ABSTRACT

Nowadays, brands seem to be at the centre of many criticisms and are increasingly considered to be directly or indirectly responsible for the current economic, health, environmental and societal turmoil. Some people indeed consider that brands control their everyday life almost like George Orwell's Big Brother whereas others blame them for fixing economic rules, for making children obese or for breaching human rights. Already mentioned in a previous chapter, the book No Logo (Klein, 2001) is a good example of such criticisms. In developed countries, economic growth reached such levels that it would be difficult and biased not to recognise the benefits brands have had on people's lives, health, workplace, leisure and well-being as a whole. However, as any system, it has its downsides embedded within the consumerist phenomenon. Offer abundance, globalisation, relocation and some shareholders’ and managers’ greed and indifference have indeed provoked direct and indirect social, environmental and human damages in the form of pollution, work-related illness, appearance tyranny and massive household debts. Opposition and resistance movements and groups have been set up to publicly criticise and counter brands’ interferences and growing importance and demonise their constant performance and profit objectives. Resistance behaviours can take various forms on a continuum from avoidance and minimisation behaviours to active rebellion such as complaining, boycotting and dropping out (Fournier, 1998), and it is now impossible to ignore them. From this early classification, it seems that resistance forms have been extremely diverse, using methods such as counter-publicity, parasitism or website hacking. These consumers and activists are obvious brand threats but other threats coming from the market itself and brands’ main competitors can also hinder growth and development. First of all is the aging phenomenon but other threats dealing with marketing and communication erosion phenomena such as product and brand name trivialisation and upward extension towards premium products are becoming serious. A final threat that is particularly concerning for sport brands is counterfeiting.