» Companies used to see their primary role as producing products, then branding them with a corporate `identity.

» What’s different now is that companies see their primary role as producing brands, then fulfilling them through products.

» Key now for companies is to produce a brand identity, an image, and meaning that can be stretched into as many different arenas as possible.

» The fact that the product now takes a backseat to the brand is clear when you consider a pair of Nikeshoes: the shoes may have the Nike swoosh, but Nike didn’t make them. They bought them before you did.

» The new corporate logic works this way: A company like Nike approaches a broker in Hong Kong; thebroker tells them which factories will produce shoes for the lowest cost; the contract to make the shoes is then given to a factory in China, or Vietnam, or Indonesia; and these factories themselves then in turn decide they can get a cheaper price and make money by subcontracting.

» This is the "Nike Paradigm," held up when first tested as the future of the corporate world: a maze of contracted and subcontracted and sub-subcontracted factories designed to make it as cheap as possible to produce the actual product.

» This new paradigm, set up to lower the cost of production, relies at base on finding the cheapest labor force possible: because a baseline level of product quality must be maintained, companies achieve savings by finding ways to pay – and invest in – workers as little as possible.

» To keep wages down, companies contract out to workers in parts of the world that have no minimum standards of pay and few public protections against corporate excess – and by setting up tight controls on their workforce: ensuring that workers don’t organize for more pay, safer working conditions, and more control over their lives.

» Goods are produced in what are called export processing zones, industrial parks set up especially to produce goods for the United States, Canada and Europe at the lowest possible cost in order to maximize profit.

» To assure total control, and undermine any possibility of workers organizing, these "free trade zone factories" are usually walled in and policed by armed guards – and employ a workforce that is young (18-25 on average), almost entirely female (80%), and far from home.

» The much-heralded claim that globalization will lead to development in poor countries and increases in wages is fundamentally contradicted by the logic and consequences of this global business model: a race to the bottom in which companies compete with one another at the expense of their workers.

» The Nike example is a case study in this logic of worker abuse: When Nike began buying its shoes, itfirst dealt with Japanese manufactures; when this became too expensive, Nike started giving contracts to Korea and Taiwan; when workers in these countries successfully fought for a basic standard of living, Nike and companies like Reebok cancelled contracts with factories in these countries and moved onto the Philippines, Vietnam and China – whose governments offered tax holidays, zero tariffs, and guarded factories.

» A key aspect of brand building is that it costs much more than just the cost of advertising the product:companies make the expensive choice to follow the Nike Paradigm and build their brands, and the moneyit requires costs workers dearly.

» Because their hard-won legal right to basic protections and a decent wage are seen as too expensive in this new global business climate, American and European workers become casualties of this paradigm as well.

» Job cuts and layoffs have destroyed American and European communities that were built aroundfactories and work, accompanied by a fundamental transformation in the very nature of work in thedeveloped world.

1. Klein talks about how the traditional relationship between products and brands has been turned upsidedown. She says there has been a shift from companies seeing their primary role as producing products and branding them with a corporate identity, to producing brands first.What does she mean by this? What examples does she use? Can you think of examples of your own?

2. How do Nike shoes fit into this new approach to branding? Specifically, how does the way Nike shoes are produced reflect this new branding logic?

3. What is the new "Nike Paradigm"? What role do specific contractors and sub-contractors play in this paradigm? What’s Nike’s role? Does Nike actually make their shoes, or do they buy them from others? And what differencedoes it make?

4. What is the motivation behind subscribing to this new Nike Paradigm? Why are so many companies following it? What are its advantages, from a business perspective?

5. What are the costs of the Nike Paradigm? What are the economic and social costs and consequences produced by this way of doing business – here in the U.S. and around the world?

6. What is the specific connection between the new corporate logic of the brand and wages paid to workers?

7.Why does Klein say that control is essential to the way products get produced for these global brand empires? What forms of control does she talk about?

8. How does Klein’s analysis of the reality of multinational corporate production contradict what has beenheralded as the promise of globalization? What, specifically, do people say is the promise of globalization?

9. Why have companies like Nike, Reebok and the Gap moved their production facilities around so much? Howhas the movement of production facilities affected American workers and American communities?

10. What has been the effect of all of this on the kinds of jobs people have in the U.S. and around the globe?

1. In Section II you created a brand. Now write up a strategy detailing how you will cover the costs associated with effectively marketing Brand X – keeping in mind that you’ll need to maintain a good chunk of the market over the long term if your brand is to be the next big thing! Will you have to rely on sweatshop labor as explained by Klein? Are the conditions in which these workers live and work contradictory to the lifestyle image behind your brand? How? Include this discussion as part of your report.

2. Klein argues that brand-based companies are not about products but about brands. To make up for the exorbitant amounts of money they spend on marketing their brand, companies usually pay and invest inworkers as little as possible to cut costs and increase profits. A key question is this: Why would workers stand for this? If it is so bad, why wouldn’t they just organize to better their work and living conditions?