Desire: Connecting With What Customers Want

The thing that's driving the luxe-populi phenomenon is this fear that we'll be swallowed up by this increasingly complex, chaotic world -- and therefore we must build a bigger, more solid sense of self by becoming a player in the precincts of privilege. So we storm the barricades to claim our rightful share of the trophies of elitism. By getting even a small piece of prestige -- even a Louis Vuitton key chain or a Monet print from Target -- we feel as if we're one of the important people. Suddenly, we matter.

5. There's one way to navigate in a world of too much choice: Choose someone to choose for you.

Americans have always thought of themselves as rugged individualists. Now we're finding that life is too complicated, too risky, too hard, to go it alone. So we yearn for a kind of superbrand identity -- a Yoda -- to show us the way, to tell us what to do and ultimately what to want. Mere brands are as good as over: The glut of brands is contributing to this chaos in our brains. As life becomes even more complicated, the consumer will choose a chooser to make choices on her behalf. By choosing a higher helper, you choose your own reality: your news, your information, your means of communication, your shopping choices.

Oprah Winfrey is a perfect example of this new kind of metabrand. She tells us which issues we should be interested in. She tells us what to read. Richard Branson is taking a shot at being a kind of Yoda of hip commercialism. You fly Virgin Atlantic Airways to London. You shop for your DVDs in the Virgin Megastore. If you're getting married and you're really hip, you buy your wedding gown at Virgin's alternative bridal store. By opening its marketplace to virtually any type of individual buyer, Amazon.com clearly has its sights on creating the definitive online-shopping Yoda state. Wal-Mart is making an ambitious push to extend its private label -- Sam Walton's vision of middle-American values -- across every category of product and service it sells. Where is the limit to that Yoda-like sphere of influence?

A big part of this evolution to a new kind of superbranding is, frankly, about submitting to a higher authority. I'll admit, a lot of people don't like the sound of that. But this trend is fueled by our greatest passion: a passion for genuine tranquility, for real peace of mind. In the model of a marketplace dominated by metabrands, consumers yearn for fewer choices, not more choices, and they will yield to a trusted advocate who will clear a path through the chaos for them. Maybe that's unimaginable. It is also inevitable.

Bill Breen (bbreen@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor. Contact Melinda Davis by email (melinda@thenextgroup.com).