Brand magnification: when brands help people reconstruct their lives

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to detail how consumers can harness the power of brands to reconstruct their lives. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed five brand devotees over several years, using various data collection methods (long interviews, observations, videos, photographs and secondary data) to study how they reconstructed their lives with a brand. Findings Consumers transform their existence through a distinctive form of brand appropriation that the authors call brand magnification, which unfolds: materially, narratively and socially. First, brand devotees scatter brand incarnations around themselves to remain in touch with the brand because the brand has become an especially positive dimension of their lives. Second, brand devotees mobilize the brand to craft a completely new life story. Finally, they build a branded clan of family and friends that socially validates their reconstructed identity. Research limitations/implications The research extends more muted depictions of brands as soothing balms calming consumer anxieties; the authors document the mechanism through which consumers remake their lives with a brand. Practical implications The research helps rehabilitate the role of brands in contemporary consumer culture. Organizations can use the findings to help stimulate and engage employees by unveiling the brand’s life-transforming potential for consumers. Originality/value The authors characterize a distinctive, extreme and unique form of brand appropriation that positively transforms consumer lives.

Consumer brand engagement: Socio-cultural perspective and research avenues

“…Research shows that there is a deep attachment to brands, places and institutions, which can be incorporated into the self (Belk, 1988). Objects (product, brand, place) convey more meaning the more important they are to the self (Debenedetti et al, 2014; Escalas and Bettman, 2005; Fuschillo et al, 2022; Levy, 1959). For example, a consumer may choose to participate and co-produce with a brand because this experience leads to self-realisation.…”

“…For example, a consumer may choose to participate and co-produce with a brand because this experience leads to self-realisation. Fuschillo et al (2022) show that consumers can have an extreme, almost vital attachment to certain brands. These authors study how these brands – Vespa, Apple, Playmobil, Disney and Nirvana – can serve as resources for some people to overcome life’s trials (job loss, serious health problems or family tragedies) and to ‘rebuild damaged identities’.…”

L’engagement du consommateur envers la marque : perspective socio-culturelle et voies de recherche

“…Des travaux montrent en effet l’existence d’un profond attachement à la marque, aux lieux ou aux institutions, lesquels peuvent être incorporés au soi (Belk, 1988). Les objets (produit, marque, lieu) véhiculent d’autant plus de sens qu’ils sont importants pour le soi (Debenedetti et al, 2014 ; Escalas et Bettman, 2005 ; Fuschillo et al, 2022 ; Levy, 1959). Un consommateur peut par exemple faire le choix de participer et de co-produire avec une marque parce que cette expérience le conduit à se réaliser.…”

How the “invisible diaspora hand” moves brands and places

“…In the sociology of consumption, appropriation is considered one of the three key moments in the consumption experience, along with acquisition and appreciation (Warde, 2017): acquisition refers to production, delivery and access to these goods by consumers; appreciation covers the pleasures and meanings that consumers derive from consumption; and appropriation concerns what people do with goods once they are acquired. In consumer research, appropriation refers more specifically to the set of practices that allow people to make products and brands their own at an individual (Fuschillo et al , 2022) or a collective level (Cova, 2022).…”

“…Consumers are deeply invested in making the world of brands their own, to suit their individual life circumstances. Consumers are said to be unruly bricoleurs (Aubert‐Gamet, 1997); they express their personal sovereignty through nonconformist acts of consumption and the creation of experiences that may transform products and brands in ways that challenge the company’s original goals and expectations (Cova, 2022; Fuschillo et al , 2022). Beyond objects, consumers also use various tactics and strategies to personalize experiences, such as the experience of visiting a modern art exhibition (Stavraki et al , 2018).…”