Saved by Keely Adler and
Brands want to be more than your friend. They want community.
"If there ever was a brand that seamlessly and organically mixed entertainment with community with commerce, that would be TELFAR. TELFAR’s website, Instagram account and TELFAR TV deliver a world that, at a first glance, seems to exist purely for its own enjoyment purposes. This is true; it is also true that it exists for enjoyment of the vast TEL... See more
Substack • Entertainment x Shopping
Much has been written about how brands like SoulCycle built cult-like followings by tapping into the collective desire to connect to something larger than themselves. Today, this practice has gone mainstream, so the question becomes, How can brands go beyond selling and engage with people’s spiritual lives?
Casper ter Kuile • The Seismic Spiritual Shifts Shaping Digital Campfires — The Digital Campfire Download
Both mechanisms, of social classification and social cohesion, also explain why, in the modern aspiration economy, brand affinity is created not economically, but socially – and why best loyalty programs treat their customers as community members.
Ana Andjelic • The Business of Aspiration: How Social, Cultural, and Environmental Capital Changes Brands
The co-opting of “community” into a sales strategy is insidious, not only because it reduces likeminded groups of people to consumer demographics, but because, in an era when we’re all encouraged to cultivate our own “personal brands,” it also reduces each of us to a salesperson , seeking out likeminded people in order to sell them things , whether... See more