Brands Consumers, Roles Brands Play, Views Customers

¶ … brands consumers, roles brands play, views customers brands developed marketing -marketing influences. The background readings module introduces ways analyzing products brands case reading relates a study relationship consumers brands. I am what I wear and what I drive: Having a relationship with Manolo Blahnik shoes and the Prius 'I am what I buy.' According to Susan Fournier, consumers have relationships with brands much in the same way they have relationships with human beings.

Brands become a form of identity, much like hanging out in a certain clique of friends defines one's sense of 'self.' Brands define our economic class, social status, and life state based upon their name and associations. The ethos of a brand transcends the functionality of the product. Marketers position brands to be attractive to certain types of consumers and consumers eagerly embrace such positioning and use it as a method of self-definition.

The shoe brand Manolo Blahnik became inexorably associated with Carrie, the heroine of Sex and the City. Carrie was fashion and shoe-obsessed, the epitome of New York style. Manolos are uncomfortable, artful shoes that are very expensive and have little purpose other than communicating that the wearer knows what is in style. When someone is wearing a pair of Manolos, he or she is telegraphing that he or she follows fashion in an avid way, and is willing to put appearance over comfort, in terms of personal priorities.

Because of their great expense, Manolos are well-known as affordable only by the very rich, and some styles are exclusively distributed through certain, select stores. Unless consumers perceive themselves as having a relationship with the brand Manolo Blahnik, there is no reason to purchase the shoes. To an untrained eye, many types of shoes look similar to Manolos and are equally attractive. However, to a Manolo wearer, donning ordinary shoes is not the same experience as wearing a pair of shoes that have the cache of Manolos.

Manolos convey an obsession with fashion and an urban, status-conscious attitude. In contrast, the Prius, as created by Toyota, communicates an image of environmental consciousness, because of its small, compact size, and its fame as one of the first hybrids produced for the marketplace. Famously fuel-efficient, a consumer who selects a Prius is making a statement about his or her values, not simply the choice of car.

Driving a Prius, as opposed to a large SUV suggests that the user places the environment above the need to have a large, flashy car. In contrast to the Manolo wearers, of course, it is possible to argue that some Prius consumers are less intent upon using the brand as a source of identity and see it mainly as a vehicle for transportation. Particularly with the rising price of gas, many consumers who might not otherwise be environmentally conscious are buying hybrids.

The reasons for buying a Prius may thus vary from customer to customer. Some consumers may use the Prius for long trips and have a very fuel-inefficient car that they drive around in locally for status-based reasons. Other drivers who do not have long commutes may buy a Prius to communicate that they are doing the most they can to minimize their carbon footprint, under all circumstances.

Still, if one scratches beneath the surface, it is possible to argue that there is a status dynamic to the purchase of the Prius. Buying a new car is itself an expensive decision, and even a second-hand Prius, because of the relative novelty of the brand is not cheap. Even someone who buys a Prius is conveying.