Rob Walker’s “Ignoring the Joneses” and Naomi Klein’s “Alt Everything” both describe ways marketers get consumers to purchase products. Walker uses the concept of secret dialogue to describe the relationship between the consumer and the product. This concept is what you buy has more with what you want others to see you buy. On the other hand, Naomi Klein describes the relationship between the consumer and the product with “Cool Hunters”, people who find what’s currently popular to market to the youth demographic.
Walker chooses the words salience and relevance to describe his concept of secret dialogue. Salience refers to the popularity of a product and relevance refers to the need for a product. Walker uses this to describe the success of the livestrong bracelets. Livestrong is a logo on a bracelet that was sold to profit charity. Celebrities and professional athletes wearing these bracelets helped make the product well known, or salient. The relevance comes from wanting your peers to see you wear that bracelet. Walker emphasizes that what you wear and buy communicates with others. Other businesses picked up on the bracelet trend, and different logos started to appear on the elastic. This
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She discusses how there is a need for a new demographic of shoppers, and marketers are turning to the youth demographic. Klein uses “cool” to describe what is currently popular, or how Walker would describe salience. “Cool Hunters” study what the youth demographic considers cool to create a market. She explains how most teenagers are constantly wondering if they are cool or not. Klein focuses on how brands stick to the consumer’s mind. The type of brand you wear advertises for that company. Klein goes as far to say that we identify ourselves with brands, and that our image of ourselves depends on wearing those brands. This marketing ideology focuses on starting trends with the youth