The need for expensive branded items is prestigious. What are existential needs? The need to overcome oneself

I propose to discuss this interesting question: is it worth buying branded items? There are a lot of discussions on this topic, including here on the website and forum, readers have already touched on it more than once. In this article I want to express my opinion on this issue, give various arguments, and you will compare them with your own opinion and draw conclusions.

So what exactly is the question? It's simple. Branded items are more expensive than ordinary ones; it is customary to say that when we buy them, we pay extra for the brand. This is absolutely true, because it costs a lot of money, and if a brand is well-known, this means that millions, and maybe billions, have already been and continue to be invested in it. And, of course, they invest not just like that, but to earn even more. This explains the fact that branded items are more expensive, and the difference in price can be 20%, or maybe 20 times, depending on the company’s policy, on what part of the cost of production it puts into the brand.

But there is also a downside. Branded items are usually of higher quality. Because there is no point in promoting a brand of low-quality goods, the money will be wasted: no one will buy low-quality branded goods at a high price.

Therefore, if we consider whether it is worth buying branded items from a financial point of view, there are 2 diametrically opposed opinions:

1. You need to buy branded items because they are of better quality and last longer. If you buy cheap things, you will end up overpaying due to their poor quality and short service life.
2. There is no need to buy branded items - this way you will significantly overpay. You can buy inexpensive things, and this is more financially profitable: the difference in quality and service life is much less than the difference in cost.

Which of these opinions is correct? There is no clear answer here: the question requires analysis and comparison in each specific case. In one situation it may be financially more profitable to buy branded items, in another it may not be. To make it clearer, let's look at examples.

Example 1. Choose a TV. A product from a well-known brand costs 25 thousand rubles, a product from a little-known brand with the same functions costs 20 thousand rubles. We know that a well-known brand has proven itself well, works properly, lasts a long time, has its own service centers where it can be properly repaired if necessary. A little-known brand is a dark horse that recently appeared on the market and does not have its own service centers. The price difference is 25% of the cost. In this case, in order not to take risks, you can buy a branded product, paying a little more for the brand and the confidence that the item will last a long time.

Example 2. Choosing jeans. A branded item costs 10,000 rubles, and a product from a little-known brand costs 1,000 rubles. Branded jeans will not last 10 times longer than regular ones, and it is unlikely that anyone will be interested in wearing the same thing for a long time. The difference in quality is not so great, but in price – 10 times. Therefore, in this case, it will be more profitable to buy a regular product rather than a branded one.

There are also completely financially unprofitable situations in which people buy branded items just to emphasize their high status. I discussed such cases in more detail in the article. Think for yourself: spending money to appear rich... For me personally, this is nonsense, but observations show that this is very important to many. The main reasons, in my opinion, are the philosophy in which we all live, and the strong dependence on.

All of these are very serious problems that definitely need to get rid of, because they will always have a negative effect on your life, and in particular its financial component.

Typical example: A person buys a branded mobile gadget that costs three of his monthly income. Moreover, often also on credit. In such situations, in my opinion, you should definitely refuse to buy branded goods, it is necessary.

Thus, I can describe an approximate algorithm of actions that will help you decide whether to buy branded items.

1. Assess your real need for this item. For example, choose from three options: a must-have item, a desirable item, and a luxury item.
2. Check out the price difference. Compare a regular item and a branded item in terms of price.
3. Check out the difference in quality. Compare the quality (convenience, appearance, service life, etc.) of a regular and branded item.
4. Estimate the ratio of the two previous quantities. That is, compare how the price ratio differs from the quality ratio.
5. Make a choice in favor of a more profitable and acceptable option. Based on previous comparisons. For example, if a branded item is 2 times better quality and 10 times more expensive, then there is hardly any point in buying it, but if it’s the other way around, then, of course, there is a point.

This is my opinion on whether it is worth buying branded items. I will be glad to hear your opinions in the comments, I think everyone will be interested to know what readers think on this issue.

With this I say goodbye to you. Study wisely, and your financial status will grow even with constant income. Join the number of regular readers of the site, receive free advice and recommendations and improve your financial literacy. See you again!

“In general, consumption is a social competition. With its help we rise above those around us. If my bottle of wine is more expensive than yours, then I myself am better than you.”

If you had an extra $10k, would you spend it on headphones or something similar?

I'm not kidding. There really are headphones for that kind of money, for example Sennheiser's Orpheus or Onkyo Diamond. The question is, is their sound quality actually ten times better than a thousand dollar equivalent?

It is believed that a more expensive product implies better quality, exclusivity, custom-made or some additional bonuses. But are expensive things always better, and what makes people part with their money?

1 /5 Expensive headphones designed for DJs are tuned to limit bass and treble

Research into our perceptions of the value of goods shows that we tend to associate price and value of a product, and sometimes evaluate expensive items as higher quality or more efficient, even if in fact they are no different from cheaper alternatives.

One study conducted by researchers at Caltech and Stanford University found that people not only judge the taste of wine better when they are told it's expensive, but if they were given an MRI of their brain at the same time, it would show that they actually enjoy it more when they drink what they consider to be a more expensive drink.

In another study examining the use of a placebo as a pain reliever, participants who took what they thought was a $2.50-per-pill pain reliever felt more relief than others who were told the pill cost only 10 cents.

1 /5 Bespoke luxury cars parked in southwest London

Searching for the best

Okay, these are experiments, but how does price affect our purchasing decisions in real life? Suppose there is a product and its analogue is twice as expensive - do buyers really think that the latter will be twice as good?

Michael Norton, a psychologist and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, answers this question in the affirmative, at least if

talk about consumer impressions. His research shows that we are wired to seek out the best, so-called peak experiences.

Norton notes that a restaurant, dish, or movie that everyone rates the same, a C, is a safe option, whereas if we see a range of ratings from one to five, we can expect anything. According to him, “It’s interesting that people tend to take risks and choose the option with ones and fives because they want to have the best experience - even at the risk of stumbling upon a bad option.”

Norton says the same mechanism can explain the purchase of very expensive goods or services: “Increasing pleasure with increasing quality even comes with an additional impulse, and perhaps drinking a bottle of whiskey that costs $10,000 will be twice as enjoyable as drinking the same bottle for $10,000.” 5 thousand because it’s an extreme, peak experience.”

Many of us look for unique vacation opportunities, even if these are not the most pleasant options, just to “add to the collection of experiences.” Anat Keinan and Ran Kivetz write, “By creating memorable experiences, consumers gain satisfaction, subjective advancement, and increased self-esteem.”

1 /5 “By buying a Ferrari, I become part of a community of exceptional, interesting and passionate people.”

Joshua Cartu is an amateur racing driver, entrepreneur and avid Ferrari collector. He says that he collects cars not only out of love for them, but also because it is a pass both to various events and to a certain circle of society.

He says: “The feeling of happiness from accumulating material wealth is fleeting, and each time the reward received is less and less. Another thing is that when I buy a Ferrari, I find myself in the company of the same sophisticated connoisseurs of the brand as myself.”

Cartu says that one of the most powerful experiences of his life was flying a MiG fighter in Russia: “We were twice as high as passenger planes fly. The stars in the sky in broad daylight and the curving horizon are an incredible experience.”

Most of us can't afford to fly in a fighter jet or race a Ferrari, but researchers suggest that the desire to amass a "collection of experiences" may also explain the craving for more modest activities, like staying in an ice hotel or enjoying bacon-flavored ice cream.

Conspicuous consumption

Some people spend a lot of money to demonstrate their success. Kartu says: “You may want to show others that you have achieved everything. This was important to me because I come from a poor family, and I needed to show everyone that I was now on the same level as them. However, later, after some reflection, the need to make an impression disappeared.”

Economic theory states that the demand for most goods increases as the price falls. In addition, there are so-called “Veblen goods”, the demand for which increases along with the price, because they value exclusivity.

Norton says: “In general, consumption is a social competition. With its help we rise above those around us. If my bottle of wine is more expensive than yours, then I myself am better than you.” At the same time, he adds that people can emphasize their high status either by standing out among others, or, conversely, by trying to be invisible.

1 /5 $1.4 million platinum and white gold pen set with diamonds

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, professor at the University of Southern California and author of The Sum of Little Things. The Ambitious Class,” says wealthy Americans are buying increasingly discreet luxury items—organic products are taking the place of designer handbags.

She says: “Today, material wealth is less of a marker of social status. We live in an era of abundance, which means things are no longer as rare and attractive as they used to be. To justify the price of a product, there needs to be some kind of history or some kind of status accompanying it.”

Happiness at someone else's expense

In the end, it's simple: people are greedy for luxury goods because they believe they will make them happy. Norton, one of the authors of the book “Happy Money. The Science of Buying Happiness says that the pleasure you get in exchange for money depends much more on how you spend it than on how much it goes.

He says spending money on things becomes less fun over time, and suggests spending money on experiences: "Most of us seem to have a hard time making ourselves happy by buying things."

However, there is one way - Norton's research proves that we become happier by giving benefits to others:

“It’s not that buying things doesn’t make us happy - of course it does, that’s why we buy them. The problem is that it doesn't make us happier in the long run. It’s a completely different matter when we give them away.”

Prepared by Evgenia Sidorova

(lat. existentia- existence) - needs associated with a person the meaning of life and the resolution of “eternal” truths in the process of his life self-realization.

By Erich Fromm It is based on “a biological dichotomy between instincts, which a person lacks, and self-awareness, which is in abundance.

Existential conflict a person creates certain mental needs that are the same for all people. Each person is forced to overcome his fear, his isolation in the world, his helplessness and abandonment and seek new forms of connection with the world in which he wants to find safety and peace. Existential needs lie in the human condition. They are characteristic of all people, and their satisfaction is necessary to maintain mental health, just as the satisfaction of natural needs is necessary to maintain a person’s physical health (and his life).

But each of existential needs can be satisfied in different ways. These differences in each case depend on his social position. Various ways of satisfying existential needs are manifested in passions such as love, tenderness, the desire for justice, independence and truth, in hatred, sadism, masochism, destructiveness, narcissism.”

defines 5 main existential needs person:

From the point of view of such a psychodiagnostic technique as, the difference in behavior between instincts and conscious (social) behavior will give a person excessive baldness of the head in various zones. There is an article on this topic on our website about.

In order for a client to want to buy from you, you need to rely on his needs. And here psychologist Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs will help you - the theory of the hierarchy of human needs.

Level 1: need for food and water

Level #1 is the basic physiological needs that every person has: hunger, thirst, and to a lesser extent, sexual desire. They allow us to survive. A hungry person does not care about beauty and aesthetics, and a hungry and poor person does not care about stylish packaging. A consumer who has little money will buy what is cheaper, without paying attention to quality. His goal is to survive.

Level 2: need for security

A well-fed person has second-level needs - security. He is drawn to stability, to constancy, he wants to protect himself and his property. A person who has reached the second level buys alarms and tracking systems, pepper spray, and security dogs. He enrolls in self-defense classes and opens a savings account at a bank to secure his future.

Level 3: need to belong

A well-fed and confident person in his future begins to seek recognition from some social group. He craves belonging, so he starts buying beautiful branded items, magazines and books on psychology, cosmetics and perfumes. He looks for clubs and signs up for a gym. He creates a certain social circle around himself.

Level 4: need for implementation

Having entered any social group, a person understands that he really wants to stand out from others. He changes his clothing style and begins to work on individuality, and he wants to be noticed and highlighted. At this stage, a person begins to work on his own health, tries to look good, invests money in business, cars, expensive clothes, etc.

Level 5: the need to surround yourself with beautiful things

A person achieves what he strived for. Now he longs to surround himself with beauty - objects of art, rare books, nature. He buys trips and cruises, an SUV to go to the mountains, reproductions or originals of famous paintings. He travels to the cultural capitals of the world - Rome, Vienna, Paris - and buys beautiful gifts for his family and friends.

First write down the number of the task (26, 27, etc.), and then a detailed answer to it. Write down your answers clearly and legibly.

Read the text and complete tasks 26-31.

Law as a social regulator is, first of all, an instrumental value, that is, a value that acts as a tool, instrument, means of ensuring the functioning of other social institutions. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that the right also has its own value. In the most general way, the intrinsic value of law can be defined as the expression and personification by law of social freedom and activity of people on the basis of ordered relations and in accordance with justice, the need to harmonize the will and interests of various segments of the population and social groups.

Even when law acts as the right of the strong or the right of power, when its content in its basic characteristics often does not correspond to the needs of progress, it still represents a socially valuable, albeit extremely limited, phenomenon in comparison with what is opposed to it, - with arbitrariness, with self-will, with the subjectivity of individuals and groups. After all, social freedom and activity of people can have a different character. Not bound by the law, outside the law they can develop into arbitrariness without barriers. In law, social freedom and activity, to one degree or another, reflect the unity of freedom and responsibility; they exist within the framework outlined by law in combination with legal obligations. The intrinsic value of law is directly determined by its social nature and very significantly depends on the stage of development of society, the stage of civilization, and the nature of the political regime.

(S. Alekseev)

Highlight the main semantic parts of the text. Give each of them a title (make a text plan).

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The following semantic fragments can be distinguished:

1. The values ​​of law as a social regulator (instrumental and personal).

2. Disclosure of the role of law in society.

3. Dependence of the intrinsic value of law.

It is possible to formulate other points of the plan without distorting the essence of the main idea of ​​the fragment, and to highlight additional semantic blocks.

Show answer

The correct answer must contain two sentences that reveal the meaning of the concept, for example:

1) law as a social regulator is a system of generally binding social norms protected by the power of the state;

2) with the help of law, state power regulates the behavior of people and their groups, provides legal, i.e. provided for by the rules of law, the impact on the development of public (social) relations throughout society.

Other correct definitions and proposals may be given.

Based on the text, name two values ​​that, according to the author, law has.

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The answer should include the following values:

1) instrumental;

2) own.

The author argues that “even when law acts as the right of the strong or the right of power... it still represents a socially valuable phenomenon.” Based on the text and knowledge of the social science course, give three arguments confirming the author’s point of view.

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The answer may include arguments:

1) by limiting the social freedom and activity of people, the law does not allow them to develop into arbitrariness;

2) legal social freedom and activity reflect the unity of rights and obligations;

3) promotes coordination of the will and interests of various segments of the population and social groups;

4) in law, social freedom and activity exist within the framework outlined by law, in combination with legal obligations.

Based on the text, formulate three properties of law that express its role in society.

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The answer may include the following properties of law:

1) ensures the functioning of other social institutions;

2) promotes social freedom;

3) capable of ensuring people’s activity;

4) promotes coordination of the will and interests of various segments of the population and social groups.

Other wording of the answer is allowed that does not distort its meaning.

The author argues that the intrinsic value of law “depends on the stage of development of society, the stage of civilization, and the nature of the political regime.” Based on knowledge of the social science course, other academic disciplines and social experience, give three arguments confirming the author’s point of view.

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The answer may include the following arguments:

1) the level of economic development of the country, the degree of development of the market for goods and services requires enshrining in legal norms the necessary degree of freedom for active activity and protection of private property;

2) the level of civilization determines the degree of development of culture, the idea of ​​a person, his place in the world and, thereby, determines the nature of values, which is also reflected in legal norms;

3) since laws are issued by the state, the level of rights and freedoms granted to citizens and the degree of their participation in governing the state depend on the nature of the political regime.

Other arguments may be given.