The transformation of objects into symbols

It is interesting how items can be connected with certain styles of life, and usable as a tool to judge a person before even knowing them. This concept is important to companies when it is coupled with the knowledge that everyone aspires to achieve personal goals and climb the social ladder.

Linking an object to a specific user group by way of advertising is a powerful way of grounding it, and making it desirable too. Of course designers want their products to be valued, and by getting the attention of the right people they can quickly become of interest to others too. Using celebrities to endorse products makes their admirers latch onto logos and objects and see them as something to aim for, as they associate them with success and luxury.

Market research in the same vein, performed and documented by Louis Cheskin noted- “one girl, when she first saw the stylish chantreuse dress commented that ‘the colour makes me want to vomit’. Yet when she was reminded that it was the latest style in colour she finally ended up buying it!”

It is obviously powerful, and something that works backwards too. Creating a product that is perceived as elite because it is priced in a way such that it excludes the majority of people from affording it is a surprisingly underhand tactic companies use to great success, giving their products a certain chic. People relate price to quality, and dream about being able to afford things usually well outside of their price range. This would aim to make people buy the company’s other products because of their reputation.