How Does `Lifestyle' Branding and Marketing Add Value to Products and Services from the Perspective of Consumers?

• Consumer culture and consumerism how it has evolved and how it will affect the future. • How people across all cultures are very similar and the effects this has on consumerism. Bibliography (Initial Research Not Complete) Ethan Gilsdorf, Behind 'The Terminal,' a true story, The Christian Science Monitor, June 21, 2004, Accessed November, 12 2015. Gauntlett, David. (2002), Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, London and New York: Routledge, pp.96-97 Giddens, A. (1991), Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age, Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 53 Horwood, L. (1999), ‘Analyzing American Popular Culture’, School of International Education: Contemporary Societies and Cultures, The University College of Ripon & York: St. John, p.

Influence can cause some behavior in some person for a specific purpose based on a power base.

In this reading, I will be discussing the different categories in which advertisers have placed consumers to distinguish them from one another using their values, attitudes, and life-style. According to the writer of American culture and advertisement James B. Twitchell, “the object of much consumer research is not to try to twist their feathers so that they will flock to your product, but to position your product in such a place that they will have to fly by it and perhaps stop to roost. After roosting, they will eventually think that this is part of their flyway and return to it again and again” (p. 178). The proposition of stereotyping consumer lifestyles is a very effective way of marketing goods and services. The VALS2 strategy of marketing segment, target, and position used by advertisers is based on research; which means, marketers know more about consumer behaviors than what we think. This is an important issue because it’s necessary to raise awareness in society about the advantages and disadvantages that this can bring. After having evaluated all given points; this article is an eye opener for those who have any doubts about what consumers mean to large companies and advertisers.

Pepsi or Coke? Apple or Android? Starbucks or Tim Hortons? These are seemingly insignificant choices between products; however, taken together they structure the lives of individuals. To reduce brands to anything less would be to negate the significance they hold in the fabric of individual’s lives. What is important, then, is to uncover the ways in which certain brands weave their way into this fabric through their advertising practices and promotional culture. This paper begins with a brief historical outline of consumer culture and it’s ties to neoliberalism, and then moves to an in depth exploration of the way in which companies work to create and maintain a positive brand image among consumers. Through a focus on branding, versus product-specific advertising, companies work to create attachments and emotional bonds, effectively creating a loyal and invested customer base. Corporations draw upon established systems of meaning, selling consumer’s values and beliefs back to them in the form of a brand. This process is not unidirectional, operating simultaneously through individual consent and participation. In our modern, neoliberal market place, notions of individuality have positioned “the choosing self at the center of consumer culture”, and individuals seek self-fulfillment and satisfaction from “active lifestyle choices” (Arvidsson, 2001, p. 48). The self has come to be defined by the brands one identifies with.

In the selection “Groups and Conformity" by Michael R. Solomon, he talks about how people in groups are more influential than an individual person would be. When a person basically changes their attitude or behavior just to fit into a group is a reference group. There are three forms of reference group’s influence. The first one is informational influence. With this influence, people seek out information on different products before they buy the product. The second one is utilitarian influence. In this influence, before people make a decision on a product, they go to family or friends and see what they think of the product first. The third one is value-expressive influence. In this influence, people feel like they will be more successful when

“12 Angry Men” is a movie about a group of jurors whose job is to decide the guilt or innocence of an accused murder. A teenage boy is accused of killing his father, there are two eyewitnesses who claims that they have both seen and heard the murder. In the beginning of the movie, eleven of the twelve jurors vote guilty. Throughout the movie we witness a discussion where juror number 8 is able to sway the other jurors to change their mind and decide to vote not-guilty. This movie exemplifies many social psychology theories such as groupthink and conformity.

For years brands have marketed their products in alignment with our values such as family, money and

The author James B. Twitchell identifies consumerism as being the next evolution of our social behavior. “In our postmodern world we have, it seems, exchanged knowledge of history and science for knowledge of products and how such products interlock to form coherent social patterns” he asserts (Twitchell 321). The implication is that, where we used to rely on crafting items and learning skills for ourselves, we instead find that technological progress has now enhanced the means of production to be so efficient that the value we provide to one another now is not by what we can offer, but by what we decide to buy. These purchase trends are used as a means of forming social connections, and I agree. I have personally observed consumption trends lead to social connections. Certain cultures and sub-cultures have specific styles or looks associated with them. Like-minded or similar interested people can easily identify each other. If an individual is impassioned by rap music, he or she consumes certain brands and types of goods that another person, who’s enthusiastic about country music, would refrain from acquiring.

This article is useful as it discusses gender representation in lifestyle branding using a post feminist economic critique.

In her analysis of Fight Club, Renee Lockwood identifies the defining role that consumerism plays in establishing modern identity asserting that “modern consumers able to choose from a vast range of identities through products and labels” (Lockwood, 2008, p. 329.). Explicit examples of society’s dependency on consumerism is constantly portrayed through makeovers, where an individual gains a plethora of confidence and social acceptance through the modification of their sense of dress. Thus, we live in a world defined almost entirely by what we own hence the propensity for people to change their identity from time to time.

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

On the other hand, informational social influence involves situations where an individual may choose to agree with others, especially the majority, due to high levels of trust that the majority have more social power through information and knowledge regarding a particular issue as compared to the individual on him/herself. In addition, in situations of crisis, people also tend to associate and exhibit

Consumerism and the effects of branding affect people’s lives. Branding allows consumers to easily identify which products are made by which companies. Yet, the brands create more of an influence on consumer’s lifestyles and in the end decide what kind of consumer that person is. Branding creates a blurred divide in our society. Consumers who are ore likely to purchase the branded products that are associated with better quality and higher prices are put into their own category bucket versus the consumers who choose the cheaper priced products that are made with less quality. When it comes to deciding who you are based off of the products and brands that you associate yourself with, it creates a capital divide in our society. Consumers than associate brands with personal feelings based upon whether or not they associate themselves with those brands. Lives of consumers are heavily influenced. Their lives are worse off when they feel the need to ‘keep up’ with brands in order to feel as if they are portraying themselves in the best light. In a way, this is similar to how all of branding began with livestock. Consumers want to physically brand themselves with specific brands by wearing logos and identifying with a brand. They might not be burning the brands directly onto their skin but they are burning the brands onto their clothes and burning holes in their wallets to keep up with society standards about brands.

Brand consultant and strategist Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults loftily terms it "nichevertise vs massvertise". According to him the luxury brands are not for mass consumption and shouldn 't be mass advertised. The social circuit gives them a fresh channel to reach out to their target audience without any noise. "The socialite model of marketing targets the guest lists minus the hard sell," he says.

In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns