Maslow & Branding: Aesthetics

OK, back to the series on Maslow and Branding. So far I've written about Esteem and The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness in which she argues that increasingly wealthy and sophisticated customers demand "an enticing, stimulating, diverse, and beautiful world." The income range that aligns with this need continues to go down along with prices; yet perhaps this need is not based on income but pure psychographics. It's the difference between customers of WalMart and Target, or 7-11 and Starbucks. Aesthetic used to be a nice-to-have, but it's increasingly becoming foundational. Witness the explosive success of Apple and the iPod, or the gotta-have Razr phone. Target is bringing designer style (Isaac, Oldham) to the masses, along with InStyle magazine and "Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web Technorati: Mantra Brand Communication. She has extensive experience in brand/marketing strategy, market/customer research, integrated marketing communications and channel support.