Consumer Agency and Brand Culture

Are we consumers sad little sheep being herded about by the not-so-good marketing shepherds? Or are we in control of our own thoughts and behavior? In this chapter I want to explore some perspectives on this question of human social study. To put it more generally: are we made by social structure, or do we make ourselves? This question, never addressed in typical marketing courses, is central to marketing practice. If marketing professionals are to try to infl uence and control consumer behavior, do they try to engage with our reason as autonomous, thinking individuals? Or, should they try to frame our choices by manipulating the social structures, the broader cultural contexts, that frame what we are and how we behave, in the belief that where others go the rest will follow? I may have given the impression in parts of this book that I have pre-empted the answer. I advocate an appreciation of marketing effects at a consumer cultural level. However, I don’t feel that this necessarily precludes individual sovereignty. In other words, the answer to the question I posed above is, “it depends.” At the heart of the human problem of structure versus agency, is a contradiction. We think of ourselves as individuals, but our individuality is defined relationally. Similarly, as consumers, we think of our choice of brands as an expression of our individual identity, yet brand symbolism means nothing in a social vacuum. In other words, we need other people to partake in and validate the identity games we play with brands. There is, then, a