How Powerful is the Power of Marketing?

Marketing is essential, both for the brand and the product, and its top-level is when it becomes the backbone of the brand’s positioning and identity. Here we are in the twenty-first century, experiencing world class marketing all around us everywhere all at once.

First, let’s play a game (anonymously). Did you know that a luxury brand famous for its pearls actually sell 100% fake ones? They are all plastic pearls, but at a luxury price. Their founder decided to make pearls out of plastic so that more girls can afford jewelry and look pretty without spending a lot of money, but now, the brand has completely betrayed its founder’s mission and went on a different path. Did you know that another luxury brand famous for its handbags have their bags made out of faux leather and that the logos on the bag are stuck on there with a layer of plastic cover? So even the imitation bags made with real leather and the logos all printed directly on the leather are doing it too well for a fake bag’s price. And obviously we’ve got diamonds, because they are basically the same as pencils but they are marketed as the “magic of nature” when yes, maybe to a degree they are, but the magic of nature is seen in many other things that are just not marketed in the same way. As a hot take from me, I think most branded waters, as in waters that are selling at a more luxury price, are all tap water because they all taste exactly the same as tap water and the only thing that is different is that they are in a fancier plastic or glass bottle and tap water comes from a tap.

This is the essence of a lot of business and marketing—making people think they need something they never needed. Especially for luxury brands, they sell a social identity and a lifestyle that is not just the product itself but a desire of many, and because so many people desire a lifestyle that the brand represents, this creates the false need that people have in their minds around certain products. That is the power of turning ordinary materials that are both cheap and accessible into a highly desirable product that feels more valuable because it is the symbol of fame and wealth. However, this only works under brand recognition and people understanding and resonating with what is behind that handbag or necklace, because once people understand the essence behind what is being sold, brand recognition falls and people will immediately dissociate what they have thought about a certain brand with the story it sells. One small tweak changes it all—scarcity is the key to making products feel valuable and exclusive, but once we see that “buy one get one free” sign or when a product stops being one of the “100 in the world”, that feeling of being superior than others from owning that product will go away. That is why some luxury brands make people buy other things with their handbags, as that makes each purchase feel more exclusive and precious, making their brand even more desirable.

High prices are also the key to many brands’ marketing methods, as that immediately draws connotations between owning the product and one’s social and financial status, which is obviously what people crave as part of their identity: exclusiveness and uniqueness but recognizably so. Sometimes, celebrities amplify with sense of exclusivity, and that becomes something not only the fans desire, but it also elevates the brand’s identity and helps them target a specific market with their brand’s philosophies, which is why ambassadors play such a big role in marketing. But we also have luxury brands like Hermes that never has an ambassador, and that might be because they have different goals for their reputation and perhaps want to prioritize their product marketing and their brand’s own heritage over associations with current cultures or trends.

Social media has also changed the nature of marketing in this sense, because it makes aspirational marketing easier to achieve than ever. When we see an aesthetic or a vision board that showcases a lifestyle consisting of a certain product that we like and want to obtain, our desire for a product or products that is shown in the post. This works because that directly targets the motivation of us buying a certain product or choosing to act upon something because it says something about us, and this something that the product says about us represents our desires from within. For example, if someone is wearing an alo workout set, holding a cup of matcha, and using a trendy lip gloss, that makes others perceive in a certain way. Sometimes, this desire is genuinely from within, but it becomes toxic and unhealthy when we buy it just because we want to jump on the bandwagon.

Invisibly visible branding has become more and more popular—not logos all around a product or piece of clothing, but a certain style or product used already tells the whole story about a person’s status. This creates a sense of one’s identity, but as this persists, we cannot forget the reason why brands market and why they use social media, as that is used to promote and to make their products more visible, which in a way reduces the sense of exclusivity around it. I guess this is also why the Old Money style is so trendy, because the main idea is the quiet luxury, which is that “I am wealthy and you can feel it and see it but I’m also not so braggy about it”. However, the balance is in between their brand positioning and promotion, as a brand can be famous for their products or a certain product, but still make that product exclusive. This feeling can be amplified or destroyed by the presence of celebrities promoting them, because that can surely amplify someone’s need of purchasing a product, but also feel like “it is not that niche anymore to have it because everyone knows about it”.

As a Gen-Z myself, I feel like the biggest difference between that marketing as made for a brand is how it can make two of the exact same products feel so incredibly different. Let’s take lip gloss for example, because I am a fan of lip gloss and lip products in general, but I am faced with a world of choices here. We have the accessible and high-quality kinds that have really amazing products, we have those viral and trendy brands that have pretty good products but because of that one packaging or celebrity association or aesthetic match to the most recent beauty trend, boom, they become the top-selling brand. I’m not gonna lie, I am a victim of this powerful marketing, because that is what makes the true difference in a business, but those brands that live by their positive reputation on their cost-effective products that are high quality are truly the brands that will survive the long-term competition with changing trends. Trendy brands live through competition by having their perceived product value greater than the actual product value, which can sometimes create a sense of exclusivity and elevated identity. However, this sense exclusivity can also be diminished by resale platforms. As a Chinese girl living in China, I am excluded from a lot of the trendy brands in the US and the west, and there are a lot of platforms like 闲鱼 and our old friend Taobao where people resale those brands’ products to their Chinese fans. This might seem like a good thing because those resale vendors are helping with the brand’s marketing, but this can also reduce the sense of exclusivity and perceived value, but as long as the brand keeps up with their marketing and maintaining their relevance to the current beauty trends, this might not be a big issue for them.

As Gen-Zs become the main force of purchases made on social media and frankly more and more in real life as trends define our purchasing habits, people might define us as “blindly following what is popular” but I don’t think that’s the case. I think it is true that trends and aesthetics do impact what becomes popular amongst this generation, but it is not the definite answer as we do care about what is behind the product and its functions. Every era has its own trends and popular aesthetics, and now it is just amplified by social media and the desire of a certain lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean we ignore a products’ functions completely.

Let me know what you think about marketing and its powers in the comments!