March 29, 2024

OHT-Fashion

Clothes that smile

Can I trust established brands?

7 Powerful Ways to Build a Great Brand Reputation – DBI

To save how much time we would spend on research before concluding to patronize a particular company, we might want to consider patronizing only established brands. Even though this could be a very great strategy, it is not always advisable. Some of the reasons why it is not advisable to just patronize a brand because they are an established brand are discussed subsequently.

Pricing
One of the major problems that you would encounter when you patronize established brands is that their prices are likely to be outrageous. Products that you could get the same quality for 200 USD from other brands, they might be selling it for 1,000 USD. They are aware that many people will patronize them because of their established brand, irrespective of the amount they put on their products. In some cases, the costly product further gives their product the reputation of being luxurious and exclusively for the rich. Hence, while the rich can continue to patronize happily, you as an average income earner might not be able to fork out such huge amounts for their products without being negatively affected. Hence, you can read reviews about fashion brands, for example, to know if other companies have the same positive reviews as they do, but sell their products at a significantly lower price.

Compromise on standards
Some companies start to lower the quality of their products once they are established. The fact that they also get large orders could mean that it will be a bit slower before they will be able to ship your products. Hence, you have to check to be sure that they have not compromised or reduced their standards before patronizing them. For example, you can read reviews about Ralph Lauren to know about the quality of their products and if their customers have not stated that they have noticed that the quality of their products or the quality of their services has reduced. This would go a long way to avoid a situation where you would pay a high amount for the product with the hope that you are paying for the quality that they are known for only to be disappointed. You also do not want to assume that you would get the product you ordered within 3 days, because that was the case when you ordered for their products 10 years ago. You might even hope to get it in one or two days with the hope that they should have improved, only to get the product you ordered after 7 days. This could be painful if you wanted to use the product on the fifth day and couldn’t because it was yet to be delivered.

Fake versions
The popularity of established brands and their expensive prices attract counterfeiters. The counterfeiters would make a fake version of the established brands, add their brand on it and sell at either the same price the established brand is selling or at a slightly lower price. If you do not read reviews about the company that you are buying from, you might not know that the reseller or retailer sells fake products. However, by doing some research or reading reviews, you would find people who would complain that the products sold by the retailer are counterfeit. You would be able to find other credible retailers selling the real deal or buy directly from the manufacturer.