Conformity and Marketing, Part Two

Quote of the day:
“The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.”
--Bill Nye

Among consumers, the need for increasing precision in marketing creates an obsessive anxiety, centered on always needing to be better and needing to have more. This feeds our perfectionism--our vague but strong sense that there is a special, joyous place we are heading for.

Of course, this perfectionism can never be satisfied, resulting in an infinite loop of distraction, dissatisfaction, anger, depression and other illness.

Among producers, the need for increasing precision in marketing results in an ongoing stream of increasingly-specific and disposable research and consulting, conducted by young, finely-tuned, highly-paid MBAs.

Some brands are able to succeed marvelously at precision marketing. We can think of the exemplars of both consumer and producer conformity, and how they are held up as idols, with extraordinary value beyond the intended purpose of what they represent.

Hummer, Bose, Abercrombie and Fitch, Viking, and Rolex are a few examples. So is a particular vision of America.