Conditioning Consumers for Brand Name

Could there be such an idea of conditioning consumers to buy brand name products? A study that the Los Angel es times  reported finds that in many ways a plethora of different companies and industries use sophisticated marketing campaigns to condition consumers to ask for the brand names. This is prevalent in the prescription drug industry. Many companies ensure that brand name items are more appealing to consumers by giving them the comfort of brand name. However, once we as consumers are able to get past the name of a product, we could be saving hundreds of dollars a year.For example, users of Lipator, which costs about $112 a month,(30 pills) could get the same treatment from lovastatin for roughly $4 a month. Lipator is a commonly used prescription among patients that have high cholesterol. It works by lowering bad cholesterol and increasing good cholesterol absorption within the body. The name for this class of medications is atorvastatin and all of them work the same way by lowering bad cholesterol. The name brand manufacturer Pfizer owns both the patents to these medications, therefore they manufacture the same product just at different prices.

This aspect is baffling to me, we as consumers are hooked on brand names that we are scared to cross over to the field of generics. I must recognize that many individuals make the argument that generics do not work as well or they have reactions to certain generics. This aspect seems full valid in context however, I struggle with the fact that those who say, " generic medication does not work the same as name brand ."  could have a mind over matter approach. The last fact that those that are allergic to generic medications i find that to be valid as well however, one could make the same statement about a name brand product. In the end it depends what dye sets the manufacturer uses and the way the prescription breaks down once it has entered the blood stream.

How much are you willing to spend to be comforted by name brand?