Branding and Product Names are Important

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. But it is worth revisiting.

On Amazon you can buy a 4-pack of Potato Chip Bag Clips for $5.99. Translating to roughly $1.50 per clip.

Also on Amazon you can buy a 100-pack of Clothes Pin Hangers for $13.00. Translating to $0.13 per clothes pin hanger.

As both products do relatively the same thing, there is a x10 mark-up for wisely calling the product a “Bag Clip” instead of a “Clothes Pin Hanger.”

This is not to say that anyone who buys a “Bag Clip” instead of a “Clothes Pin Hanger” is foolish, not necessarily. Branding and product naming is important.

If someone very specifically wants a product that is designed solely for the purpose of keeping Potato Chip Bags closed, and is willing to pay a x10 premium to ensure the product is designed and named specifically to solve that problem then the transaction is fair and logical. It is the consumer’s right to decide what value they place on their own funds relative to the products they can purchase with those funds.

The opposite is true as well, if someone just wants to hold a bag of potato chips closed, branding and product naming be damned, then a x10 mark-up is likely not worth it. (Though an x2 or x3 mark-up might be worth it, to cut down on internet search time if nothing else)

Neither choice is inherently flawed or inherently correct, this just serves as a reminder to consider branding and product names in everything you do; from politics, to sports, to mate selection. There are forces acting upon you that you may not be taking into consideration.

Are you the type of person whose own personal branding decrees that you only use the best, and you need a Stainless Steel Potato Chip Bag Clip that you can show off to your friends? They’ll be impressed.