17: Systems In Flux: Class, Taste and the Modern Aspiration Economy

10/29/20 • 48 min

For the second episode in our series on Systems In Flux, we’re talking about systems of class and taste. In the past 10 years, new brands have emerged, specifically in luxury and premium categories, that point to a divergence in our social systems around what class and taste are, and how they are achieved.

Brand strategist and sociologist Ana Andjelic places brands like Telfar, Blenheim Forge, Fly By Jing and Brightland in the Modern Aspiration Economy. This emerging economy trades in taste, aesthetic innovation, curation and environmentalism. And what’s remarkable about these brands is that they have all successfully decoupled class from money, and taste from wealth.

In her new book, The Business of Aspiration, Ana explores this decoupling and contrasts the Modern Aspiration Economy to the traditional economy where consumers once signaled their status through collecting commodities, Instagram followers, airline miles, and busy back-to-back schedules. Now, it’s about collecting knowledge, belonging to micro-communities, and leveraging influence.

As Ana points out, this new cultural and environmental capital changes the way businesses and entire markets operate. We talked about where and when this decoupling started, the ways in which it has changed global markets permanently, and how brands can trade in this new capital.

Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:

Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:

Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Previous Episode

16: Systems In Flux: The Hidden Divergent Forces Shaping The Next Generation of Brands, Consumers, and Capitalism

Whether it’s brand, behavior, or culture, the more you dig into the systems that affect our lives the closer you’ll come to a conversation about capitalism.

In this house episode, Jasmine and Jean-Louis dig into a curious pattern that's emerging across all kinds of markets, a divergent behavior that’s starting to change the rules of the game for brands and consumers.

As part of a larger series exploring how divergent systems are shaping the business landscape, we dig into what divergent systems are, how understanding the gap between goals and incentives can become a powerful tool to predict the success of a business and industry, and how the aging infrastructure of capitalism is creating white space for a new set of values, behaviors, and relationships that may come to define the next generation of brands and consumers.

Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Next Episode

18: Systems In Flux: A Unified Theory of Culture, Branding, and Human Behavior

Every single culture and subculture - from states and governments to user segments and brand tribes - falls along the tight-loose continuum. A culture’s tightness or looseness affects people’s perceptions of threat, how they relate to each other, how they consume, and of course the narratives that shape the businesses and brands that form within that culture. In this third episode in our series on Systems In Flux, we’re talking about the invisible systems that make a culture relaxed or rigid, and the surprising tradeoffs involved.

Michele Gelfand is a cultural psychologist and author of the book ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’. Her life’s work has been spent researching how tight and loose cultures form in the first place, and if and how they can actually be changed. We talk about how this affects every kind of brand, including international brands, political brands, lifestyle brands, service brands, and CPG.

Of all the studied cultural phenomena out there, this is perhaps one of the most important in helping us understand the world at this very moment.

Once you understand the concept, it will not only reveal a new perspective on the world of business and branding, it will also reveal the deeper logic beneath the many seemingly illogical things in the world that may have been on your mind lately.

Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:

Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.