Originally posted by bymy141 In my experience Americans seem to be much more brand sensitive than Europeans.
Where I live in Europe you go to a bar. I'll ask for a beer or a cola. You'll get the brand that they sell.
The Europeans are more and more picking up the American behavior in this respect I guess.
Well, it's my understanding that in at least some of Europe, pubs would actually sort of function as outlets for particular brands, so that may have something to do with it.
Generally, we do like variety and all. Very few places sell only one brand, unless they're also the brewery.
Quote: Companies are working hard to transform their label and logo into a brand with a certain identity.
It is the people who buy the brand then with the perception that the brand identity is their own.
It shows to the world; I wear Nike, or Gucci, so I'm cool or trendy...
There is a lot of literature on the subject of Brand identity and the psychological effects it has on people.
- Bert
That would seem to be worth some study. You can bet the corporations do.
I do think the 'pro' image often is applied to branding, sometimes inappropriately, (And I often feel those really pro-affiliated brands tend to want to force one into a certain model of 'pro equipment' that may or may not be what you need or prefer, as you can see: the pro services might be handy if you're using some of this big/really expensive stuff: I figure that if I get any kind of business going, with the kinds of things I'd expect to be using, I should be able to cover myself for any backups or anything. I might choose another brand for like, serious sports, but I I think the closest to that I'm likely to get is, maybe helping out a local paper or something, maybe the occasional bit of a job for some high school athlete's parents or something. Not exactly a high-dollar operation. (For not much of a sports fan, I kind of like that sort of job: the body doesn't generally agree.
)
I like to say 'A professional camera is one you can make money on.'
It's all about knowing what you need: I'm not counting on being too ambitious about making good on a big equipment overhead. I'm pretty happy with the kind of stuff you can have with Pentax, and if that changes, well, OK.
There's some things that I hope will be improved, soon, like the flash system, (I never set much store by fancy flash automation, but I'm getting a little slow on the calculations in my old age, so I'd appreciate a really nice system there.
But I knew this coming in. )
Flash was not the strong suit of this system, and I know it. (Frankly, the considerate provision of an old-fashioned PC terminal so I can plug in the old familiar boingey cords *was,* though, where else do you get *that* for six hundred bucks, these days)
They *could* do better, yes, for that place between 'old-school have 283/285, will travel,' and 'It's my studio, I'll trigger this with whatever darn thing it takes' but... It's about priorities.