Needing the Unnecessary by James B. Twitchell Article

Needing the Unnecessary by James B. Twitchell - Article Example These products are of high meaning to us but have almost zero utility. I absolutely agree with the writer since things, the possession of which, was highly cherished previously are now taken for granted. The middle-class community is now not striving to give their family a better living and their children a good education, but they are now working themselves out in order to get the luxuries that they yet do not have. We have converted our wants into needs. We need to ask ourselves if this is what the generation of tomorrow requires and should we start giving more importance to directing the youth towards morals rather than teaching them how to acquire luxuries. 2. Brand Equity is "An intangible value-added aspect of a particular good that is otherwise not considered unique". It is attained by companies through an aggressive marketing campaign. Measuring brand equity is not at all simple. The logo of Coca Cola, for instance, is recognized worldwide but we cannot say that it enjoys strong brand equity just because people know about it. Moreover, a partial measure of brand equity is brand loyalty. However all consumers who always buy Coca Cola cannot be called loyal but they can also be categorized as habitual, who do not seek variety in their tastes. Another measure of brand equity is the brand image.  Ã‚   Hence an authentic measurement of brand equity has not yet been developed. 3. Price elasticity of demand refers to the way prices change in relationship to the demand, or the way demand changes in relation to pricing. Generally, it is believed that related to a reduction in the price of a product its demand increases. I think price elasticity can be used to identify a brand's competitors. Say for example that your product is not too high or not too low priced (mediocre). You lose a number of sales to competitors you would like to identify. Maybe if you increased your product price to an extent(for a certain period of time) that demand for it lowers, you could now study the consumers and identify which other brands the consumers shift to, thus identifying your competitors.