8 December

Car brands are a fascinating study if you want to see how human societies are really just status games. Only five global companies own most of the brands of vehicle that people buy. It’s like laundry detergent, where the shelves in the supermarket give the impression of huge brand diversity. All of them owned by only one or two companies.  As with laundry detergent, cars have almost identical underlying technology. Manufacturers create brands because they know humans crave status, and want a way to differentiate themselves from other people. They do it even within a single brand, with a range of models that are all almost functionally equivalent. And even people who choose a particular brand as a way of differentiating themselves end up being one of thousands or even millions who make exactly the same choice. We never leave high school culture. Just as an interesting aside, I doubt many even know that Hyundai and Kia, two of Australia’s big brands, are the same parent company.