While searching for a new pair of boots i find myself gravitating towards Caterpillars, which seem to be about 50 quid more expensive than lesser known brands.

Now in some cases it’s down to quality or because i’ve bought a particular brand and been impressed, but why does it get to the stage that some people end up looking like walking billboards or refuse to buy anything that isn’t a well thought of brand.

Not some kind of troll or questioning why people buy Orange over Canyon, just something i’ve been thinking about

“The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten” (Sir Henry Royce)

Umm….. marketing/advertising?

“Want”?

This, and the thought of This:

It isn’t about being materialistic, it is simply brand awareness and positioning. Caterpillar are marketed as great boots so people assume they *are* great boots.

They are probably no better than boots half their price though.

what makes us materialistic?

Cool gadgets. 😉

Pure marketing hype – Caterpillar make cr@p boots 🙁

Had a pair through work many years ago – awful. No effective ankle support and the rear edge of the reinforced toe cap pprovided a hard edge that rubbed the top of my foot / toes raw.

Have had a pair of Terra boots for the last 5 years. Far, far more comfortable

Never understood it myself. I don’t play that game

CATs? Can’t Afford Timberlands?

I don’t believe you TJ 😉

The origin of branding is about continuity. A lot of goods used to be sold by weight / volume out of barrels in the shop. If you went to your local shop and bought a lb of something for a given price, and it was great you had no way of knowing next time, (or if you were in a different shop) whether the next scoop of stuff would be as good value. The point of a brand is the stuff should always be of the same quality, and it comes labelled/packaged/sealed so that you can trust the seller is selling what they claim (and not selling farmfoods stuff out of a waitrose barrel) – so if you’ve bought a given brand before you should have a fair idea of the value you’ll get if you buy it again.

Some brands are expensive because there goods are worth it, in the sense that the cost reflects the material and labour cost, some are expensive because they are the known quantity amongst their competitors and that reasurrance is something you can charge extra for.

If you have caterpillar’s reputation for good boots but you start turning out cheap crap then thats very profitable for a while, loyal customers need to be disappointed more than once before they drift away.

Theres big money to be made from buying successful businesses then cutting staff/quality/stock to the point where everything starts falling apart, your goods are crap, your stocks are too low, service is terrible. For a short while customers will keep coming back so profit margins become huge, for a moment. This makes the business seem more valuable than it is so you sell it again for an inflated price just before all the customers walk away.

TJ, you don’t understand what? What adverts are for, why companies do it? What makes people buy products? Or dyou mean you don’t understand that I absolutely NEED a particular Mulberry bag?

Pure marketing hype – Caterpillar make cr@p boots

I’m on my third pair of their safety boots/shoes and I’ve always been impressed. Theres always enough stock around for bargains to be had, their traditional boots will last years (the soles last for ever), their trainer type ones are more complex and more fall-aparty as a result but they’re so comfy you end up wearing them too much. The newest style ones don’t feel as everlasting as their trad ones, but they are cheaper and loads lighter so I don’t expect the same longevity

Their laces are always a disappointment though

Or dyou mean you don’t understand that I absolutely NEED a particular Mulberry bag?

😆

You make me laugh, Emsz….

Or dyou mean you don’t understand that I absolutely NEED a particular Mulberry bag?

What TJ doesn’t understand just how much HE needs a Mulberry bag, to go with that moustache.

the more you have the more you want

It’s a good question. You need to look at it from an evolutionary perspective – it’s all about sex and power.

Go back to the Bronze Age (and before) and you already find evidence of hoards of jewellery and clear societal structure delineated by material goods. No advertising campaigns back then.

Mulberry? Pfft! You’re all, just… like SOOOOOOOOOOO last season. Losers!

A nice ‘Branding’ story for you

Scamtastic!

🙁 no really I need it. I’ve told Sara I need it. I’ve told my mum ( I’m using a tesco bag for life for goodness sake!!) I’ll look sexy and cool, and sophisticated.

It’s lushly

It’s all the manufacturers’ faults. They just make stuff so nice that I actually need it. NEEEEEED.

Some brands are expensive because there goods are worth it, in the sense that the cost reflects the material and labour cost, some are expensive because they are the known quantity amongst their competitors and that reasurrance is something you can charge extra for.

Sadly, reality seems to be increasingly divergant from this…

… it seems to me that it is increasingly difficult to reconcile the differences in the costs of good design, high quality materials and skilled labour with the mark-up applied to very, very many brands.

mrs rkk01 wanted a hand bag for her birthday… she decided on a very nice, to me very expensive, real leather handbag. OK, it wasn’t a cheap item, but it was visibly better made and higher quality than those we saw in many shops.

On the other hand, there was no apparent difference (to me, anyway) in quality of materials and craftsmanship when compared to a Burberry Mulberry (IIRC – I walked away, quickly) handbag that was on display in the same store. Certainly not £500 worth of difference….!!!”

Or dyou mean you don’t understand that I absolutely NEED a particular Mulberry bag?

this

I’m using a tesco bag for life for goodness sake!!

I like you more for that than I would if you were toting stuff around in Mulberry.

But I don’t expect that matters.

There’s a continuum of:

shi*t products———–OK stuff————-Premium

I try and go somewhere between “buy cheap buy twice” and “paying for the name”. I don’t buy the cheapest stuff as it is often inferior in use, then again the upper bracket is often marketing bullsh*t for the social status of whatever it may be. Moderation is key.

Shoes are not a place to cut corners, but shoes in the sale are fine! I bought the best walking boots I could, but happily wear cheap H&M jeans. I’m the right size for their stuff, I can lightly sag a 29″ waist with my snake hips and they suit me well.

I try and get the best for my bike but often it’s second hand. Communicating how much you’ve spent is vulgar and desparate, however showing you have taste is not. It’s a fine line and entirely relative.

no really I need it. I’ve told Sara I need it. I’ve told my mum ( I’m using a tesco bag for life for goodness sake!!) I’ll look sexy and cool, and sophisticated.

It’s lushly

😆

This forum needs an Emsz. That much is true. 😀

TJ you never wanted something? EVER?

Weird

Johnners, I look like a bag lady LOL.

I love the ad for Tescos, where the woman’s doing some baking or something, sends the bloke out for eggs.

‘Oh did you say eggs? I thought you said get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3!’

😆

And then in the last scene, she playing the game while he’s mixing stuff in a bowl. Brilliant.

Here it is! 😀 Had me cackling…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udm56e8Yipw[/video]

Elf, I saw that advert 🙂

I bought Arkham the other day, I thought Sara was gonna kill me, but she was all ” cool, can I be catwoman?”

emsz – Member

TJ you never wanted something? EVER?

Only for function never for looks / kudos / labels.

I don’t buy much stuff at all – simply not particularly materialistic. Experiences / memories / friends count to me – having stuff doesn’t

what makes us materialistic?

Evolution.

Materialistic isn’t the same as buying a particular brand, is it?

I try not to be too swayed by whether a brand is seen as cool/trendy or whatever else you want to call it, and try to research prospective purchases to find the best one out of a selection that will do the job.

Obviously there are certain things that I buy purely for their looks, but then generally it’s because part of their functionality IS how they look.
There is enough info out there now that is fairly easy to look beyond the name on something to see whether it’s any good or not.

I do know people who won’t buy a pair of shades unless they say Oakley on them, a phone unless it has an Apple logo on it etc. which is fine, although in my eyes a little bit lame.
A girl i used to work with was very like this. I was looking to change my car & tempted by a Fabia VRS. She used to loudly comment that she wouldn’t be seen dead in a Skoda & wouldn’t even get in it, if I offered her a lift in it. Which suited me. Eventually I bought Seat’s version of the same car (depreciated more than a VRS, so I got more for my money), which she really liked & about 6 months later she went and bought one of her own. She refused to be drawn on the fact that it was essentially the same car; she insisted that it ‘wasn’t a Skoda’ so ‘it was a better car’, rather than just admitting to being a badge snob who didn’t like the Skoda name.

Yeah, cool I know what you mean ’bout memories and stuff that’s much more important.

Mind you, the bag i want is well made and will last and will be used daily, OK it’s expensive, but I don’t want to buy a new one every couple of months, the fact that it says Mulberry on it is just co-incidence ( really!!) LOL

Johnners, I look like a bag lady LOL.

emsz, one Tesco bag for life’s fine in lieu of an expensive handbag.

It’s the other 5 that are letting you down.

I’ve actually got a bayg with an Apple logo on it, so that must make me über-cool! 😀

In fact here it is:

Many people will want, but they cannot have, for it is mine.

Emsz; I’ll let you hang out with me, absorb some of my coolness by osmosis, if you buy me a kebab. 🙂

Eeeuuww, elf I don’t really want to absorb any thing from you, thanks LOL

LoLing at Johnners, youve seen me then?

I’ve got an awesome pair of expensive designer jeans, I remember how good I look in them, I remember how well I dance in them, I remember when I got that chain mark on them, god I love them. Thank you materialistic stuff.

Elfin, yes, I want that bag. Give it me.

Elfinsafety – Member
I’ve actually got a bayg with an Apple logo on it, so that must make me über-cool!

Anyone can buy an Apple logo from eBay & sow it on a cheap laptop bag….

😉