Brands, Hallelujah! : Affective Encounters with Sensory Capitalism

In our consumer society, brands have become ubiquitous entities that flash upon our screens, invade our consciousness, and influence our patterns of feeling and behaviour. It has long been acknowledged that brands are important carriers of cultural meanings and act as resources with which we as human beings navigate everyday life and negotiate our relationships with others and ourselves. However, brands are more than meaningful. Increasingly, in our ephemeral, content saturated, attention economies, brands have evolved to become affective. In other words, while we can conceptualise brands as meaningful, we must also appreciate brands as multi-sensory stimuli that capture our attention to resonate with and shape our deeper, enduring dispositions.

Brands, Hallelujah! advances quotidian and myriad definitions of brands by considering brands as intermediaries of sensory capitalism. While the opening chapters establish the cultural and ideological resonance of brands, each subsequent chapter focuses on a specific sense - smell, sound, touch, taste and finally, sense of place.

Through a series of personal introspective accounts, theoretical discussion and analysis of iconic brand campaigns, this text seeks to illustrate and celebrate both the mundane and extraordinary affective encounters we all have with these intermediaries of sensory capitalism. Academic researchers and students of marketing and branding will find this book of particular interest.