Aspirational brands: everyone wants in?

Aspirational branding and buying behaviour is a well-known, and oft-remarked-upon concept. What relevance does it have for South Africa, though?

Firstly, perhaps, a small qualification: the concept is well understood for teenagers, for whom brands are often a route to acceptance (or, at least, not rejection). I also see it every day, particularly here in Johannesburg, where many people buy a car, house or some other material thing that they can’t really afford, but which they feel lends credence to their existence. However, there is a very large part of the South African population (guess which part) where aspirational buying is clearly in evidence, but the reasons behind this behaviour are less well-understood.

Another useful story passed on to me to illustrate this: I’ve often noticed, as have many people, that black are often much more sharply-dressed, especially for work, than are, for example, white people. What is interesting is that this applies to people who clearly don’t have great means, but who nonetheless are willing to spend good money on, well, looking good. Apparently, someone went and actually asked people why this is so (unusual here, where assumptions about other people’s reasoning are the order of the day). What they were told is fascinating: black people who walk to the taxi rank, and then commute in to work every day on taxis dress smartly because they know that they are visible to lots of people during the entire journey, and are to some extent judged on their appearance. Contrast this with someone like me: I have my own car, so I get up in the morning, throw on whatever doesn’t look too horrible, and then drive to work. At no point am I really exposed to the public, and I don’t really care what the people I work with think of my dress-sense, so I have far less incentive to dress sharply. I was amazed: I’d wondered about this dichotomy before, but had no idea why it might be so.

This leads to the next issue: if people who don’t earn a great deal (which comprises the vast majority of our country) feel the need to dress sharply, and place great emphasis on brands, where does this leave the sought-after brands? I realize that a brand’s pricing is carefully worked out as an intrinsic part of the brand itself, but if it’s high it might have deleterious effects too: in one word, counterfeits. Counterfeiting is ubiquitous, and much bemoaned by the people behind the counterfeited brands, but the reason for people to make and buy counterfeits, especially here, is too clear to ignore.

Add to this, of course, government’s new (poorly thought out, in my opinion) legislation to severely restrict clothing imports into our country. This is going to drive up the price of clothing, particularly branded clothing, up considerably. The thing is, it’s going to be physically impossible for clothing retailers to absorb the full rise in costs without going out of business, so at least some of the cost will have to be passed on to the consumer (despite what government says). This is great for making brands more expensive, and therefore driving up their perceived value, but it’s going to give great impetus to the counterfeiting industry too…

Human nature means that most people do not think “I can’t afford it, so I won’t buy it” (our national debt levels prove this to a terrifying extent). People are also unlikely to think “I refuse to buy counterfeits so that these enormous companies make less profit”. All of which leaves brands in a sticky position: yes, it’s great that they are highly sought-after, but it is that very quality which allows the counterfeiting market to thrive. So what do we do about this?

Yours
aimee