To start with, I consider myself a smart shopper............so far I have been the one who makes a wishlist and waits to buy the so called "prestigious" labels during the season of sale, where I can buy those coveted labels at throwaway prices.
We have sales flooding our markets at least twice a year; making us consumers (who are hungry for recognition) go crazy. Sharing here with you are few of those interesting anecdotes which made me realize what do we really understand of these brands........and more important - why do we run after them?
I am not so fond of sports shoes, unlike my other variety of footwear adorning my shoe rack, space under the bed, inside my cupboard (more expensive ones)....etc. etc. I only like to wear them while pumping out, or climbing up. This season, one of the things on my wish list, rather on my - "to-get-list" was a nice pair of sports shoes. I had a colour combination in mind - grey and pink, and definitely not white, though I was open to other options as well. I had been looking out at more than 4 locations, for days together, at various brands (I don't follow one religiously here, and my last pair was Adidas, so not that again), checking the exclusives as well as the multi-brand stores, franchises etc. but in vain.
Ranging from the desired item not on sale, not available in my measure, to other not so desirable options, I went through a variety of reasons for not being able to pick up a nice pair. I strolled diligently across Puma, Reebok, Nike, and even Adidas too, trying my luck hard, alas! Noticing some more crowd in Reebok, I got pulled inside to see what was selling like hot cakes there, and there on sale was the "so in news recently" their coveted pairs of Reeflex and Ree-tone. Guys n Girls were busy checking out their pairs, guess without realizing that they are being used as dump feet. The false claims of Reebok, of toning your butt with their shoes met with a disaster across the oceans and they had to take it back, and then they thought of what better ground and crowd than India to mint as much moolah as they still can. It was an eye-opener when I realized to my horror that we actually do not pay attention to things other than the "Label" and the "price tag". Do we really understand what these brands stand for and what differentiates them from each other for that matter........?
Crossing the store of Da-Milano, which only has selected customers at other times, I observed - it was brimming with all sorts of people on one of these days - At first I was wondering what is wrong with the store, some promotion or new launch, or a celebrity walk in, but then it dawned off-course courtesy the sale. The sale period brought even random buyers to the Da-Milano store, who otherwise would just window shop and say" nice bag" and walk past. Wonder how many of them would have actually known (including me) what does it really stand for?
When I went to check out the semi-formal clothing section at one of the multi-brand outlets, people were busy handpicking the best deals, seemingly unaware of the difference between a "Honey" and a "Bare denim", or between "AND" and "BB". For most of them it seemed, just the 40% off tag was attractive enough to get over this feeling of vanity.
I had myself been a "Metro" loyalist so far, not so much because they come up with some lovely creations to adorn my beautiful feet with, but more for them being strong on service (I am an impressed-with-good-service-more-than-anything-else person - mind it) and had unofficially promoted their brand in more ways than any "Saifeena" would do. My friends actually started trying the brand as the recommendation was coming from a frequent buyer like me who was one of them - without the celebrity status (read minus the paid endorsements). Off-late I started noticing a downfall in their quality of shoes as well as their service. Post my continuous observations of poor quality with three purchases, and lax services I decided to give them a rest. Let them focus their spends on getting it endorsed by the hottest couple of bollywood, but cutting it out from the quality is definitely not going to help in the long run.
Now the question is - do we care about the plethora of brands floating around us, do we understand what they stand for (positioning - for the marketing lovers), or do we just flow with the water and get lured by the false claims (may not be by all but by many) in order to emulate our fairer counterparts. Do we get served with the same ingredients in a different packaging or is it really a different dish in front of us. But more important to ponder upon - what do we really care for……………??
