I’m with the brand as, it seems, we all are
Are we at the mercy of the consumer-manipulating ‘hidden persuaders’ who so bombard us with brand marketing images that we are brainwashed, numbed, categorized, relationship-managed and ultimately forced to part with our money to buy ‘brands’? It’s one view. Do we only choose ‘brands’ in order to impress our friends: to mark our status in the world?
Or is there something much more complex than status at work when we not only choose brands, but actually seek them out. According to Rob Walker’s I’m With the Brand there is something quite fundamentally human at work.
In this fascinating journey through what he calls ‘murketing’ (murky marketing) he not only demonstrates that we are attracted irresistibly towards brands, but that this is a core part of what makes us human. We seek meaning, we create and cling to narrative, we have always fashioned and communed around symbols, totems and mythologies.
Walker sums up his premise thus: “I found it tempting at first to conclude that consumers reach for these commercial symbols because we live in a world riddled with logos. But eventually I realized that maybe I had the cause and effect backward. Maybe we live in a world riddled with logos because symbols are something we enjoy, desire, and even need.”
That doesn’t make all brand-behaviour admirable or even ethical of course: but it certainly undermines the all-too-easy notion that brands are necessarily a negative.
From trainer-hunters to the beer-choice of students, from the blank canvas of Hello Kitty and the strange (apparent) anti-marketing behaviour of Red-Bull, to the white headphones of the iPod, Walker travels the contemporary brand world trying to figure out why we make our meanings this way.
Whether you’re interested in advertising and marketing, or in contemporary culture and trends, I’m With the Brand is one of the year’s most stimulating and refreshing business books.
