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Thread: brand madness.

  1. #21
    Registered User Twirly's Avatar
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Twirlie Bird View Post
    Buying designer labels at high street prices makes perfect sense. These designer outlets are fabulous places to shop. You want a new pair of jeans. You can go to the high street and spend £30 on a pair of 'ordinary' jeans or you can go to a designer outlet and spend £30 on a designer pair of jeans. The designer jeans are far better quality than the high street. They are made better, they wear better and they wash better. Most importantly they feel better.

    On top of that you have the thrill of bargain hunting!

    I do get what some of you are saying. You go down the market you can get rip off designer goods with fake branding and Primark quality all for a fiver. I don't really understand this. I would agree this is being brought just for the name and no I am not saying there is anything wrong with Primark clothes.
    Quite agree with the bargain hunting stuff!

    There’s a bit of a difference between buying something because you know it’s better quality, and buying a branded item just because it’s branded and you somehow thinks that gives you cachet, makes you “cool” or whatever. Some “designer” brands might be made of slightly better quality materials, but mostly they are still made to a standard pattern (am talking about clothes here specifically) and churned out en mass in a sweatshop in Taiwan or somewhere.

    I wonder where this obsession with branded good/designer names comes from? After all, Dolce and Gabbana did not design those fabulous new jeans you just bought, some minion did, and D&B have simply appended their name to them to make you think they are something better. If that gives you pleasure, that’s great. And I applaud TB’s decision to buy them in the designer outlet, thereby giving the so-called designer less profit I do the same sort of thing myself. I have no problem with people who buy real designer clothes from real designers which are made to fit them properly (i.e. haute couture), but only a very few very rich people can afford them. I suspect that this might be where the obsession started out – the idea of exclusivity, quality and fit. But this can only happen with items that are made to measure.

    Aleks mentioned white goods earlier on – the quality of these is measurable. I should know, my father has an addiction to Which? magazine, which I sadly seem to be inheriting

    Actually there is something wrong with Primark clothes… they tend to be trashy and fall apart after a few wears. I’ll still buy things from there, and other cheap places too (quite a bit actually). But I always look for the stuff that’s well put together, and some of that does last quite well (too well sometimes – I’ve got things that I wish would fall apart so I’d have an excuse to get rid of them!). There are also issues about the environment and exploitation of sweatshop workers in the third world… oh and look, I’m right back where I started.

  2. #22
    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Twirly View Post
    Actually there is something wrong with Primark clothes… they tend to be trashy and fall apart after a few wears.

    AAAhh.. so that explains why I'm always looking like a scruff

    (that and the fact I always buy XL.. when I'm probably L .. and end up looking like I'm a kid playing dress up with Daddies clothes.. )

  3. #23
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    I've nothing against paying a little more for good design. the ipod round touch sensitive audio shuttle feature? INSPIRED !! and yes they "look" good. the iPhone LOOKS good but features wise is it really worth the premium??
    Mmmm. Though I am a life-long (well - almost) Apple fan, I'm with you on that - wonderful though they look, the price will have to come down a lot before I'll consider replacing my trusty sixteen-decades-old Nokia 6310i

    The iPod Touch - mmm. So close. If I didn't already have an 80gig iPod. If I didn't already have the best PDA ever produced (and a spare one in case I ever break it) If Apple hadn't disabled some of the minor PDA-related features. If it had more storage space. If they had Bluetooth. If my best mate hadn't just offered me his prize camera at a still-expensive-but-hard-to-refuse price.
    But still it's going to be hard not to give in and buy one. Not because it's Apple, but because I'm a geek, and it looks like Such. A. Cool. Gadget....

    Going to have to see what the next generation brings, I think.

  4. #24
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    ...therefore ergo QED...
    Hmm. This is not a Basil Fawlty moment it's a full blown sugar or caffeine zap

    therefore ergo QED?


    (Actually, it has a certain - rhythm - to it...)

  5. #25
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by JiveLad View Post
    I love brands. I feel a strong relationship with them: the packaging of the new iPod I bought yesterday is sleek and sexy; the high quality graphics and lettering with the roots tracing back to Steve Jobs accidental visit to a calligraphy class; the product itself: engineered to perfection - and opening it up for the first time - the pristine aluminium, the bright clear screen: a virginal template for uploading my all my stuff; touching it delicately, even stroking it and pressing the buttons to make it come alive, exploring new features and functions, all adding to a rich human experience melding with the California minds who conceived this immortal beast.
    The packaging is sexy? Isn't packaging...for throwing away? Forgive my naiveté. All this time I should have been asking to go into the stock room at my local hi-fi emporium to see what the boxes were like, and there was me insisting on auditioning it...

  6. #26
    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat264 View Post
    Such. A. Cool. Gadget....
    I'm sure Gadget will be using that quote as his sig in a little while

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    Hmm. This is not a Basil Fawlty moment it's a full blown sugar or caffeine zap

    therefore ergo QED?


    (Actually, it has a certain - rhythm - to it...)
    That one quote.. if anything.. proves my tongue planted firmly in cheek status for that post


  7. #27
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    The packaging is sexy? Isn't packaging...for throwing away? Forgive my naiveté. All this time I should have been asking to go into the stock room at my local hi-fi emporium to see what the boxes were like, and there was me insisting on auditioning it...
    Presentation counts for a lot.
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

  8. #28
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    The packaging is sexy? Isn't packaging...for throwing away? Forgive my naiveté. All this time I should have been asking to go into the stock room at my local hi-fi emporium to see what the boxes were like, and there was me insisting on auditioning it...
    Absolutely. I just got sent one of these 'You know you're a blah blah blah if blah blah blah' emails - in this case, 'You know you're a designer if...' I won't bore you with the whole thing, but I'll just quote you one entry from it:
    You know you're a designer if
    you buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like. (even worse, you don't actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration)
    Apple packaging is a bit like that. As packaging goes, Apple packaging is oozes sex appeal and promise. It is the pheromone-packed holy-grail of packaging. At twenty paces, it can reduce a hardcore geek to a gibbering wreck offering promises of undying love just for the meerest glimpse of what may be contained within its mysterious, beautiful, exotic, sleek, sensuous exterior.

    If the products weren't so good, people would still be buying them just for the packaging (the iPods/iPhones/whatever would just go straight in the bin)

    That's how good Apple packaging is.

    Just off for a cold shower now. Back in ten.

  9. #29
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    The packaging is sexy? Isn't packaging...for throwing away? Forgive my naiveté. All this time I should have been asking to go into the stock room at my local hi-fi emporium to see what the boxes were like, and there was me insisting on auditioning it...
    I'm looking at it now: sitting on the table. It is asking to be picked up (which I just have). This is no flimsy recycled carboard box. This is solid heavy duty material which could be used by NASA for the next space shuttle. Running my finger across the surface of the box and I find this is supersmooth: and so rigid! Inside is cushioning for the product which would be fit for the interior of a Bentley. The words 'Made by Apple in California' proudly adorn the inside. 21st Century porn - and we haven't yet got to the heart of the matter.


    Maybe it's a more holistic experience than you appreciate: perhaps you can draw an analogy to meeting a woman dressed in stylish clothes......

  10. #30
    Registered User Twirly's Avatar
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by JiveLad View Post
    This is no flimsy recycled carboard box. This is solid heavy duty material which could be used by NASA for the next space shuttle.
    Environmental abuser!!

  11. #31
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    Re: brand madness.

    I'm with Beo all the way on this one. I'm amazed that people will pay to become advertising placards. I remember my daughters loved GAP clothing for a while. The word GAP used to be massive on their chests. It looked like they'd sponsored my whole family. Now it's Jack Wills.

    I try not to buy clothes with great big names on. But sometimes it's impossible to find a plain sweatshirt.

    p.s. Is this the Grumpy Old Men Thread?

  12. #32
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    Re: brand madness.

    i offended some 14 year old kid at ice skating once. He had a "Tommy Hillfiger" jumper on and I asked if that was his name. I was serious, as i did find it a little odd. Its weird that your own name would be really lame but someone elses isn't

  13. #33
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat264 View Post
    Absolutely. I just got sent one of these 'You know you're a blah blah blah if blah blah blah' emails - in this case, 'You know you're a designer if...' I won't bore you with the whole thing, but I'll just quote you one entry from it:


    Apple packaging is a bit like that. As packaging goes, Apple packaging is oozes sex appeal and promise. It is the pheromone-packed holy-grail of packaging. At twenty paces, it can reduce a hardcore geek to a gibbering wreck offering promises of undying love just for the meerest glimpse of what may be contained within its mysterious, beautiful, exotic, sleek, sensuous exterior.

    If the products weren't so good, people would still be buying them just for the packaging (the iPods/iPhones/whatever would just go straight in the bin)

    That's how good Apple packaging is.

    Just off for a cold shower now. Back in ten.

  14. #34
    Registered User SilverFox's Avatar
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    Re: brand madness.

    Crikey! Can the moderators move this thread to where it surely belongs...




    ....Geek Corner.


  15. #35
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    Re: brand madness.

    I think it was Rory McGrath on one of the "Grumpy Old Man" programmes who said that he used to ask designer shops for a discount as he was going to be advertising their products for them.

  16. #36
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    Re: brand madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    Why would anyone make the decision to buy a T-shirt that functionally is the same as ANY OTHER T-shirt, and is of no lesser manufacture quality than any other T-shirt. The only difference being It's basically a BIG SIGNBOARD for the brand and costs 5 to 10 times the price?is it just me.
    I know that I'm getting old - I can remember a time when clothes had labels on the inside

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