Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World

Ronald E. Goldsmith

Journal of Product & Brand Management

ISSN: 1061-0421

Article publication date: 1 December 2003

406

Keywords

Citation

Goldsmith, R.E. (2003), "Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 12 No. 7, pp. 492-495. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420310506056

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited


What do product and brand managers need to know about today’s consumer environment? How have things changed in recent years? Which strategies are most likely to succeed with twenty‐first century consumers? These are some of the questions addressed by Michael Solomon in his new book. His answers comprise a wide‐ranging discussion of recent consumer trends and developments that have changed the marketing environment in many ways. His entertaining and informative book acts as a guide through the often confusing and intricate world of consumers, a world so different that it needs a new term to describe it: “consumerspace”.

So, what does the term refer to? Solomon’s thesis is that the familiar marketing perspective in which advertising and other promotions are directed toward passive consumers in hope of persuading them to buy brands has been fundamentally transformed in several interrelated ways. First, consumers increasingly buy brands not so much for what they do (their functionality) but for what they represent and say about their owners: “Today, we use products to define ourselves and others” (p. xi). Second, the role of the consumer has changed from that of a passive recipient of marketing and promotional messages to that of a participant in the process of developing marketing and branding strategies. In the new consumerspace, “firms partner with customers to develop brand personalities and create interactive fantasies. The winners understand that we buy products because of what they mean, rather than what they do” (p. xi). Third, the relationship between marketing and consumers has changed so that strategies go beyond linking brands to affective images (the Marlboro Man, Nike); today, brands have become the “preeminent symbols of contemporary consumer culture” (p. 33). Moreover, consumers participate with marketers in creating hyperreality, where brands go beyond representing underlying references and merge with them, so that “the true relationship between the symbol and reality is no longer possible to discern. The symbol becomes the reality …” (p. 30).

In this new consumerspace, brands, symbols, and products are created from existing images that have nothing to do originally with products (e.g. a book of Aunt Bee’s favorite recipes from The Andy Griffith Show and Heidiland, a region in Switzerland created to celebrate the fictional heroine and attract tourists). Brands are becoming embedded in rituals and myths that serve purposes beyond their functional uses. Advertising and other promotional messages have become ubiquitous and are increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life. The worlds of fiction and non‐fiction are gradually merging. Brands are becoming, in this argument, a principal way of defining self, representing or symbolizing self, and giving meaning to life.

Consumerspace can be described as “an advertising vehicle built around reality. Our allegiances to sneakers, musicians, or even soft drinks help us to define our place in modern society. These choices also help each of us to form ties with others who share similar preferences” (p. 39). Building on Belk’s theory of the extended self, Solomon presents a comprehensive argument that brands are important not just because they are part of who we are, but also because they help us play our societal roles and ally with others in brand and product defined social groups. He places particular emphasis on youth markets and stresses the transnational nature of this phenomenon.

Subsequent chapters elaborate these themes, discussing how consumers are increasingly participating with marketers in developing hyperreality, going beyond simple consumer relationship management to becoming codesigners of products. The spreading practice of personalizing marketing strategies (one‐to‐one marketing) is interwoven into this discussion. Research examples that show how marketers have implemented these strategies enhance the value of this book. A great deal of emphasis is also given to the Internet and its role in consumerspace. These sections are particularly informative; they illustrate how ingenious marketers can use the new technologies to create competitive advantage.

Chapters are devoted to the Disneyfication of reality or the creation of shopping venues that incorporate many of the reality altering aspects of Disney World, and to consumers’ shopping behavior and experiences in these new environments, both on and off‐line. The book concludes with a discussion of the downside of consumerspace. These are issues of consumer backlash and anti‐business terrorism, anticonsumption, privacy issues, and stresses caused by too many choices and an inability to escape from the marketing created world of consumerspace.

Conquering Consumerspace is written in a readable, journalist style, befitting the intent to present these issues to a wide audience of both managers and general readers. It contains a good index and references. It could be used in either undergraduate classes in policy or business issues, ethics, or advertising. MBA classes in marketing strategy or branding will find a host of compelling ideas not available in the usual textbooks. Overall, Solomon has done his readers a favor by compiling and synthesizing a large body of disparate information into a thought‐provoking book.

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