Naomi Klein

In the interview with Naomi Klein about her book ‘No Logo’, which like it sounds basically is about the negative effects of branding on companies and us as humans. She says “branding is not about advertising, branding is about the end of advertising” and she says that products aren’t the ones being branded it is us, the humans, who are being branded (1). Also, she says that the companies have realized that it is more cost effective to just own the idea, patent, of the product, rather than owning that as well as the physical property, the factories and plants that actually make the product itself(6).

Is it really that bad that they have realized this and want to do the most cost effective thing for their company? Isn’t that just good business tactics? It’s inevitable that humans will take the easy way out. If there is an easier, cheaper way to do something and there are others who are willing to make that so, why not take advantage of that?

“Coke always understood that they would have higher profit margins if they didn’t own their bottlers, but actually just owned the recipe, the idea, the intellectual property. It’s intellectual property that matters (6).” Naomi would say that they aren’t being good companies; they aren’t taking care of all the constituents. But if there are people who work in these factories who need work and they are willing to work because these are the only jobs they can take on, is it really that bad to give them the job so what they get fed, and we get what we want too, cheaper goods?

I don’t believe that it is really that bad of a tactic. It may not be the best deal for the factory worker, but they do have a job which they wouldn’t have if the ‘big bad company’ didn’t run their business the way they do. She also says that class systems emerge due to this way of running things, but is that not inevitable as well? There are people who are born leaders and people who are born followers, that is how it has always been and how it will always be.

I have a friend who started his own business a few years ago, he sell clothes and jewelry. And he knows that the cheaper the products he gets the more he can mark them up to make a bigger profit. Because his store is a small boutique like store so he can mark stuff up more than if it was a chain store. He makes good money doing this, and the companies that he gets his products from are just factories in different countries, but he makes sure that they are not terrible factories where they don’t take care of their workers.

If he didn’t take any notice in how the workers were treated and how the factory was run then it would be a bad thing, but since he is aware of all the circumstances surrounding the products he purchases the more okay it is to do so.

In the end, I don’t think that we are really in such a rut as she seems to think that we are. People are going to do what they do and that is just part of life, and it is really not a bad thing like she seems to think it is. Whether or not we change the way branding and advertisement goes on, we will always have those who think of more efficient ways to do things, kind of like the ‘Go Green’ thing, using less oil, hurting the environment less.