And yet tons of people do buy brand. Specifically to show it off. "Look at me! I'm rich! See, I'm wearing LV pants, Jimmy Choo shoes, I've got tUMI luggage, a R

And yet tons of people do buy brand. Specifically to show it off. "Look at me! I'm rich! See, I'm wearing LV pants, Jimmy Choo shoes, I've got tUMI luggage, a Rolex watch, and a Prada bag. Seems related to me. You can buy this Prada keychain, only $525! https://www.prada.com/us/en/p/saffiano-leather-keychain/2PP041_053_F0002 https://www.prada.com/us/en/p/saffiano-leather-keychain/2PP0... Or you can buy some other that will be just as functional https://www.etsy.com/search?q=keychain+leather+black+triangle https://www.etsy.com/search?q=keychain+leather+black+triangl... But not advertise your $$$$. Maybe a better example: Is this $2950 Prada bag https://www.prada.com/us/en/p/re-nylon-and-saffiano-leather-backpack/2VZ048_2DMG_F0002_V_OOO https://www.prada.com/us/en/p/re-nylon-and-saffiano-leather-... Any better than 1000s of < $100 bags? It's not more durable. It's not going to last longer. It's not going to carry more or less stuff. You can find 100s of not 1000s of bags who if you slapped a Prada tag on would be considered just as stylish (meaning if you did a double blind test and either put the logo on both or removed it from both, no one would tell which was which) > It's perfectly healthy to use brand as a heuristic to help yourself more easily buy products that work well. Sure, though I know lots of people that assume expensive = quality and confuse that with expensive brand = quality. It doesn't. The chintziest items I've owned have been expensive "high end" brands. That's not to say all expensive brands are bad. Only that expensive well known brand only means they're good at marketing. It does not mean their product are quality. They might be, they might not.