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Q: Brand or price ?
Many top level western brands have their production coming from China (even they don't want you to know). Mercedes Benz has cars made in Beijing, l'Oreal or Maybelline have joint ventures here too, canned food or frozen food from groups like Kraft or Danone are made in China...
So, you see two equivalent products at your local supermarket (whether it's food, microwave oven, make up, anything...)
One is a western renowned brand at a western price
The other is its chinese counterpart but the price is 3 or 4 times lower.
After reading the package and noticed that the companies respective addresse are the same, so that there's a high probability that those two items may come from the same factory, will you still go for the brand (it's reputation, your consumer habit, chinese goods are crap) or be inclined to go for the cheap one ?
The "Chinese brand" is nothing but the product that didn't meet the standards set for the name brand. And you could argue, that they aren't all rejected product/ reworks, true. But for product that they know is not leaving the country, they will cut out as much as possible to save money. So if the product was supposed to be tested by a specialist before it was sent out... guess what, it wasn't. So it just depends on what you are looking at and if you really care. I mean neither one are guaranteed to be safe or even the proper product, you might just have a better chance if you buy the name brand.
Saying all of that, I buy the "Chinese brand" most of the time.
I also usually buy the Chinese brand. Even the western name brand version of the product sitting on the shelf is not necessarily the same thing that gets shipped west. There are next to no incentives for quality standards for the knock off or the "real thing" that you find here.
Price for sure, as long as it does the job. I am not big on the brand things as far as food or household products go. Not sure how I would go about electronics etc where my current preferences are the Korean brands LG, Samsung because they have now achived or exceeded the quality of other brands at a more competitive price. I think their automtive products are also now at the level where they look good and perform very well. If I was buying a car I would certainly not pay the premium for the Euro badges, but dont know enough about the local product. I'll be in the market soon for a LCD TV in China and have to do a bit of research to evaluate the cost quality of the Koreans compared to the local TCL Changhong etc. As for cloths my ego (and marketing) leans me towards the known brands, so I will try and wear Lee, Levis, Nike , Addidas and any of the Aussie surf brands such as Billabong, Rip Curl etc. In saying that I very rarely pay close to full price as they are overpriced and so I buy when on special only and if I find quality(looks real dont really care how long they will last) fakes I am all over them. But thats another story. As far as my teeth go I went with the cheaper Chinese brand rather than the expensive Australian made product....and after road testing them on multiple chicken feet and asorted other bones and tendons I have found them to be adequate for their purpose.
i no longer trust Chinese brand clothes. They are cheap and disposable and always with inferior quality materials. Of course, I often think brands are overpriced, but my Armani shoes have lasted me 10 years while the Chinese knockoff I bought barely made it a season. Now I get all my clothes made for me. That is the best way to go.
