Post-Modernism and its Impact on Current Marketing Thought - Essay Example

Post-Modernism and its Impact on Current Marketing Thought POSTMODERNISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MARKETING THOUGHT Introduction Shams (2013: p48) contends that in order to recognize the new conditions and shifts that post-modernism offers, it is important to first focus on the modernist era’s conditions. The modernist era was mainly focused on objective reality beliefs, dualistic forms of thought, mastery of nature by man, material progress, discovery of truth mainly through science, and the sovereignty of the individual’s reasoning. During this era, marketing and its success was dependent on product acceptance. It was based on the belief that consumer value materializes from the benefits attributable to the product and subsequent consumer satisfaction (Andersen, 2010: p45). Therefore, it is acceptable to claim that consumers would be expected to carry out economic and rational behaviour in choosing products using criteria based on an objective evaluation. However, according to Ellis et al (2011: p45), post-modernist perspectives on marketing, in contrast, adhere to the viewpoint that there exists no single correct and universal scientific method. In contrast to modernity’s subjective “knowing”, the latter views the consumer as being actively involved in communicating their preferred social reality (Ozuem, 2013: p55), instead of passive inheritance of social reality constructed sans their participation. This increased role of the consumer, however, does not diminish the role of marketing because, as stated by Hunt and Morgan (1995: p5), consumers still have imperfect information about products that might match their tastes and preferences and, thus, their preferred social reality. Impact of Post-modern Ideas on the Development of Marketing Ideas and Practices Consumers in the post-modern era explore a more eclectic product combination to experience inconsistent and tentative identities (Dawes & Brown, 2010: p93). A consumer can purchase a product from an upscale retailer and another from a bargain sale, which acts as an example of fragmentation occurring within the consumers “self” dependent on varying contexts. Marketers, therefore, would be wasting time in attaching meaning to goods and services they offer to such a fragmented consumer, especially since meanings are contextual. Thus, marketers are being forced to abandon the modernism-era consumer who was goal-oriented and rational for the post-modernism-era consumer who samples and browses, as well as experiments with relationships and identities. As contended by Hirt (2009: p253), the post-modern experience is one of participation, in which creation of product value is done during consumption, instead of during production. The success of marketing in this era is dependent on the adoption of strategies that seek to empower consumers in becoming marketing partners as significant participants in self-image and experience construction. This will require marketers to focus on the feelings of consumers in time-dependent consumption, instead of objective and rational evaluations (Proctor & Kitchen, 2012: p148). In this case, consumers are no longer defined by assessment of costs against benefits, but through consumption experiences. The consumer’s participation and fragmentation can be characterized best by media, especially through the aspect in which bits of media do not make up the whole media (Ratneshwar et al, 2013: p43). For example, ads on TV disintegrate signifiers of culture to float in a loose space, emphasizing on surface and style, instead of consequentialism or utilitarianism. Thus, the form and style are given more importance than product benefits or physical-attribute references. In this case, the marketer using free-floating signifiers can imbue the ads with reinforced or novel meanings, which are representative of multiple positions and ideas. Creation and use of multiple self-images is, therefore, possible to maintain using ads, leaving the consumer to figure out what they really represent. One way to achieve this, according to Smith (2010: p144), is through the combination of irrelevant messages, contradictory themes, and opposite symbols. The marketer will then leave the consumer to attach their own feelings and experiences to what is in the ad, as well as to come up with a creative meaning for the goods and services. It can also be said that another approach to post-modernism is characterized by the celebration of scepticism, irony, subversiveness, anarchy, irony, style, paradox, self-referentiality, spectacle, and, especially, hostility towards generalizations (Brown, 1993: p21) Marketing to Post-modern Consumers Consumers in the post-modern era are providing both challenges and opportunities to marketers as majority are involved in consumption within a world of fragmented markets and media. Post-modernism is mainly focused on the choice of consumers, continuous change in relation to product availability and patterns of consumption, and status-quo challenging marketing practices (Dasgupta, 2014: p62). The consumer in post-modernism purchases and consumes fashions and commodities that enable them to adopt temporary and multiple self-images. Marketing to this consumer will require recognition of the fact that they pride themselves on their ability to resist courtship in traditional marketing, as well as the allure of branding. Rather, there is increasing tendency for this consumer to favour brands without unique selling points (Featherstone, 2011: p29). For example, Coca-Cola’s tagline “Coke is it” and Sprite’s slogan “Thirst is everything” are good instances of this trend. The post-modern consumer is full of contradictions since they emanate irritation and irony on one hand for the status quo, such as against the reality show phenomenon and soap opera traditions. On the other hand however, this consumer has strong patterns of - for the two genres of entertainment. In addition, this consumer is also attracted to hyper-realism or simulated reality. According to Brown (2012: p67), contextual reality and the participant subject result in hyper-reality, which is simulation-based reality that involves a situation that seems realer than what is real. Another contradiction present in the post-modern consumer is the topic of healthy living and eating, which is in contradiction to the increased popularity of snacks like smoothie. While many post-modern consumers will purchase these products, it can also be more satisfying and cheaper to make these products, even though it would be less convenient. This is evidence of a conflicted post-modern consumer who wants to have reality but is also happy to take up the creative marketer’s offer of hyper-reality (Hamouda & Gharbi, 2013: p39). One manifestation of this trend in post-modernism is Second Life, a virtual world created by Linden Lab, which is a hyper-real concept. Transactions are carried out through the Linden dollar, which can be exchanged at the rate of 267 Linden dollars for $1. This site is attractive because it allows the consumer to form their own avatar or persona, allowing them to customize appearance and persona with regards to clothes, make up, skin colour, and body shape. If the user feels that their self-image does not satisfy them, they can take on the persona of a functional action hero or alien. This is, again, evidence of temporary and transitory self-images that the post-modern consumer wants, which can be offered by the marketer. Parsons and Maclaran (2009: p38), in fact, contend that sceptical questioning is one characteristic of the post-modern era, in which there is a disintegration of grand meta-narratives. According to Tiwsakul & Hackley (2012: p491), marketers are continuously looking into this trend but there is a challenge with regards to possible strategic roles. Adidas and Nike have integrated this strategy in their virtual world that allows the consumer customize their own in-store shoes or training kits. From these examples, it becomes clear from a marketing point of view that post-modernism does not involve any single style or culture but, rather, has to do with a pluralism of genres and styles. This lack of any ideology that dominates society tends to be liberating, while also creating a feeling of insecurity for the consumer. This pluralism is evident in consumption and advertising and, in this case, the major conditions that marketers must be aware of are paradoxical juxtapositions, realization of value in the latter stages of the cycle of consumption, hyper-reality, and consumption. Thus, the consequences for consumer marketing and research have various aspects with marketing holding a vital responsibility in the giving more meaning to the consumer’s life via consumption. Value realization using the consumption function, rather than being a replacement for ideology, may eventually be regarded as consequentialist and practical. The consumer market in the post-modern era is momentary, hedonic, ego-centred, and superficial (Tiwsakul & Hackley, 2012: p491), which marketers must adapt to accordingly. Post-Modernist Analysis of United Colors of Benetton Campaign One of post-modern advertising’s most crucial aspects is its understanding of the subject’s capacity to interpret the message. By coupling the communicative interaction power of the post-modern era to capital through post-modern marketing and consumerism, a brand, can achieve impressive success. However, Morris (2005: p704) claims that the interpretive power and process can be considered autonomous of commodification, especially in the way that that they can be used under conditions of post-modernism for successful marketing purposes. The power of interpretability in post-modernism can be evidenced in the United Colors of Benetton campaign. This campaign began when the company adopted the United Colors of Benetton, herein referred to as UCB, as its logo and trademark officially in 1989, which continues to date in differentiated form and increased scope (Pagnucco, 2012: p72). The formal approach taken by this campaign fits into post-modern advertising’s general trend. It was the first ad campaign not to include the products of the company, instead only having the logo in a discrete location. Rather the ads had images of objects and/or people disseminated through print media and billboards. This was especially indicative of them new importance of trademark integrity and corporate branding with the clothes being an unnecessary and minimal detail in the branding (Tinic, 2007: p7). Benetton’s campaigns have since been distinguished from product advertising with product advertising being more conventional and the campaigns being the main method of branding. The product behind the image in post-modernist campaigns like Benetton disappears from the campaign with the most interesting detail being simultaneous appropriation of social and political issues as major themes, of which the campaign promotion is associated centrally with the goals of the company (Tabor, 2010: p38). While the company’s final goal is to sell products, its consistent claim is the promotion of social justice. The campaign also exclusively focuses on images with explanatory press releases and commentaries released to the public, which they do using infrastructure from partner institutions. Benetton supports and sponsors numerous groups and causes related to social justice, while their communication’s research centre now conducts all ads for the company and other international organizations like the WHO and UN. This campaign, therefore, is indicative on the emphasis on image that is common in post-modernism, especially in their appropriation of social causes and symbolic politics to drive their commercial business (Borgerson et al, 2009: p212). In the beginning, the campaign featured multi-cultural groups showing friendship to each other and belying the stubborn and violent political situations characteristic of these groups, such as Jews and Palestinians being friendly. The idea for their campaign is to suggest that opposition and violence accompanying these groups should be overcome, representing the post-modern utopian principle of hope through ideas and images (Polegato & Bjerke, 2009: p387). The next phase of the campaign involved graphic and highly shocking images, which Stadler (2009: p603) referred to as hyper-real images, were new-born babies with blood and a placenta, the aftermath of a car-bomb, the bloody clothes of a soldier, patients dying from AIDS, and actual inmates on death row. These images were authentically photo-realistic with subject matter details provided afterwards to underline their authenticity. Just as with the multi-cultural ads, this one also featured the Benetton logo only with no featured captions. Their shock value was realized globally with some banned in the US due to their overt references to slavery, while some resulted in legal action by victims’ groups due to the use of images depicting real death row victims (Gwin, 2010: p12). It could be argued that the shock tactics used by Benetton were increasingly necessary to reach consumers who are increasingly jaded by constant ad message inundation. 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