Notes on class discussion (Session 8)

After a brief introduction to the readings selected for the session, we discussed at length how consumers produce meaning in brands. The point of debate was - if new marketing governmentality is after all just transforming consumers into dupes. In theories which look at consumer as central to the process of production of value, what we often miss to see are the processes of production which Marxists are accused of overemphasizing. Several scholars studying contemporary practices of consumption are of the opinion that the Marxian understanding of resistance has to change drastically. The question raised in the class against such an exclusive focus on consumption was – are some of these scholars overlooking the process of production and the inequities inherent in it? Related to this, another question was raised on consumer complicity in perpetuating structural inequalities and exploitation at the production end by participating in the co-creation of value of commodities. We also discussed how such a view would stand in relation to consumer boycott movements and resistance.

While trying to understand brands and how they operate at consumer’s end, the question of choice was raised, and the class felt that ‘choice’ has to be accounted for as ultimately we choose certain brands over others. Closely allied to the question of choice, was the question on consumer’s trust and its role in consumption of brands. We further discussed the instability of brands and how they are at the risk of losing value when they acquire too many meanings. One of the most important points raised showing an important gap in all this discussion on brands was about the hierarchy of branded products and how many scholars have not looked at it at all. The class felt that hierarchy of products and the presence of other competing brands of the same commodity type have to be factored in to understand how brands operate. Besides accounting for this hierarchy, the class also discussed how differences between products have to be considered too. For example, a jewellery brand may not operate the same way as a beverages one. A general theory of brands may not account for all kinds of products available in the market. We further discussed how generic, non-branded products can be studied in relation to brands to understand how brands acquire multiple meanings. We discussed how this would help us also to account for global variants of capitalism in which consumers are not that obsessed with brands, instead of just stopping at explaining the dominant American version characterized by the obsession with brands. Some examples discussed in this context include – how Colgate in many parts of India stands for toothpaste like Xerox for photocopying.

Further we discussed the interplay of materiality and immateriality, tangibility and intangibility in the value expressed through brands. We came to a conclusion that brand is not fully encompassed in itself, and that it is always spilling over. We also raised a question which was more or less left unresolved - what happens when brands lose their value? Discussing brand fetishization and detachment of a brand from the commodity, we spoke on how a brand gives us a sense of continuity through years though what a brand used to sell many years ago is not the same product it sells today.

Discussing the proliferation of consumer niches and the efforts at the production end to cater to such niches, we felt that there is not much difference between the games that producers play to project themselves as producers of authentic local (vying for GI tags) and global products. We also spoke about how all processes (production, distribution and consumption) are getting more and more systematized nowadays. We concluded the session by a point on globalization and how it produces the same kinds of effects everywhere – but there are local and regional variants. People have options and options have politics to them. The politics and the contestations of value do not revolve around the thing itself, and value is all about what kinds of value one generates.