Just do it. Because you’re worth it.

Does the above ring any bells? I am quite sure for many it does. For those in the dark, however, the former is courtesy of Nike and the latter, courtesy of L’Oreal. The aforementioned are international, globally-recognised brands. People are willing to spend a substantial amount of money to acquire items from their collection.
But why?

It is because we are branded. No, I am not talking about people walking around with little tags hanging off of them with different words representing different brands. We are branded in the sense that our sole importance when purchasing items, our focus and the emphasis, lies on the brand. Go on, how many of you reading this don’t care at all about the brand of the bag or watch you are considering buying and will merely go, “Oh, there’s no brand on this. Still, it’s nice, so I’ll buy it anyway.”?

Shame-facedly, I confess to being brand conscious. Yes, I sound rather a materialistic person. Yet I love buying the things I want with a brand. It puts a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. This must be the reason that the term `retail therapy’ was created. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but retail therapy addicts tend to by branded items. I’m not talking brands like Nike, Adidas or Converse, either–I would say it is more like DKNY or Dolce & Gabanna, and for some, to the heady heights of brands such as Gucci, Marc Jacobs or Hermes. It is almost frightening how brand-conscious consumers, that is, we, are today.

Our school is a classic example. If you don’t believe it, take a long, long look at your peers–with confidence I can guarantee that at the very least 90% of them are carrying things that have the logos of expensive brands on them. As consumers, with the opportunity to pick and choose, we could opt to have less expensive and equally original possessions. Instead we crave possessions that have the mark of the brand on it. Does it matter if the design is nothing special? Is it something to be taken into account that the one with the word ‘Nike’ and a tick on it costs twice that of the other one? No. To many of us, it does not; not one jot. What does matter is the name and logo. Not to mention that in typical Malaysian fashion we also want to appear ‘good’ to our peers. Shallow? Yes, a little bit. Nevertheless, we all do think about ‘face’ a lot, don’t we?

It is because of the people themselves that everyone is so brand-conscious. Do you consider yourself branded? You decide.