The Religion of Buying

One of the models I’m developing for myself involves just what it is that religions and brands have in common with one another. My basic premise is that both are story-systems which people ritually interact with.

I think that part of what makes religions powerful is that you have rituals. A ritual allows you to physically enter into a story-space, and see what it feels like emotionally from the inside out, rather than just from an exterior intellectual perspective.

In a religion, you might interact ritually by going to church, hearing sermons, or by praying, spreading “the good news” - stuff like that. The ways you would ritually interact with a brand are probably by watching commercials, by going to the store, by buying a product, by using that product, by telling others about it.

I might go so far as to call the cash register at a store an altar. And the cashier a priest, ritually dispensing the good graces of whatever brand-religion you have chosen to buy into.

In any case, I’m going to develop this more. But here are some additional links on the subject:

  1. Using stories as sacraments
  2. Brand Identity & Religion
  3. More about branding and religion
  4. Brands, marketing, stories & religions

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This entry was written by Tim Boucher, posted on October 12, 2004 at 11:47 am.

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