So You Love IN-ternational Brands?

I have never written anything about brands or branding before. I have never been bothered enough but as I realize, they do affect me and my surroundings. They bring in changes in how people interact with each other. They are used as tools to measure your mental and financial conditions. Having a good knowledge of brands make you appear sophisticated( ...or at least few people think so! )

But how much do we really know about them? I know a lot of people who are "everything-branded"  in nature. Yet! they know very little about it. It does not hurt there. It hurts when they are your friend and all they do is talk about the brands and the price tags they wear, the feel of a branded material and most importantly they treat you as if you are untouchable. I have experienced all of that.

I have never been outside India so I don't know about the rest of the world, but in my country it is such an overrated thing. Social gatherings are full of it. Hence today, I want to talk a little about branding and brands we consume in our daily life. They should know what they are talking about.

Indians go crazy about a brand that sounds foreign in nature. It's sad and true. Guess what? It's a great weapon to make money as well. We immediately trust it and are ready to pay more for a name that sounds "international". The trend has been really strong and a huge number of companies in India try to register their products with a name that is far... far away from anything that is "Indian". Don't trust me? Here's a list of companies you might have thought to be international or foreign but are **actually Indian. **

• **Louis Philippe - **is a premier Indian brand of men's apparel. It is a brand of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of the Aditya Birla Group.
• Lakmé - an Indian brand of cosmetics, owned by Hindustan Unilever and run by CEO Pushkaraj Shenai.
• Larsen & Toubro Limited - is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, India.
• Fiama Di Wills - is an Indian personal care brand that offers shampoos, conditioner, bathing bars and shower gels.
• Raymond - incorporated in 1925, Raymond Group is one of India's largest branded fabric and fashion retailers.
• Britannia Industries Limited - is an Indian food-products corporation based in Kolkata, India.
• Da Milano
• Franco Leone
• La Opala
• Munich Polo
• Allen Solly
• Peter England
• Van Heusen
• Café Coffee Day
• Su-Kam
• Spykar ... and more till the end of the world!

Here are some more. Most of the big names out there in clothing are just the brands by Aditya Birla Group. I can just go on and on and the list will continue. The point is, the brands you are so proud of, the parameter based on which you judge someone(...you as in people who do it...), the brands you think are absolutely foreign and 100% of the time define "better quality" are leading you to wrong path. Those are just as Indian as our autowalas _and** laddus**_!

Let's leave the "brand-prouds" aside and think about the other aspects of it. This is a marketing gimmick which has made us pay more for stuff which probably aren't worth the money. There are good number of articles out there talking about it dated 2 years back and yet! we hardly care about it. The psychology works great and money is made more than ever.

NOTE : I will possibly add statistics to this post in a later edit what's up there is good enough to start thinking.