No Logo- by Naomi Klein, Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter one in the book No Logo, written by Naomi Klein, talks about an economy’s industry, income, and brands. The more an industry is possible to produce, the higher the income is after all. As brands start to open, the focus seems to drift from the manufacturing, towards the marketing, which is the real goal of all brands. Branding includes the advertising of the project, the sponsorship, and the logo licensing. As more and more brands were asked, the faster the industry had to produce the products. Brand-based products are therefore made mostly in factories. The pseudoscientific formula is used when marketing a product, this process includes the never mentioning of the rivals, large headlines should be used and much space should be left for the ad copies. In the 1940s, brands were seen as “corporate consciousness”. Forty-eight years later in 1988, Philip Morris bought ‘Kraft’ for 12.6 billion dollars, six times the original price. It now was an image, had reputation, and was worth much more; the public became interested. Advertisement spending was now an investment in cold equity. Five years later, in 1993, the Wall Street declares the brand as dead. However, the real problem producers were facing was to create new products constantly; as customers got bored easily. Advertisements were suddenly found everywhere, on cans, food products, toys, and even on telephone lines. The longest running campaign with one face in its advertisement launched in 1954; the Marlboro Man became the new face for Marlboro cigarettes. Klein says that if one cut’s prices on the market, there will be an avalanche, which is the welcoming to the value generation. After the baby boom, mostly found after the major wars the countries had gone through, families bought more brands. Housewife’s wanted the best for their children, and with brands new cleaning and other substances were introduced. Families that had the ability to buy these products only wanted the best. In the olden days it was all about advertising products, now days it is not about advertising anymore, but all about marketing, and image.