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

304 Pages·2008·10.22 MB·English

by  Rob Walker

B U Y I N G
I N
THE SECRET DIALOGUE BETWEEN
WHAT WE BUY AND WHO WE ARE
Rob Walker
New York Times Magazine
"Consumed" columnist
B
rands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned
on liVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies,
the short-attention-span generation has become immune to
marketing. Consumers are "in control." Or so we're told.
In Buying In, New York Times Magazine "Consumed"
columnist Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom
misses a much more important and lasting cultural
shift. As technology has created avenues for advertising
anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands
more than ever before-creating brands of their own and
participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite
brands in unprecedented ways. Increasingly, motivated
consumers are pitching in to spread the gospel virally,
whether by creating Internet video ads for Converse All
Stars or becoming word-of-mouth "agents" touting products
to friends and family on behalf of huge corporations. In
the process, they-we-have begun to funnel cultural,
political, and community activities through connections
with brands.
Walker explores this changing cultural landscape
including a practice he calls "murketing," blending the
terms murky and marketinrby introducing us to the
creative marketers, entrepreneurs, artists, and community
organizers who have found a way to thrive within it. Using
profiles of brands old and new, including limberland,
American Apparel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Bull, iPod,
and Livestrong, Walker demonstrates the ways in which
buyers adopt products, not just as consumer choices, but
as conscious expressions of their identities.
Part marketing primer, part work of cultural anthro
pology, Buying In reveals why now, more than ever, we are
what we buy- and vice versa.
ROB WALKER writes the weekly column "Consumed," a
blend of business journalism and cultural anthropology,
for The New York Times Magazine. Previously, he created
and wrote the popular "Ad Report Card" column for Slate,
and he has contributed to a wide range of publications,
from Fast Company and Fortune to The New Republic
and AdBusters. Walker continues to write about the secret
dialogue between what we buy and who we are at his own
website, Murketing.com. He lives in Savannah, Georgia,
with his wife, photographer Ellen Susan.
Jacket design: Christopher Sergio
Jacket photograph: fingerprint C> Oorting Kindersleyl
Getty Images
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e 2008 by Random House, Inc.
•
In
I
the secret dialogue between
what we buy and who we are
rob walker
Copyright©2008byRobWalker
Allrightsreserved.
PublishedintheUnitedStatesbyRandom
House,animprintofTheRandomHouse
PublishingGroup.adivisionofRandomHouse,
Inc..NewYork.
RANDOMHOUSEandcolophonareregistered
trademarksofRandomHouse,Inc.
ISBN978-I-4000-639I-8
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
www.atrandom.com
I23456789
FirstEdition
BookdesignbyLizCosgrove
contents
introduction xi
part one I the desire code 1
one . . .ThePrettyGoodProblem 3
two ... TheStrawManintheGrayFlannelSuit 21
three . . . RationaleThinking 35
four . .. IgnoringtheJoneses 51
I
part two murketing 71
five . . .ChuckTaylorWasaSalesman 79
six . .. Rebellion, Unsold 96
seven . . . Click 115
eight. . .VeryReal 134
nine . . .TheMurkiestCommonDenominator 145
ten . . .TheCommercializationofChitchat 165
eleven . .. TheBrandUnderground 189
part three I invisible badges 209
twelve MurketingEthics 215
thirteen What'stheMatterwithWal·MartShoppers? 230
fourteen . . . BeyondtheThingItself 249
acknowledgments 263
additionalsourcenotes 265
index 275
introduction
Imaginethatyou'rethirsty.
That shouldn't be too hard to do-it's a basic human condition
thatprettymuch everyone, across everyculture, has experienced. It
is a signal from the body calling for hydration, a fundamental
humanneed.
But never mindwhatyou needwhen you are thirsty. Any casual
visittoagrocerystoreorevenagas stationfood martoffers ariotof
choices; we all know about the awesome variety that contemporary
consumercultureoffers.Whatdoyouwant?Whatareyouthirstyfor,
exactly?
OnedayinDecember2001, ItraveledtoMiamiBeach,wherethe
skieswere clearandtheweatherwaswarm. Iwas theretowork-,-to
coverwhatwas essentiallyamarketing stunton behalfofRed Bull,
theenergydrink. Atthetime,thecorporateownersofRedBullwere
stillin the early stages ofintroducing their product, and the idea of
energy drinks in general, to the American marketplace. In other
words, Red Bull offered a new answer to the question ofwhat we
mightbethirstyfor.
Backthen, theproceedingsmadenosensetomeatall. Themar
keting stunt involved a small group ofextreme-sports enthusiasts
xii introduction
who were planning to ride wind-powered kiteboards eighty-eight
milesfrom KeyWesttoVaradero, Cuba. Iwaslivingin NewOrleans
atthetime, and I'djuststartedto seeRedBullpoppingupinbarsin
the FrenchQuarter. Sowhatwasthis stuff,andwhowas itsupposed
to be for-athletes or barflies? Why weren't there any ads making
the answerclear? To compound the weirdness, even this kiteboard
ingexercise,whichIhadassumedwasdesignedtoattractmaximum
free publicity, seemed instead to be happening in a void: I was the
onlyjournalistonhand, andtherewereno spectatorsorevenasign
toattractthem. Itseemedtomethatthewholeideaofsellingaprod
uct involved making a case to the public about why we should buy
it-why this was the stuff to quench our thirst. In contrast, Red
Bull'smarketingseemedsomurkythatImadeupawordtodescribe
it: murketing.
ItturnedoutthatthemurketingofRed Bullworked. Intheyears
since my trip to Miami Beach, the stuff has gone mainstream:
Previously unknown in the United States, energy drinks are now a
$3.7 billioncategorywith hundreds ofcompetitors, ledby Red Bull.
How did that happen? I don't mean in the descriptive sense ofa
brand's or a product's movement from one group ofconsumers to
another,untilitbecomesfamiliartoalmosteverybody. Imeanonan
individual level. We all have our thirsts-real and metaphorical.
Howdowedecidewhatwill quenchthemandwhatwon't? Howare
those decisions affectedbythe commercialpersuasionindustryand
the billions it spends to influence us? And how is the relationship
betweenus andthose "branding" professionals differentnowfrom,
say, inthe days beforeweknewwhat Red Bullwas?
That's whatthisbookis about: the secretdialoguebetweenwhat
webuyandwhowe are, andhowitis changing.
I use the word dialogue because what I'm talking about is not a
one-wayprocess. It's notsimplyabouttheintrinsicelementsof, say,
Red Bull. It's not just about what a product is made ofor what it's
supposedtodo. Norisitjustaboutabrandimagethatisinventedby
experts andfoisted onthe masses, who swallowitwhole. Anyprod-
introduction xiii
uct or brand that catches on in the marketplace does so because of
us: because enoughofus decidedthat ithadvalue or meaning and
chosetoparticipate. Becauseofthedialoguebetweenconsumerand
consumed.
I use the word secret because the way that dialogue plays out is
anything but explicit. It's complex, subtle, and sometimes mislead
ing. And I suggestthat it's changing because in theyears since my
trip to Miami Beach, where I first puzzled over how we choose to
quench our thirsts, real and metaphorical, that secret dialogue has
gottenmurkierthan ever.
Backthen, the mechanics ofmarketingwas a newsubjectfor me. I
was writing about advertising for the online magazine Slate, but
strictly from a consumer point ofview, treating ads more as an ex
tensionofpopculturethanas abusiness. MyreportingonRed Bull
involvedthefirstofwhatwouldbecomemanyexaminationsofprod
uctorbrandsuccess,lookingatboththebuyersandthesellers.And
itturnedouttobeaninterestingmomenttostartpayingattentionto
the relationship between the commercial persuasion industry and
the rest ofus. Soonthe steadymarch ofprogress that had been re
shapingmediaandtechnologyforyearsbrokeintoasprint,through
therapidriseofdevicesandinnovationslikeTiVo,theiPod,increas
ingly sophisticated cell phones, YouTube, Facebook, and so on. The
landscapeseemedtobechangingeveryday.
Byearly2004, Iwaswritingaboutallofthisonaweeklybasis,in
acolumnfor The New York Times Magazine, called "Consumed." As
with my earlier commercial critiques for Slate, my perspective still
tiltedtowardconsumers,butIwaspayingalotmoreattentiontothe
commercialpersuasionsideofthedialogue,aswellastothemarket
ing experts and consumer-culture observers and whatthey had to
sayaboutwhatwas changing.
According to many ofthem, this new landscape not only had
changed the commercial persuasion business, it had changed us.
Weconsumershadbecomefundamentallydifferentfrom priorgen-
xiv introduction
erations. Pliable citizens of the old "passive couch-potato" nation
had taken in advertising like an order: After repeated exposure to a
particular thirty-second TV commercial, the consumer ofthe past
wouldcompliantly"gooutlikeanandroidandbuyDowny"orwhat
ever,as onenew-technologyguruputit.
Butright around the turn ofthe twenty-firstcentury, this line of
thinkingwent, a"newconsumer"hadstartedto appear. Bythetime
I started writing "Consumed," this clever new creature had been
armed with all kinds ofdazzling technology, from ad-blocking giz
mos to alternative, grassroots media. This addedup towhat profes
sionalzeitgeistwatchersliketo call "aparadigmshift." "Consumers
don't march inlockstep anymore," one celebratedtrend masterde
clared. "We are immune to advertising," other experts announced.
Themindless"massmarket"hadbeenshoulderedasidebythinking
individuals: "Consumersarefleeingthemainstream." Somehowwe
had all become more or less impervious to marketing and brands
andlogos; wecouldseethroughcommercialpersuasion. It'sas ifthe
fundamentals ofhuman cognitionwere getting rewired, upgraded,
andreplacedas quicklyas thelatestBlackBerryvariation.
Theonlyproblemwiththistheorywasthatitdidnotmatchuppar
ticularlywell,with the realities ofthe marketplace that Iwas writing
about everyweek in the Times Magazine. That disconnect-between
thetheories IwashearingandthebehaviorIwasseeing-iswhatled
me towritethis book. Ihave cometo seethe mythologyofthe "new
consumer" as counterproductive-bothfor marketers and, more im
portant,fortherestofus.
I do think there is real change going on and that it can affect
everythingfromoursenseofindividualitytothewaywedefinecom
munity(andhowwebalancethosenotions). Butifyoureallywantto
understand it, then you have to start by understanding what isn't
going to change. This is the starting point in unraveling the secret
dialoguebetweenwhatwebuyandwhoweare.
The first section of this book, then, is about what I call "the
Desire Code." Cracking itinvolves afew steps. The first is figuring