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"No Logo" - book review


Naomi Klein’s “No Logo” is stylish, corrosive and conclusive. In her own words-“Sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor of the tiny dorm room….connected, as is so often the case, by a web of fabrics, shoelaces, franchises, teddy bears and brand names wrapped around the planet”. Klein’s book views the ocean (of consumers), attempts to find out the direction of flow of oceanic currents (market trends) and the effect of these currents on the land (companies) and people.
The book takes us through the evolution of Branding, how it all began, where and why? Prior to the Brand world, there were but indistinguishable products. But since the early 20th century, Klein argues, companies felt the need to create euphoric affiliations of their products (not within themselves, but beyond and outside). This period, Klein observes was the premise for the branding

But the innocuous idea’s wide spread tentacles began suffocating consumers, she notes. With the advent of globalisation, companies focused more and more on creating the brands, less and less on producing as such. Labourers of the third world countries produced products while that of the first world countries pumped up their advertising/branding/PR, creating better brands, of epic proportions.

IBM’s “solutions for a smaller planet” of the nineties squeezed the world together under the open umbrella called globalisation. But the real truth, Klein points out “behind the flowery façade was a cultural divide”. In an emphatic vindication of her voice and stand, she presents to the readers, statistics on ground reality.

The itinerary of her book covers events such as “Marlboro Friday” when the mighty Philip Morris slashed down the prices in response to the market’s price wars. Such was the depravity, such was the level of condescension that Philip Morris stooped to, Klein observes. That was in the nineties; while throughout eighties, companies pumped up their advertising in improving their brand equity. Come nineties, brands were no more the trend (brand blindness)- the market was flooded with low cost products. And the giant Morris budged. But, there were others, Klein ushers, who persevered the mad battering of price wars.

The shift is evident from the numbers. In 1983, advertising spending amounted to 70%, which dropped to a dismal 25% in 1993. All the spending in Branding that companies did was watered down as flakes of dust as, no more than voices of the dawn. The whopping millions of dollars that were spent on branding in an endeavour to create brands, intangible assets, suddenly (in the nineties) looked bleak.

Klein discusses the trend of logos escaping the dark interiors of clothing into the conspicuous light of the day. Lacoste’s alligator and polo’s horseman escaped the golf courts of the elite and swamped the markets. By the mid 80s, joined this swamp were the Calvin Klein, spirit…

Turning everyone’s collar to find out what they were wearing (from eight year old babies to eighty year olds) of the past to the logos that have now become, in Klein’s words “billboards of mini size”. This is the transformation that Klein takes you through. Good book to understand the evolution of branding and capricious/pestilential uses of Branding
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