🇬🇧 Style and the cost-benefits ratio

The cost-benefits ratio is not simple to calculate. Many people use price alone to choose what to buy. This is a mistake because price alone is not a standard to calculate the ratio cost-benefit and to choose price alone is often to choose the products with most inferior quality and the least benefits of all.

If you compare 1 kg of rice from a brand X in two different supermarkets you’re comparing price alone. If you compare the prices of the packs with 1kg of rice from different brands you’re comparing price alone. If you want a pair of five pockets jeans, no matter the brand, and you choose the cheapest, you’re comparing price alone.

So, how would it be the choice based on the ratio cost-benefits for these things? For the rice you should consider other standards as the flavour (yes, there are different flavours for different brands), the nutritional value, the social impact each brand causes, the environmental impact, and so on. For the trousers, I gave an example of a personal experience here once. Now I tell it again for you to understand.

In the distant year of 1998, some weeks before to move from Montes Claros to Uberlândia, I bought fabulous trousers from a brand that was my favourite and unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore. It was the sexiest trousers I ever bought (I’m talking about one piece of clothes, one item only... that’s why I used “it” referring to trousers. Sorry if it’s grammatically wrong). It costed R$40,00 that time (minimum salary was R$70,00 per month). Then, a few weeks after I’m living in Uberlândia, my neighbour entered the apartment wearing beautiful trousers with that bell cut I used to love. I didn’t know the brand but the trousers were charming, and it costed the same R$40,00 I paid in the other some weeks before. I bought one equal to hers and embroidered it to be different, because I appreciate exclusivity and she was my companion to go out, so, it was better to do this. Both trousers were beautiful and fitted perfectly. The difference to calculate cost-benefit ratio? The time they were useful. The first I had up to last year and could have for more time, but I needed to change the zipper and I didn’t, so, I threw it away. The second one lasted two years before I need to throw it away because the fabric was horrible and opened in some places. So, one costed me R$40,00 to be worn often (while I was at the university I used to wear it three times a week) during 20 years, and the other costed a bit more (considering I spent to embroider it) to last two years only. The second was ten times more expensive considering the cost-benefit ratio, although comparing price alone both had the same price.

Quality alone is not enough to calculate that ratio, but it’s one that most people don’t understand as their references are too limited. As in the example of the rice, there are other aspects to consider to enrich the analysis. People who refuse to analyse the quality, the lifetime of their clothing, as one of the standards are making a poor choice. But we must go further and analyse other standards as the social and environmental impact of each brand.

How is the fitting of those clothing to your body? Does those clothing treasure your personal colours? Does that brand offer fair salaries to their employees? Does it offer encouragement for them to study to occupy a higher position in the future in that company? Does it segregate people, paying less for women? Do they usually fire their employees after a maternity leave? Are its employees working in a healthy environment? What’s the impact of that brand in the environment? Are its designs original or the brand is imitating some designs created by other brands? Are its salespeople natural and helpful? Do that brand deliver quickly when we shop online? For fashion industries, if their products are made by third parties, are these suppliers honest with their employees, considering the previous questions? These are some questions we must keep in mind. If you’re vegan or vegetarian there are some extra questions. According to your goals other questions can be included. But in any situation the benefits come first, and the price is almost unimportant if we think we can save money to have the best option if we want.

I believe any person should ask the questions about social impact, including everything regarding the employees of that brand or their manufacturers, even when looking for a job, in any industry. A person doing this is showing social responsibility and self-respect, and this is good for one personal brand.

To check the cost-benefits we must consider first all the benefits we can imagine, for ourselves, the environment and to society. We analyse the benefits each brand can offer and then we analyse the prices of the brands offering more benefits to see if our budget is enough.

For example, consider you are looking for new shirts and the ones you tried have the following benefits and prices (I’ll include only a few benefits for this example). When I am analysing data, I’m more specific, but the example below is enough for you to understand the idea.

Brand	Fitting	Quality	Social responsibility	Colours	Services	Environmental responsibility	Rate
A	Perfect	Excellent	Unknown	Good	Excellent	Unknown	7
B	Perfect	Good	Unknown	Good	Good	Only sustainable products	6
C	Good	Good	Ok	Not fitted	Ok	Unknown	4
D	Horrible	Poor	Shame	Good	Ok	Unknown	2

The best choice would be the brand A in normal circumstances. I recommend to balance the rates in a way each benefit has the same importance than the others. It’s the most honest way to calculate the ratio.

Sometimes our budgets are not enough to buy the best choice. It’s an option to save some extra money to buy the best choice. I always consider this possibility when I’m shopping for myself. I prefer to postpone some acquisition to have the best choice than to buy a second option immediately. For clients I negotiate the best deals, as they usually buy various items at once and often I’m able to buy some products that alone couldn’t fit the budget.

When I started having opportunities in traditional media channels like TV channels and magazines to talk about style, many people used to hire me wanting to be more stylish. Currently, as people are gaining this sense of responsibility for having a world more honest, they’re asking me to find the best ratio cost-benefits for their new purchases in fashion. And I’m pleased to do the best I can with the information I have acquired in these more than 30 years in this industry, to offer something interesting for them, as I do for myself. Of course new brands appear e every day and I’m observing them too, and sometimes I can made mistakes in some aspects, but I consider important to consider the choices for my clients as important as mine, and I love to receive feedback on the results to improve my services more and more.

Do you consider some benefit I didn’t mention? Share it with me. Maybe I already consider it and forgot to write it down. Maybe I didn’t pay attention to that point and your comment can enrich my future analysis.

Visit the page “Services available” for professional advice on style.

Nycka, the nomad