Brands: irrational outcome of a market

Brands have become holy grail of marketing and many marketing professionals spend a lot of time and money for creating brands. They use measures like brand equity for measuring the value of a brand . High brand value enables them to charge premium for their products. Finally, consumers are ready to pay extra for such branded products. Brands serve little economic function and are waste of time and money.

Firstly, the huge amount of advertisements and celebrity endorsements that go for creating a brand is a complete waste. Such expenses don't add real value to a product and form a part of its cost structure thereby making the product more expensive. They can be better utilized in creating new products and thus providing real benefits to society. Consumers are also to be blamed for this as they are eager to pay higher margins for branded products. However, we have thousands of similar products in our markets which basically serve same function and it becomes necessary to differentiate one's products . Branding is an easy and acceptable tool to create an impact in the minds of consumers and thereby generating increased sales. But, society pays a huge price for it and a proper balance needs to be found.