Conspicuous consumption; & obsession with luxury brands

What is the obsession with brands & their products.. Even when they suck? 

conspicuous consumption

• expenditure on or consumption of luxuries on a lavish scale in an attempt to enhance one's prestige.
  "an age of increasing conspicuous consumption"

In 1889, sociologist Thorstein Veblen coined this term to describe consumers & why they buy expensive, branded products. To the conspicuous consumer, buying these pricey items is a display of their wealth and therefore social status. 

Let's take nail polishes for example, a pretty bottle with a well known and expensive brand name on it; will have the same things inside of it that a less expensive drugstore brand - maybe whats in these appealing bottles actually sucks. Such as, when off white released a nail polish - the formula was like tip ex or white out, yet this was still bought not for whats in the bottle, but for whats ON the bottle. A conspicuous consumer will buy a nail polish to have it on their vanity, or tell people; “yeah this nail polish is actually hermes”, even when they could get the same color at walmart in a sally hansen bottle. In the 1920s, economists such as Paul Nystrom proposed that changes in lifestyle are a result of the industrial age and that conspicuous consumption had induced in the mass of society a "philosophy of futility" that would increase the sales of goods as a social fashion; consumption for the sake of consumption. You could buy something hideous, for example anything from gucci (awful awful awful) just because the brand is pricey and/or popular 

Spending is likely to be influenced by spending of others; for example if your favorite youtuber wears a vivienne westwood necklace, you may be subconsciously more inclined to buy one.