brands matter less

The New Yorker financial column has a good summary of the recent economy, that many brands succeed either high-class or low-price but less successfully in the middle. For example, the iPhone has only 2.2% of the world market and Nokia roughly 40%, but both earn equal incomes!

"Today, consumers... have Consumer Reports and J. D. Power, CNET and Amazon’s user ratings, and so on, which have made it easier to gauge differences in quality accurately. The result is that brands matter less: a recent Nielsen survey found that more than sixty per cent of consumers think that stores’ generic products are equal in quality to brand-name ones. "

New Yorker article here