Reading 16

Bernard Cova

Modernism

• Emerged in affluent countries in 1800’s• Rule of reason and establishment of rational

order• Emergence of the freed subject, liberating

humanity from ignorance and irrationality

Postmodernism

• New models of the new millennium• “Fragmentation, indeterminacy, intense

distrust of all universal or totalizing discourses”

• Pluralities dominate

Impact on marketing

• Focus on sub-cultures and tribalism• Active customization• Fragmentation versus globalization• “Hyper-reality” – experiencing reality through

simulacrums– Disney, IMAX, reality shows on TV– Second Life on the Web

• Consumers buy the “symbolic meaning” of the product as well as the actual product

Post-modern recognized

• Consumers shift product meanings to fit their own self image

• Study the consumers as someone seeking to construct symbols, not someone seeking to satisfy needs

• The homogeneous “I” – individualism to an extreme

• Reforming into new social links and tribes

Impact on brands

• Creating a brand identity and brand meaning• Regis McKenna – participatory marketing• Demise of traditional advertising• Marketing redefined – the site for negotiation

of meanings between the company and the consumer

• By selecting brands, people build their identities in a post-modern world