Brand Integrity....North American Style

I guess as advertising critics, its our job to not only understand the importance of building brand integrity to generate profits, but also to exploit and recognize tactics used to a: mimic success in our professional careers or b: become adbuster type vigilantes and protest the status quo. I quite enjoy my consumerist lifestyle; ie. I got so excited this weekend when Starbucks red cups came out, and last week when I received my Urban Outfitters catalogue in the mail. Does that make me a corporate sellout or a brand bitch? I don't know. Maybe I'm just happy surrounded by (in my opinion) my stylish possessions, blinded by mediocrity and living my consumerist clone life. How sad I know. I'm somehow ashamed to admit it, but looking around, I think many other people fall into the same brand boat as me. Aw...the comfort of the masses. (However, FOR THE RECORD, no, O'Gorman, I don't support PETA just because other celebrities do. I seriously wanted free "I'm not a nugget" chicken stickers.)

Anyways, back to brand integrity....

I love design. So, how fitting would it be that my next blog post comes courtesy of one of my favourite blogs www.apartmenttherapy.com. I found this little gem after my 100x daily check of Apartment Therapy, when I was re-directed to a heated online discussion about large companies throwing away expensive stock so nothing on the shop floor appears to be "on sale," thus decreasing their brand integrity. If you are interesting in reading more, click here
http://decorno.blogspot.com/2008/11/drams.html

Please don't get discouraged by the tagline "If decor is your porn, this is your blog." ha ha

Anyways, when I read this post, it really got me thinking about many of the elementary rhetorical philosophers and critics, particularly how brand integrity relates to the whole "lenses of reality" "camera obscura" Baudrillard vs. McLuhan's "medium is the message" type stuff. Even if we look at Marxist view of an "Anthropologie" table, a wooden table is no longer just a wooden table to eat on, that took 50 man hours of labour to purchase. The "Anthropologie" signature table is now a luxury item, that symbolizes not only a table to eat on, but a piece of must-have designer furniture which warrants its $1800 price tag. After reading this blog post and learning how many popular stores keep their brand integrity by destroying high-priced merchandise to never have stock "on sale" it really makes you question why we equate such high prices to home furnishings, clothing, electronics, hell even a "cathalon" vs "kitchenaide" frying pan. Don't they really all do the same job in the end? Smashing perfectly good mirrors and chandeliers with a hammer, splattering paint on expensive dining room sets, destroying clothing with scissors and throwing everything into a dumpster seems pretty rebellious to me.

If even high-priced, image conscious brands like "Anthropologie" do it, what does that say for the true price we are paying for brand name labels? Definitely personifies the whole image making "perceived consumer value" philosophy to me.