Why People Buy Fake Brands

764 Words4 Pages
Transsexual writer Kate Bornstein once wrote that the driving forces in our culture are “the need for a recognizable identity, and the need to belong to a group of people with a similar identity.” (Bornstein 3) Since fashion is a manifestation of identity, consumers normally purchase products that can express their personal style and display a social status that they want to be related to. Their yearn for acceptance and respectable social standing, contributes to the rising popularity of luxury brands, while also creates counterfeit luxury goods as a side effect. This essay explores people’s attitude towards luxury goods and the reasons behind their decision of purchasing fake brand name products. In our society in which wealth divides people from each other, fashion forms a social hierarchy as it unites and segregates class and status. Veblen stated that “The base, industrious class should consume only what may be necessary to their subsistence” while “the luxuries and the comforts of life belong to the leisure class.” (Veblen 44) Only consumers with sufficient wealth and leisure can afford what Veblen referred to as ‘conspicuous consumption’, which is a purchase of goods “for reasons beyond their use value” and that signal a high-status position. (Marwick 3) This kind of conspicuous consumption mostly refers to buying luxury brand goods or famous designer products that targets higher class wealthy people. Therefore, “taste is a set of class norms inculcated through socialization”, since consumers from different classes will buy products from different kinds of brands, hence their different style, standard and taste in fashion. (Marwick 8) Due to their relatively expensive prices, the possession and consumption of luxury brand name goods are symbols of superiority and status. The identity that a consumer gain from self-presentation and manipulation with
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