Communication with Commodities

Chapter 1: Communication with Commodities: How What We Buy Speaks Volumes
Here, Schor establishes the idea that particular items indicate that you're a member of a particular group. Those with fancy, expensive phones, clothes and houses run into the same group. While, families with not so much money tend to run together as well. People are at certain income levels, for example, people are often expected to dress a certain way and own certain materialistic goods. Schor sets out prime examples on how this affects teenagers in our society today. For example, middle class teenagers should have an iPod. This sounds ridiculous, however, if you look at our schools today it seems completely true. Schor speaks of how an upscale housewife walks into Walmart, Target or even KMart to pick up paper towels or a mop. Do you think she even looks through the clothing? No, because lack of desire, like desire, is also a social construct. She is most likely to look for something more in her price range. Reference groups in our society exist because we are social beings. Each of us has a gender, race, an economical class and occupation. People tend to construct their personal identities in relation to their social groups, therefore creating a social identity. People in the world today tend to be more greedy and selfish. We are surrounded by those who are not happy with what they have. In the beginning of the 1980s, researchers gave up on the idea that social class structured spending. Even though they had given up, companies began making a bunch using similar concepts. Their surveys told them that class-based consumption was very much alive. A market research model that has proved particularly revealing of consumer buying patterns within social classes is based on geographic clustering. For marketers, housing patterns have proved so valuable that they are able to use this information to predict how many credit cards you have, which appliances fill your kitchen, the magazines you read and where you buy your clothes. One of the central beliefs of lifestyle cluster systems is that symbolism determines choices. We tend to follow the people we surround ourselves with. Schor tells his readers that marketers have developed prime models to interpret the social message in consumer buying patterns. Schor states that, "we do not recognize lifestyle as a kind of pseudo-language of social communication". In the 1920s, Stuart Chapin found that social class would be accurately inferred from an inventory of products found in the living room. In 1950, James Davis founded that subjects could clearly distinguish class differences on the basis of photographs of living room interiors. Schor is really pointing out to his readers in this chapter that just by the looks of people furnishings in their house you can classify them into a social class. While housing is probably the most important symbolic communicator, we are probably more conscious of the role that clothing plays mentions Schor. Clothing to humans is like an indicator of social position. Schor writes, " A key point to keep in mind is that consumers are not passive recipients of symbolic associations." However, they can appropriate the meanings that advertisers hope to connect to products. Schor is expressing from his own experience, and according to him, it is important to live up to your own standards. Yes, we all follow into a certain social class. But, what keeps us from buying the same clothes. It is not necessary to buy expensive clothes just to fit in.