The literal definition of consumer culture according to the Wikipedia is that it is a medium in which an economy focuses on selling of the consumer goods and spending of consumer money. It is basically a form of capitalism. In the past 75 years, most of the parts of the world have fallen a prey to this filthy business. Brand consciousness, on the other hand, is a sickness I would say. It is a feeling inside you that makes you believe that you will only look good if you wear clothing of famous brands. In this article, we are going to enlighten our readers about the brand consciousness and its adverse effects on people, the role of media in inducing this culture among people, how consumer culture and brand consciousness are linked to each other, its effects on the people of Pakistan and Pakistani brands.
In past, people weren’t that aware of brands, but now due to numerous factors people are very aware of varieties of brands. At that time, people mainly believed price to be the basic entity to be kept in mind before buying a product. People weren’t aware of brands in the past, and hence less conscious too. People are now very familiar about the brands that exist in the market. Brand awareness is responsible for making people to think and become conscious about the brand. With the increase in different brands in the market the consciousness for them has also been at the top. The inactive consumers have been converted into active consumers. They do not compromise with the brand, after all brand matters at a large.
The role of media is very vital in backing the brand culture. First, when print media was introduced, there came a need of how the newspaper industry would earn money for their existence, there came brands, they made a collaboration with the print media that; you sell our products, we pay your salaries. So, on these basis, the print media began to advertise the brands to their readers, and the sales of those brands became largely increased. That, in a controlled way was beneficial as it was helping allot of people, providing jobs and proving people what they needed. But gradually, as this culture progressed, it somehow induced the concept called as brand loyalty. This concept was basically built on consumers who became loyal to a brand and then they would not buy anything but that brand.
Actually, this phenomena in a more wicked form was then named as brand consciousness. Second came the electronic media and as it was establishing, the film industry was also in a continuous progress. The brands then introduced a new concept of making video adverts, these advertisement videos had big stars and movie heroes in them who people looked up to. And when they watched their favorite heroes wearing a Gucci or a Levi’s shirt, they were also compelled to buy that shirt even though it costed way more than a non-branded apparel, available at the very same store. Third, in the past decade, as computer science flourished, and the social media was introduced in the market with the largest ever audience, the branding companies had a great deal of interest in advertising their products on the social media where even by spending less amounts of money, they could reach their type of audience by using different algorithms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc. have a huge monthly audience of around more than 2 billion people. Which comprises a big portion of the whole population of the world. So, we can say to an extent that their reach is almost to every person now. And hence why people are becoming more and more brand conscious.
Some people around us, fall a prey to inferiority complex and some others fall in superiority complex due to brand consciousness. We’ve seen many people around us who are not that wealthy, but due to the enormous advertisement, they are tempted to have that product as shown in the advertisement, they can’t buy it and in result they feel inferior to people who can wear that same product, even though it is not their mistake, still it is a dilemma for our society. On the other hand, we’ve also seen examples of people who think that they will look good if the shirt they are wearing is of Louis Vuitton’s and not of a local brand. And hence they feel superior to people who are not wearing any brands which is becoming a social problem on a large scale.
Brand consciousness in Pakistan has also increased after the dawn of media. In a country where millions of kids don’t go to school, where many people sleep starving to death, where people wear torn clothes, there are people who buy a single watch or a shirt that is more expensive than a family’s whole year expense. There have been cases reported in which women fought over buying designer clothes on a sale day. What a thing to fight for! Despite of living at a place where millions are deprived of basic necessities. We’re not so strict about not being brand conscious at all because sometimes it becomes a necessity too.
