Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

To my mind the one thing that stands out in modern practice what I call branding. Others may disagree with me on this - only look at cars. They have names that are nebulous, meaningless and flabby. Corporations want to sell to everyone - and that means their advertising cannot be focussed and cannot be targeted*. That means it is ineffective. Only when a corporation has so much at stake - market share, investments and infrastructure - what else can they do? They are in a trap of their own making.

There are ways around this. Just because German railways only supply in waggonloads or containers means there is an opportunity for some local guy with a van to do localized distribution. When someone is advertising their wares to all comers, there is the chance for the small shop to fill in the missing gaps. The problem comes when the corporations have starved the economy so that nobody has the money to buy anything else but the raw basics. That is something I see around me all the time now. The recent horsemeat scandal in Europe is a case in point - they didn't have the money to check their sources were pure. It said "beef" on the pack ergo it was beef.

The answer in this case is more human input. That costs money - and will be rewarded by the brave. I am seriously worried that too few people are brave enough to do this. Corporations are not known for encouraging people to stand out and be heard.

My two cents.

*There are ways out of this even so - there is little evidence of it though. Perhaps the others can put me right?

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