Comparing Apple and Religion: Perspectives Related to Brainwaves

2020

Relatively little attention has been given to the process of evolution of Apple from a disruptive brand towards a morally and culturally invested company. Specifically, there are few studies on Apple identity and advertising. Furthermore, how organizational and brand identity interact and how identity change can be facilitated through mediated communication are not yet fully understood. This thesis aims at understanding the evolution of Apple's communication through commercials over the past 36 years. By linking together advertisement and organizational identity change, the thesis investigates how Apple managed its corporate identity through the lens of organizational identity. The goal of this thesis is, thus, to answer the following question: How and why has the organizational identity of Apple evolved from being a disruptive brand to a moral and culturally invested brand, while preaching the same ideals through advertisement? The thesis applies semiotic analysis and critical discourse analysis to 14 of Apple's audio-visual commercials, from 1984 till the present day, to generate a detailed overview of how Apple has evolved its corporate identity through advertising. The use of this multimodal methodology uncovers the (in)consistencies in the flow of meaning construction as it allows us to analyse the discursive strategies in the process of identity construction. Accordingly, the visual corpus is first investigated through semiotics to disclose any hidden discursive regimes of meaning, after which the cumulative findings of the overall corpus outline the process of identity construction and change throughout the timeframe of the corpus. The results reveal that the construction and expression of the Apple organizational identity are done through the use of the discursive regimes of utopia and dystopia in two very distinct ways. First, the discursive regimes of technological utopia and dystopia are used as strategies to push the world forward towards technological utopia and technological integration. Second, the discursive regimes of societal utopia and dystopia are used to portray Apple's technology as tools to create a better world, shifting the discourse from technology/innovation driven to humanitarian. These two strategies reflect the shifting social tensions surrounding the technological stigma of personal computing within the domestic sphere. With its focus on the usability of technology, Apple has managed to usher in the era of the technology-infused society as we know it today. Due to their capable advertisement campaigns, Apple has dismantled the anti-technological discourse through the use of technological utopianism and dystopianism as discursive strategies to market their products.

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2013

2020

Relatively little attention has been given to the process of evolution of Apple from a disruptive brand towards a morally and culturally invested company. Specifically, there are few studies on Apple identity and advertising. Furthermore, how organizational and brand identity interact and how identity change can be facilitated through mediated communication are not yet fully understood. This thesis aims at understanding the evolution of Apple's communication through commercials over the past 36 years. By linking together advertisement and organizational identity change, the thesis investigates how Apple managed its corporate identity through the lens of organizational identity. The goal of this thesis is, thus, to answer the following question: How and why has the organizational identity of Apple evolved from being a disruptive brand to a moral and culturally invested brand, while preaching the same ideals through advertisement? The thesis applies semiotic analysis and critical discourse analysis to 14 of Apple's audiovisual commercials, from 1984 till the present day, to generate a detailed overview of how Apple has evolved its corporate identity through advertising. The use of this multimodal methodology uncovers the (in)consistencies in the flow of meaning construction as it allows us to analyse the discursive strategies in the process of identity construction. Accordingly, the visual corpus is first investigated through semiotics to disclose any hidden discursive regimes of meaning, after which the cumulative findings of the overall corpus outline the process of identity construction and change throughout the timeframe of the corpus. The results reveal that the construction and expression of the Apple organizational identity are done through the use of the discursive regimes of utopia and dystopia in two very distinct ways. First, the discursive regimes of technological utopia and dystopia are used as strategies to push the world forward towards technological utopia and technological integration. Second, the discursive regimes of societal utopia and dystopia are used to portray Apple's technology as tools to create a better world, shifting the discourse from technology/innovation driven to humanitarian. These two strategies reflect the shifting social tensions surrounding the technological stigma of personal computing within the domestic sphere. With its focus on the usability of technology, Apple has managed to usher in the era of the technology-infused society as we know it today. Due to their capable advertisement campaigns, Apple has dismantled the anti-technological discourse through the use of technological utopianism and dystopianism as discursive strategies to market their products.

Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 2019

This article gives an interdisciplinary account of the societal causes as well as individual and organizational effects of religious consumer society. It integrates and systematizes contributions from economics of religion, marketing, and sociology of religion. The article presents the causes of religious consumer society and the most frequent individual adaptations (quality expectations, religious shopping, syncretism) and organizational responses (marketing and branding strategies). Findings are that (1) in the religious consumer society, individuals are free not to be religious or spiritual, putting religious associations in competition with secular organizations, and possibly leading to secularization, (2) it is exaggerated to speak of shopping and consuming as the "new religions" of Western societies, and (3) religious marketing and branding face important limitations, some internal and some external to religious and spiritual organizations, due to the dilemma between marketing practices and transcendental claims. We suggest ways and means to solve this dilemma.

2015

Moving from a theory of iconic power, the article offers an understanding on the ways the iconic power of Apple technologies has emerged since the first Macintosh advertising campaign in 1984. This description of Apple’s iconic power will be the basis for a preliminary reflection concerning the interwoven dimensions that bond together mobile technologies, cultural meanings and consumer experience in today’s capitalist society. The article shows three different processes through which Apple has become a powerful iconic presence in today’s digital society. The first dimension directly refers to the firm’s communicative strategies and the ways in which Apple has developed its iconic status with advertising by mobilizing wider cultural frameworks and symbolic structures in society. The second dimension refers to the processes involving users’ and consumers’ appropriation of Apple’s meanings and images, with specific reference to the way consumers have developed spiritual involvements to...

Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 2019

International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2018

This article introduces the brand religiosity construct and delineates its relationship with antecedents and consequences from a dynamic stage-wise progression perspective. The proposed theoretical framework demonstrates the process that brand religiosity is formed through a series of steps, from brand appreciation, romantic brand love, and brand devotion to brand religiosity. The proposed model specifies that the link between brand appreciation and romantic brand love is moderated by individual difference variables including consumer materialism and emotional attachment styles. Meanwhile, the relationship between romantic brand love and brand devotion is further proposed to be enhanced by the sense of brand community but weakened by individual's religiosity. Finally, the influence of brand religiosity on consumer behavior and brand consumption, such as transcendental experience and proactive sustaining ritualistic behavior is discussed.

Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2019

Purpose This paper aims to offer a systematic view of religious consumption and its iterative influences on consumers, as well as their differences in attitudes, values and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Using a mixed-method approach – both qualitative and quantitative – the study develops religious self-transformation and self-categorization scales to empirically evaluate the hypotheses. Findings The convergence of consumption, self-identification and religious attitudes and behaviors proffer an essentially subjective concept useful in understanding the existential reflection and supernatural orientation that individuals may seek through consumption. Cluster analysis (based on product, services, media and practices) reveals four quadrants. The non-religious (religious) group has low (high) consumption in all four consumption categories Self-categorization (self-transformation) group has high (low) level of product consumption, but low (high) in all three other categories. T...

New Media & Society, 2010

This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.

This book sheds light on the consumption of spiritual products, services, experiences, and places through state-of-the-art studies by leading and emerging scholars in interpretive consumer research, marketing, sociology, anthropology, cultural, and religious studies. The collection brings together fresh views and scholarship on a cultural tension that is at the centre of the lives of countless individuals living in postmodern societies: the relationship between the material and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane. The book examines how a variety of agents – religious institutions, spiritual leaders, marketers and consumers – interact and co-create spiritual meanings in a post-disenchanted society that has been defined as a ‘supermarket of the soul.’ Consumption and Spirituality examines not only religious organizations, but also brands and marketers and the way they infuse their products, services and experiences with spiritual meanings that flow freely in the circuit of culture and can be appropriated by consumers even without purchase acts. From a consumer perspective, the book investigates how spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences are now embedded into a global consumer culture. Rather than condemning consumption, the chapters in this book highlight consumers’ agency and the creative processes through which authentic spiritual meanings are co-created from a variety of sources, local and global, and sacred and profane alike.

Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2020

The church cannot engage in marketing. The church cannot put itself on a pedestal, create itself, praise itself. One cannot serve God while at the same time covering oneself by serving the devil and the world. 1

2021

One of the most enduring phenomena which seems to go back to the beginnings of human culture, is religion. Its persistence continues in human society perhaps because of the important social functions that it performs. With the passage of time, one finds that religion may no longer play the role it did in the past as these roles, to a large extent, have been taken over by secular institutions. Moving away from organised religion is something that we are witnessing today globalisation and consumerism play a key role in encouraging a more individualised religion and spirituality simply because they can be customised and packaged to suit individual preferences. Hence, although what we believe and how we practice this belief is an individual process, group activity is still required to in order to meet these individual spiritual demands. In this age of consumerism, religion and spirituality has come to be sold as products in the market. The focus of this paper is to present these emergin...

At the root of modern society two important influences can be identified; religion and consumerism. Initially, it would appear that a significant contrast exists between these two societal forces concerning the contradictory orientations of each, most obviously the intangible vs. material. On deeper analysis, however, it is possible to see an important overlap between the two, which on discovery provides a valuable insight into the innate desires and motivations of consumers in modern day society. The examination of this connection highlights the important emergence of spirituality as a significant influence in consumer behaviour (Baumgartner, 2002; Hirschman, 1985; Ulvaos, 2009), providing the foundations for the construction of meaning and purpose to ones life (Kale, 2006). In addition, it provides further insight into the need for consumers to construct a moral identity (Kozinets & Handleman, 2004), meaning (Baumgartner, 2002; Kale, 2006) and self-reassurance (Ulvoas, 2009) through their consumption behaviours. Consequently, the examination of spirituality as part of consumer research has started to attract increased interest from researchers who identify this area as an important contribution to the academic literature (Kale, 2006; Linquist, 2002; Ulvoas, 2009). However, despite an increased awareness of spirituality as an area worthy of further research, little literature exists on its application to consumer behaviour. In response to this significant gap in the research, this study has been devised with the intention of providing a greater insight into the connection between religion and consumerism. Drawing upon a facet of multi-disciplinary literature focused on sub-cultures, religion and spirituality, this study identifies a range of emergent themes that present the basis for the formulation of research questions. Preceding this, an in-depth qualitative study is presented examining the motivations of consumers to invest in the paranormal market. An industry deeply rooted in spirituality and one which has recently become focus for a number of new paid services for the consumer. The following chapter provides a review of the relevant literature presenting the significant themes that have emerged through close analysis. In the third chapter, an outline of the methodology of the study is provided along with the research philosophy and questions. Following this the results are detailed and discussed in reference to the literature review. Finally, conclusions are drawn from the study and the broader relevance of this research is discussed in terms of providing support to current literature, implications for current research and avenues of further study.