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The brand and the
postmodern rites of passage
Psychological
identity
The
psychological identity of the human being who continually balances unstably
between homo economicus and homo sociologicus is built and
supported by making use of product and service names which he/she, as well
as society, considers brands. Personal conduct, the relations with the
others, the way he/she speaks and thinks are all supported by the use of a
certain category of brands, and all these correspond to his/her own identity
and the current social rules in his/her community. The fact that he uses a
certain brand is able to place him in a certain relation to himself and the
others. This becomes a means of communicating the time of his existence and
thus the phrase “Tell me what brand you use, and I’ll tell you who you are”
proves valid in postmodern society. Using a certain brand is able to tell a
lot about a person, and the ‘access’ to a product-brand which does not
represent his status and social position may be ‘chided’ by the community he
belongs to. Changing one’s social status and switching to another
psychosocial category implies a change in the category of brands one uses, a
category which includes a series of values and features the individual has
to accept and internalize, in order to fit the social norms which are
regarded as inherent to the particular existential moment. For instance, we
can quite easily establish a person’s age and social status judging only by
the names of the product brands he/she uses. Many research techniques in
consumer’s psychology are based on people’s ability to recognize and place
an individual in a certain social category according to the brands he/she
has ‘access’ to. I just want to point out that all these considerations have
relatively little bearing on Romanian society nowadays. For example,
although driving a high class car is a sign of well-being, such a case is
only seldom accompanied by individual adherence to a higher system of values
characteristic of the status the respective brand enjoys in other societies.
The inconsistency of a system based on referential brands is due to various
causes which relate both to the evolution of Romanian society and the ethnic
cultural character.
Rites
of passage and the transpersonal brand
In
ancient societies rites facilitated the passage from one life stage to
another or from one social status to another. What is more, passing from one
existential stage to another was only allowed in this way, and the rites
were respected and valued by all members of society. Mircea Eliade describes
rites of passage as follows: “Rites of passage represent a category of rites
which hallmark the phases of a person’s life, the passage from one stage to
another, from one role or social position to another, incorporating
individual and cultural experiences with a biological purpose: birth,
reproduction and death. These ceremonies establish essential differences,
noted in all groups, between the young and the old, men and women, dead and
the living.” At the same time, the person who underwent a rite of passage
was sustained and supported by the others in order to be able to cope with
the trials and go through the clearly established stages of such a process.
Known and respected, the rite of passage was an opportunity for celebration,
and was regarded as a milestone in the life of the community and especially
of the individual.
In today’s
society, rites of passage have mostly disappeared. Replaced by religious
practices based on one creed or another and various substitutes, the lack of
archaic rites, which allowed the individual to channel his/her emotions and
feeling towards the next existential stage by finding one’s true self, has
led to socio-pathological occurrences, which are ever more present and
diverse.
Because
of his need to accede to a spiritual dimension, the human being has
constructed a series of ‘modern’ techniques whose help he employs in his
attempt to transcend immediate and direct existence. In the absence of an
adequate social frame and spiritual environment, the individual has had to
resort to a series of expressive means and elements existent within his
reach. And consumer society – understood as an expression of existence and a
state of conduct – whose main exponent is the brand, has become the frame
which guarantees the fulfillment of this need. Furthermore, the brand with
its human conduct manifestations, ideas and emotions, has acquired an
important function of facilitating man’s transition through life.
Practically, brands – the products and services which acquired this value –
represent means of transcending existential stages, understood both as
passing from one age to another, and , moreover, as passing from one social
status to another. Though barely visible in the past, this function is
gaining ever more emphasis, and specialists in the field have started
becoming aware of this fact, hence they gradually increase the use of
techniques of segmenting the public not only on socio-demographical
criteria, but also psychographic ones. Life styles, for example, represent
such segmenting criteria, that take into consideration many of the elements
which place the individual in a particular stage of his/her existence.
Practically, some brands are able to ‘permit’ the individual’s passage from
one stage of existence to another. The way in which this permission is
reflected on an individual level (being accompanied by the feeling of
belonging to a social class or existential stage) as well as the social
recognition granted by the community (as a person entitled to enjoy the
respective ‘reserved’ brands ), both constitute true postmodern rites of
passage. All these experiences and perceptions are directly connected to the
individual’s psychological identity and the awareness of belonging to a
certain social class or an existential level. And in this way, the brand
consolidates its transpersonal function of medium for rising above human
condition hic et nunc and acquires a new extra-commercial dimension.
Lucian
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