I'm reading the "No Logo" excerpt for tomorrow's class, and I find myself wondering where I was during my teen years and this atom-bomb of teen/youth marketing. The quote: "If you sell to one, you sell to everyone in their class and everyone in their school" makes me think about how I responded to marketing in those days.
I don't think I'm one of these people who would pay up for brand-name products, or image-related goods, or anything like that. Are you guys those kinds of consumers? Were you in highshool?
I'm not sure if it's just the kids who spend their parent's money, or kids who went to big schools, or what. But I don;t recall ever buying something out of lust or popularity of the item over it's function/use/benefit in my life. Sure, I wanted to buy cool things, be one of those kids, but this idea of selling to everyone in my highschool is way off for me. Nothing I ever spent money on became a commodity within my peergroup, nor vice versa, except maybe our Powerbooks (and my iPod, but I'm talking about highschool here). Maybe I'm thinking too highly of my purchase-making decisions, but I really wonder how those kids at the big suburban schools in Denver got their grubby hands on all that shit. I mean shit, too, like whatever was in the movies or on TV could be located at these places, but nowhere near me. What's the deal? Money? or Personal taste differences within income-tax-brackets? ok, now I'm ranting...
How about this. Were we included in this demographic that the big brands appealed to? I say no. But we should be, since it's not the product (the thing you actually spend money on) that holds the brand's importance. But if not the product that I don't buy, then how does the brand stay afloat? Basically I don't grasp how a brand sells itself without selling products. I mean, I probably do, but I can't see the basic, fundamental element of business in this new branding wave. Money. Someone tell me EXACTLY how a brand makes money if its not products they are promoting. I can get emotions from more than one place, thing, or person. Not just Nike Stefania, but anybody. ... Man, I'm more confused now than I was when I started typing.
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OK, I figured it out. I wasn't cool in high school, thats why I don't apply to what this book is talking about. I'm still not cool/marketed towards.
I think my A.D.D. has been removing some of these memories from my brain... It seems to me that maybe the fact that i went to a small school, and had a small cirlce of good friends, that maybe the marketig couldn't trickle down all the way to me. but maybe it could. When i was on track, the shoes were definetely a commodity, so i guess the adidas obsession does stem from that kidn of thing.
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