In response to Doug Kendall's Branding:

Do brands matter to you, if so can you think of the areas where brands weigh heavily on your decisions? Can you think of any brands you have avoided because you didn't know how to pronounce or were unfamiliar with?

I am a avid person about quality. I will pay three times as much for a product if I know it will last a few years rather than one year. I also need to like to fit, style, or design of the product. I like some products for status but not all of them. I never have problems with products I cannot pronounce because I sing in several languages and am comfortable saying what the products are. If I don't know a product I would have to try it out. Sometimes consumers can imediately decide if they don't like a product by the looks of it and will not purchase it. If the new product is cheap the consumer can buy it and try it out but if its expensive it will take the consumer a longer time to decide if they want to try a product. But for the most part I analyze quality and longevity and make a very big deal of that when purchasing. If the quality isn't there I will be upset and boycott the item altogether if its really bad.

Exclusive Branding and Perception:

Branding can often be a psychological trick. People in all cultures believe some items are better than others and have a false sense of status through this. For example generic medicine can been seen as ‘not as good’ as the name brand products making customers purchase a more expensive product.

Some of the top elite products are Rolex, BMW, Mercedes, J. Crew,etc. provide a image and status for customers that make them feel like they are accomplishing something, as if they are important, and giving the owners a sense of self. These products are implied to have good quality. These products usually have good quality but in some cases the image of good quality is often given but is not acutally true. The customers may know that the quality of a J. Crew T-Shirt is the same as a Wal-Mart T-Shirt but they chose to purchase the shirt because of the name. This is a price the customer will have to pay for the name and lable. It is psychologically interesting with elite products which ones have good quality and which ones are are really just generic. One of the best ways for these exclusive products to leverage themselves over non-exclusive products is the statement that products are 'only sold here'. If people really want these luxiory products people will travel far and wide to get to them. For example someone would drive to Boston to purchase a Steinway & Sons piano for the status of the instrument or to New York City to purchase something from Dolce & Gabbana. This is a way businesses can set the standard that their products are expensive, elite, full of quality, to the point that they refuse to sell their products somewhere else because if they did the products and brand would not have the same kind of image.

Do you think exclusive brands are better than non-exclusive brands? Why or why not do you like them? Is the quality of these products actually better than not exclusive items? Have you ever been disappointed with a exclusive brands?