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

I've been following Rob Walker's blog, murketing for almost a year now and was incredibly excited to pick up a copy of his much anticipated book when it was released at the beginning of last month.





Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are is Walker's attempt to flesh out his coined term murketing and its implications on the future of advertising and popular culture.

Marketers and advertisers face a new challenge in our era of television-on-demand and the mainstreaming of independent subculture. It is suggested that today's target audiences are more aware of advertising and attempts on the part of corporations to create needs that don't exist.

Walker proposes that consumers today are not, as many have supposed, rejecting big brands. (Unfortunately for the highly esteemed culture-jammers at Adbusters, the consumer revolution may not be as close as you hoped.) Rather than rejecting the idea of branding, consumers today are taking brands and creating their own meaning to go along with them. This creates a challenge for the companies holding the brands, as they are losing a large measure of control over their brand positioning, and the smarter companies are learning the value of allowing these consumer sub-groups to assign whatever value to their particular product the consumer sees fit.

An interesting example was Timberland boots- the fashion phenomenon that swept the world of hip-hop in the last decade. According to Walker, Timberland's CEO was initially reluctant to market to this new audience as he saw his product as being for more serious blue-collar work needs, not as fashion statements. By finally allowing the consumer to have some control over what his product was about (and producing Timberland boots in pink, blue, green and other colors), Timberland successfully bridged the gap between a new and powerful youth culture while maintaining their reputation of quality boots for working men.

Walker's understanding of not just consumer culture, but generational differences and general human nature, makes this book a real standout in terms of shedding light on the grey area between authentic culture and manufactured meaning. The practices of murketing are likely here to stay, and we could all do well to understand it a little better. Whether these culture-blurring practices should be embraced or rejected is still an open question in my mind, but the need for leaders in the field who are asking good questions and looking towards the future is one that will never go away and Rob Walker is certainly doing his part well.