Last night, I happened across the website of a recent book “Making Meaning: How Successful Companies Deliver Meaningful Experiences”, which is a guide for corporations on how to gain customer loyalty by delivering meaningful experiences. It seems that many companies are trying to become a source of meaning in our lives. They believe that if they can succeed that we will come back for more of the experience that they deliver and purchase more of their produce or service.
The authors, through extensive sociological research, have identified 15 key meanings that people around the world value. Your experience of these meanings is being targetted by people who want to sell you something. Here they are (listed in alphabetical order)
- Accomplishment
- Beauty
- Community
- Creation
- Duty
- Enlightenment
- Freedom
- Harmony
- Justice
- Oneness
- Redemption
- Security
- Truth
- Validation
- Wonder
This is an extraordinary list covering meanings that are more usually linked to religions, cultures, political parties and social movements. What is the long term impact of the commercialisation and commoditisation of our experience of these human meanings?