by emphasizing perceived difference as negative or a positive tool by anchoring differences as part of human nature.
This also acknowledges how our difference makes us unique and valuable members of the society. To achieve an equitable perception in labeling, we must acknowledge that we are conscious on how we attach labels. WORKS CITED Davies, S. & Tanner, Julian (2003). Long Arm of the Law: Effects of Labeling on Employment. The Sociological Quarterly, Volume 44, Number 3, pages 385404. University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center St. , Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704 - 1223.
Heckert, D. & Best, Amy (1997). Ugly Duckling to Swan: Labeling Theory and the Stigmatization of Red Hair. Accessed 2 November 2005 at: < web 'Labeling% 20 Theory' Lahiri, S. And Man Learnt to Brand Sand. Accessed 2 November 2005 at: web Sharpe, Matthew.
The Logo as Fetish: Marxist Themes in Naomi Klein's No Logo. Accessed 2 November at: web
Free research essays on topics related to: men and women, november 2005, red hair, accessed 2, real value
Research essay sample on Men And Women Red Hair
