One of the most remarkable and shrewd strategies adopted by top Businesses is, what I call, Sly Advertising.
This is how top brands work: They make you pay top money, to promote their products.
No? Don’t get it?
Read on.
The logical course would be that one gets paid for promoting a product or a brand, like it happens in the advertisements. And on the other hand, one pays money to buy and own a product. But some of the top brands, especially across clothing labels, but also across spaces such as automobiles, electronics, and accessories, have flipped this idea around, by making consumers pay money to promote their products. And we consumers don’t even realise this.
Let’s talk apparel. Seldom do we find a piece of clothing that does not carry the brand name or logo of its marketer. I use the term ‘marketer’ consciously; we find that these clothes are manufactured by smaller units to specifications provided by the big companies, who then tag them with their own labels before shipping them out for sales. While the rationale reasoning behind this practice might be the innocuous idea of putting the manufacturer’s name on the product, I suspect there is more at play here than meets the mind by way of a hidden underlying motive: To use the consumers as the walking promoters of their brands. Think, ‘Levi’ tee shirts. Or a cap reading out ‘Nike’ by way of the Swoosh. We have heard of word-to-mouth advertisement, but unsuspecting real-life models that do not even have to be paid (Indeed, that pay to model)? That’s genius.
So how do companies do this? By attaching an aura around the brand, by building it up as a go-to must-have label that people feel proud to show off, or to be seen with. By massaging the consumer’s ego. By having them attach their respect and standing in society with their brands. By making them believe that they are paying to be seen with the brand so that the thought of them being used as unpaid models does not cross their mind.
And so, while purchasing clothes for myself, one of the questions I consider is this: Why should I pay to promote a brand? If I am to buy a label mentioning its brand on it, it’d only be fair for me to ask the company for money to purchase it.
What do you think? Should we ask for a cut for promoting brands?
