Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

Citation

Singh, R. (2009), "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 160-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420910949095

If you are thirsty‐how do you know if it is a real or a metaphorical thirst? So, to quench your thirst, would you reach for a glass of water or a can of Red Bull?

The answer to that was witnessed in December 2001 in form of a marketing stunt carried out by a small group of extreme‐sports enthusiasts by riding the wind‐powered kiteboards 88 miles from Key West to Varadero in Cuba, an unusual and unprecedented event underwritten by the Red Bull brand. Welcome to the world of “murketing”!

In a gripping narration of a chain of exciting brand‐building stories from the world of brand marketing, comes this unusually refreshing book that demolishes the myth that brand building is a top‐down approach driven by marketers, even though the consumers are seeking greater control. Instead Buying In argues that consumers transfer the meaning to the brand they use, rather than the brand transferring its meaning to them. This realisation is an eye‐opening one, despite being disconcerting at first. This transference of meaning from the consumer to the brand and not vice‐versa, is leading to reduced effectiveness of the traditional media like television (where ads can just be TiVoed away), and therefore advertising is fast losing its sheen and magic which it once enjoyed. Instead, honest word‐of‐mouth publicity (most often free) from enthusiastic consumers who tout zealously about the brands, works successfully in brand building.

Murketing (a composite of murky and marketing), a term coined by Mr Walker himself, is about the murkiness in the marketing efforts of the companies. “Murky”, Walker argues, consists of two parts: the first part is:

The increasingly sophisticated tactics of marketers who blur the line between branding channels and everyday life (p. xvii) part 1.

The second part consists of the, “consumer side of the dialogue.” The entire premise of the book rests on the claim that this second part is what makes the consumers transfer meaning to brands and this is what gives them their identity. If this book's claim to fame is restricted to a single USP, it would be that of providing compelling argument and evidence to support the existence of a junction where the culture of consumption meets the consumer's identity.

Throughout the book, the author describes how the well known brands like Timberland, Red Bull, PBR, Apple iPod, P&G, and Walt Disney designed and executed their murketing efforts. He also includes extremely detailed narratives about the brand building exercise of not so well known commercial brands like NY, Ecko, American Apparel, SweatX, Barking Irons and various others, who tread on the path of murketing by listening to their customers closely, and let them consume and share their experience to others of their ilk.

Interestingly though, the book claims that there are no hidden persuaders in the outside world, but only inside the consumers' minds. Therefore, it is important for marketers to understand the secret dialogue that goes within the consumers' minds, while consuming the branded products. Another important notion that the book challenges is that of the “anti‐brands” themselves. Walker argues that smart young people are not immune to commercial persuasion of the marketers nor are they rejecting brands as such. Instead, many of these consumers are actively participating in revitalizing and reinventing many of the brands. In an interesting anecdote, the author describes how Coke trounced its unbranded self, because branded Coke was chosen over an unbranded drink (which was Coke itself). This underscores the importance that consumers attach to brands over unbranded products. The Coke brand, he argues, is the cultural information that affects how consumers seek to define their identity in their minds.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one consists of four chapters group under the theme called “Desire code”. Part two consists of seven chapters under the theme labelled “murketing” and the third part consists of three chapters labelled as “Invisible badges”. In total, 14 chapters seem like a series of interesting narratives full of anecdotes and examples from the real‐life world of branding. Such narratives describe the consumers lapping up the brands, giving meaning to the brands manufactured by someone else, standing up for the marketing ethics yet not being ready to pay for it, and commercializing their chit chat with their friends or peers which made them feel, “You don't know what I know” (p. 176). Such involvement with the brands reinforces consumers' identity through a complex interrelationship of one‐upmanship and belongingness to a group, supported and promoted by the marketers, for their profit objectives. Each of the 14 chapters is named very interestingly. For example the first chapter is named “The pretty good problem” that challenges the notion of rational thinking. Chapter 2 is named, “The straw man in the grey flannel suit”, chapter 3, “Rational thinking”, chapter 4 “Ignoring the Joneses”. Other interesting chapters' names include “Chuck Taylor was a salesman” (chapter 5), “The murkiest common denominator” (chapter 9), and, “The brand underground” (chapter 11).

Rob Walker, who has earned a reputation from writing a weekly column “Consumed” for the New York Times magazine, has displayed a deadly combination of business journalism and cultural anthropology, by weaving a new fabric of post‐modern consumer culture in the book. Buying In is for everyone who is interested in understanding how the culture of consumption is changing and how it affects the branding efforts of the marketing companies. It is especially recommended for all brand management experts, including the brand managers, advertising gurus, media planners, and market research agencies, who have high stakes in understanding how, where, why and when consumer take purchase and consumption decisions. However Buying In stops short of explaining why the murketing only works successfully with smart and young consumers and not the older generations of consumers. In that sense, one question that still remains unanswered even after reading the book, is why does murketing appeal only to young consumers who are constantly reinforcing their identities using brands as a medium?

The biggest takeaway of the book is literally at the end of the book where Rob Walker states:

You are only what you surround yourself with? No. You surround yourself only with who you are (p. 261).