How come it seems like even the coolest new marketing strategies are chasing trends instead of inventing them?
Rob Walker, who writes a column on consumer culture called Consumed in the New York Times magazine (it's dim bulb quality stuff), seems to be a firm believer in marketers' ability to do otherwise. His new book, enttitled "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are"gives mucho credit to members of our guild, citing an innovation he calls murketing as our latest and greatest trade secret.
Murketing is the delivery of branding in a consciously non, or anti-branding manner. Marketing that overtly declares that it's not marketing is still marketing and, according to Walker, it works miraculously.
He recaps an example of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, which found bike messengers, tree huggers, and other non-conformists embracing its products because its marketing was so bad or otherwise invisible. Pabst embraced these consumers and sponsored activities that mattered to them.but did so with such guile that those consumers thought it was organic and non-corporate.
Anti-branding as branding. Either consumers are really, really dumb, or marketers are really, really smart. Or both.
I say neither.
Matketers don't invent trends, we follow them, and branding seems almost dependent upon attaching itself to something that has been established, promoted, and/or embraced independently of it. Marketing -- or murketing, as Walker has labeled it -- is not an originator of content, but rather a fast follower.
A parasite on the host of reality, as it were. Whatever trend we exploit tends to get less cool because of our involvement, no matter how surreptitious, and fizzles out faster when we fund them.
I think I'd put a lot more credence into the precepts of branding if it truly contributed new or unique conect to the experience of our lives. The fact that enterprising companies can murket their way into trends or pre-established routines isn't evidence of innovation or creativity as much as cress consumer exploitation. And the idea that people are susceptible to it is downright troubling.
It's just not that easy.
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