Now that the social media give out an infinite range of products and there’s been great growth in advertising methods, inevitably the consumers seem to have a much wider range of choices and due to the constantly raising competition, at very challenging prices compared to any other period, at least when it comes to fashion. Some might think it’s heaven for all the items we can buy just at the cost of what would only get us one garment in a previous decade (moreover century). If you think you’re buying into the best products, you might need to reconsider.
The two main factors that substantially influence our decision-making when purchasing something, at least over the past few years are:
Technological advances or/and trends pretty much dictate the mass and crowd pretty much worldwide and from a point on different regions of the world pick out certain fashion elements that best suit their taste, influenced by geological position (if close to the beach, tiny clothes and 10 sets of bikini’s are a must, whereas if living in the city central for example, flip flops are a ‘No No’ and high heels become your best friend). The climate also has an impact to taste. You can watch music videos all you like and fantasize of being dressed in one of those tiny Shakira costumes to go clubbing, but if you live in a country like Germany or Scotland, you’re more likely to go dressed as an eskimo due to the cold climate. Whereas in England, where the sun doesn’t tend to smile in kindness often either, people are so accepting to progressive trend cults and bearing in mind the alcohol consumption levels in addition to the fashion excessiveness, you could walk around in your underwear and nobody would care. It is no news that taste and trend comes above comfort in many occasions and this would be a good example. After all, beauty isn’t always effortless, especially when on a night out among many who take forever to complete their look.
When talking about technological advances however, there is a complexity of meaning linked to those two words in regard to fashion yet most times, it is less complex than it sounds. After World War II and the entry of the American women in the army for the first time, women said goodbye to skirts and welcomed the pants, to the comfort of their new duties, but the best advance was the banning of the lethal in many cases, tiny corsets and skirts, that caused death to many women (due to the bones, lungs and other organs inability to develop to their full size, but instead bonded by the corset structure). A trend they fought hard to maintain even after the war for their own comfort, that we have the pleasure of experiencing today. Architectural shapes, structure or elements, impact and influence the shapes of the new fashion, set the color pallet or a fashion fabric pattern that might be on the spotlight for a whole decade. Unfortunately so can a world crisis or world economy decline, as we experience now, in some countries to a greater extend than others, nevertheless these shifts impact fashion on a global scale. This is a topic itself for an upcoming article to be broader analysed to its full dimensions as it impacts fashion now and is considered a stop in fashion. The main area of influence as I believe it to be when it comes to decision making in what we buy…is the advertising.
Nowadays, it’s all about the advertising. We are trained and programmed not to care anymore about the aftermath of what we buy and what it does for us. Justin Bieber or Kim Kardashian is wearing it or advertising it, it must be the best. Fact is, only very few wonder ‘had the fashion icons had to pay for it, would they really buy to wear all they promote?’ Even so, everyone suits different styles. Little do we think that we’re not paying to get a brilliant product but rather the wage of the fashion icon advertising it. In result they trend set and we only pay what they get for free to follow, not even considering the suitability for our body or personal style. We’re paying for that ad. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t last long, or if very expensive for no reason, because if it’s good for Kim, it’s good for everyone. Like when other top celebrities do beauty adverts, ‘revealing the elixir’ to all their beauty secrets and youthful skin. It doesn’t matter that that little jar of cream costs $200 nor the millions spent an no questioning on the amount of editing the promotional images underwent. Furthermore, our mind automatically deletes from our memory all the surgeries they admittedly undertook to achieve that look, in despair of actually wanting to believe we can get the same results. Just as long as we can get our hands on that jar that includes that magic cream which will do all that for us; Because we can afford it. Sometimes we even self impose the results on ourselves to the excitement of having payed so much for something that ‘has to work’ and we feel so confident that we actually see the results…even when not there. Why? Because being exposed to celebrities overtime, gives a false illusion of trust attached to their presence.
Ironically when something is cheap and of good quality (because they haven’t spent millions on promotion and advertising champagnes), we try to squeeze for petty discounts. In most cases, I too believe what we pay is what we get, but do you ever stop and wonder ‘what am I getting?’ Only when you do, will you realize that often enough, when you buy something excessively expensive, you’re just paying for the branding, the mood, theme, the models, excessive labor costs 3rd, 4th parties and other associations, that is totally unnecessary to the end product; To what is taken home. It’s like that feeling of walking into a store, being bombarded by promotional theme items for a product and you go home and open that bag in satisfaction and anticipation thinking ‘money was well spent for the day’, only to get disappointed to the realization ‘…is this all I got?’. Or to the realisation that you bought nothing of what you needed or intended, and whatever you bought doesn’t even look as impressive when you open the bag (as you took it away from its ‘commercial display/environment’).
There is no golden rule on how to buy the best product. There are people out there who dedicated their lives on learning all the advertising tricks on how to get your money. In fact most of the best selling products are really the worst whereas great products never make it far because they couldn’t equally invest in advertising. For example, Coca Cola versus a delicious tasting, organic, naturally sweet, tropical fruit juice. Everyone knows that Coca Cola is one of the worst drinks to have when it comes how bad it is for us, yet many will argue that they don’t care because they like its taste. The massive advertising champagne as well as its cheap its price help greatly in that, where in reality we’re get overcharged to buy a couple of harmful syrup spoons in fizzy water. On the other hand, a delicious organic juice might cost 3-7 times more, could do the world of good to our well-being. Still some prefer to buy the cheap and popular (while some think Coke should not even be considered a drink or that it should be banned, especially for kids, due to it’s harmful ingredients).
So how do we escape from this hazard of product information and chose what is best for us? The best way is through gaining trust over a service, brand or store. To find the right place of trust (on size fit, quality, reliability, etc), the best judge on what suits your standards ideally is…you. First by testing if what you liked is as described or as promised and how it works for you. If satisfied with the line of a store, brand or/and service, it’s best to stick to that. Our brain is the most intelligent computer in the world but it does not come with a manual. Training our minds in being smart buyers, helps avoid all the others who get payed crazy to do just that. It has to do with our quality of life and maintaining our unique ‘essence’. Inevitably, what we eat and wear should be us, or it comes us. Like every muscle in our body, we forget to train the greatest one. We forget to train our brain into using the right criteria in making the right choices and override misleading past patterns with new, more effective ones. So let’s make an effort into reading ‘the fine print’ before buying something even when it’s not there, or ask the seller a question when not clear on something online. It doesn’t take take more than 1 minute but saves us a lot of hassle and creates an empowering pattern. Once a store works for us, we can always save to go back than wondering what we could’ve or should’ve done, and respectively list all other services and products that we find beneficial.
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