White paper on creativity - ebla center

Part IIMaterial culture goods as goods of belonging: from generality to identityIn societies of individuals, tastes not only express the socialisation of individuals, butalso their individualisation and therefore their specific identity, which distinguishesthem from all other members of society. In addition to the demand for socialdistinction and social identity there is also a demand for individual distinction andindividual identity (Barrère and Santagata, 2005). This endows the individual-goodrelationship with an idiosyncratic character.Material culture and experience goodsExperience is our emotive and cognitive relation with the world and it takes place in aspecific context. Places act both as the settings for experience and the contexts giving itsignificance. And places may naturally either be physical or virtual.The economic importance of experience arises from the simple realisation that thevalue added of a product today is increasingly less linked to the functional dimensionand more to the capacity to evoke unique and memorable experiences. A positiveexperience thus justifies the extra price paid by the consumer, strengthens brand loyalty(the consumer wishes to relive a memorable experience) and above all it encouragesword-of-mouth, a fundamental form of viral marketing.Moreover, experience places consumers at the centre, giving them a “name” and “role”.Lastly, in a world with information overload, the only effective information will be thatpromising interesting and pleasant experiences. Since today the only truly limitedresource is attention, we tend only to grasp those information items which promisepositive experiences.Each product or service must therefore convey to the consumer a memorable retellableexperience. Often the reason we wish to experience something is to be able torecount it to friends, share it with others, possibly even eliciting a little envy.Designing a (positive) experience means creating its functional aspects (services andcontent) to meet specific practical needs (which can be made explicit) or a deep desirethat has not yet emerged but can be identified through specific techniques (e.g. socalledethnographic observation). But it also means creating symbolic emotionalactivators able to spread usability and conjure up profound – almost archetypal –images creating an exciting, all-embracing and memorable experience.Conventions of quality and material culture goodsFor contemporary material culture goods, the appreciation of quality evolves in timebecause it refers to values, interpretative codes and the appreciation of exogenousWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 90