Chapter 5
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE – HOW BRANDS HELP US CHOOSE
We opened this book by talking about how brands initially attempted to help consumers slash search costs as a result of the disappearance of what had been the established methods to ensure ‘provenance’ of the goods and services chosen. The mass migration and the creation of vast armies of specialist workers, operating in highly mechanised industries had given rise to what we have called ‘provenance costs’, and brands stepped in as a powerful fillip, offering up a plastic social capital in an attempt to assuage these costs.
But is it the case that brands actually ‘help’ us choose? We introduced the idea in Part I that in the transition from utilitarian needs to hedonic wants (and, in turn, hedonic needs), suddenly brands – still slavishly devoted to manifestations of scientific management – became less useful in the decision-making process.
Or, possibly, became less useful in what was becoming a different decision-making process.
And today? Are brands really that good at guiding us to make the right decisions? It all depends, of course, on what we mean by the right decisions. When it comes to decisions about which brands to interact with, is the right decision simply the right decision or does it need to be the very best decision?
Again, this may sound like semantics, but to us it is an important distinction. As we’ve already touched on, consumption is one quantifiable and measurable thing, but consumerism is altogether ...
