Reimagining brand communication: Exploring the postmodern paradigm in marketing through a Polish jewellery brand

Nowe spojrzenie na komunikację marki. Odkrywanie postmodernistycznego paradygmatu w marketingu poprzez polską markę jubilerską

The article attempts to capture the axial, pressing conflicts in the field of marketing theory and practice today, taking as a reference point one of the most discussed advertising campaign of recent years in Poland of the YES brand, local jewellery manufacturer. The paper offers a socio-cultural explanation for the success of the campaign as an example of challenging modernist intuitions in marketing communication. Specifically, it explores the conditions and course of the social transformation that fuelled the emergence of an identity market for the brand and demonstrates how marketing communications aligned with identity projects of Polish consumers. In the realm of organization theory, it is argued that common theoretical and cognitive assumptions about the nature of the sociocultural context of organizing and basic management principles, such as the assumed separation between an organization and its environment, prove to be a dysfunctional barrier to the transition to a new two-way model of communication with consumers.

W artykule podjęto próbę uchwycenia osiowych konfliktów w obszarze teorii i praktyki marketingu, biorąc za punkt wyjścia jedną z najbardziej dyskutowanych kampanii reklamowych ostatnich lat w Polsce – marki YES, lokalnego producenta biżuterii. Artykuł proponuje społeczno- kulturowe wyjaśnienie sukcesu kampanii jako przykład podważenia modernistycznych intuicji w komunikacji marketingowej. W szczególności bada warunki i przebieg transformacji społecznej, która umożliwiła wyłonienie się tożsamościowego rynku dla marki, i pokazuje, w jaki sposób komunikacja marketingowa została dostosowana do projektów tożsamościowych polskich konsumentów. W odniesieniu do teorii organizacji artykuł przekonuje, że niektóre założenia teoretyczne i poznawcze dotyczące kontekstu działań organizacji, takich jak np. zakładane oddzielenie organizacji od jej otoczenia, stanowią dysfunkcjonalną barierę w przechodzeniu do nowego, dwukierunkowego modelu komunikacji z konsumentami.

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