Buying In - (Page xiv) xiv rob walker ing branding. It was about reinventing it and maybe even revitalizing it. They were in the vanguard of what looks an awful lot like an increasingly widespread consumer embrace of branded, commercial culture. More and more people of all ages are, in a variety of ways, actually participating in new forms of marketing, from signing up with “word of mouth” firms to spread the news about some new product the firm represents or submitting their own home-brew advertisements on behalf of well-known consumer brands. The modern relationship between consumer and consumed—what I’m calling murketing—is defined not by rejection at all, but rather by frank complicity. This is something we have to come to grips with if we want to figure out how consumer culture is really evolving—and how it can evolve. That’s the subject of the book’s final section: how the future of consumer culture might shape—and be shaped by—businesses, communities, and individuals. “I’m not much of a consumer.” People say that to me all the time. I guess nobody wants to define himself or herself as “a consumer,” because it feels a little trivial. Still, once whoever I’m listening to has established the necessary nonconsumer credentials, what usually follows is an opinion about a product or brand that I’ve written about lately. If it’s something that she would not personally buy, then she’s amazed anyone would; if it’s something that he has personally bought, then he assures me that I failed to capture the real quality or style or excellence of whatever it was. Obviously, we’re all consumers. And probably we all think we’re better at playing the consumption game than most peo-
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