pattern recognition

i moved to manhattan exactly 3 years ago to start my career as a brand strategy consultant. i started to fall in love with image/brand years ago in college, where i studied decision science at carnegie mellon [my concentration was in affective decision-making, or how emotions contribute to our behavior]. when i was fortunate to be offered my first job in brand, i started diving into any related reading material i could get my hands on. apart from the usual suspects like the tipping point or building strong brands [written by the founder of my current firm, david aaker], i picked up pattern recognition by william gibson on a whim and found that it provided valuable perspective as well.

now, 3 years later, i’m re-reading the book, and it has evolved to different meaning for me. set in august and september 2002, the story follows cayce pollard, a coolhunter who is allergic to brand. companies hire her as a consultant because she has that peculiar sensitivity to corporate identity. she wears “cpu’s” [cayce pollard units] which are mostly black clothes and boots, a blank canvas uniform i certainly have adopted, but carefully cuts off all labels/tags lest she have an allergic flair-up. in fact, gibson has her shopping at muji in tokyo ['muji' actually means 'no brand,' but the store has become a very distinct brand despite itself]. the  book takes place in london, tokyo, and moscow as cayce judges the effectiveness of logos and tries to unravel the mystery of online movie footage.

the themes that i am most enjoying in the novel [and there are many] are those of branding, identity, and globalization. cayce has a sensitivity to brand that i have cultivated over the years. for example, a female character and possible antagonist forcibly wears the latest prada pieces to give an apparent air of in-the-knowness and snobery. cayce draws most of her conclusions about people and places based on the unavoidable calculated way in which they are clothed or designed. we live in a world of brands, and the more i learn of the inner-workings of companies and their heavily-marketed, manicured images, the more i view the world in the same way.

gibson is apparently a brand-obsessive as well. i love the way in which he describes the tommy hilfiger brand [as only someone who really understands brand positioning can]:

“…simulacra of simulacra of simulacra. a dilute tincture of ralph lauren, who had himself diluted the glory days of brooks brothers, who themselves had stepped on the product of jermyn street and savile row … there must be some tommy hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul…”

postmodern theorist fredric jameson calls this theme “a kind of hyped-up name-dropping … [where] an encyclopaedic familiarity with the fashions … [creates] class status as a matter of knowing the score rather than of having money and power”. he also calls it “postmodern nominalism” in that the names express the new and fashionable.^[28]

the book is entertaining for any science fiction or postmodern fiction fan, but it is also a fascinating read for those with an interest in the effectiveness and ubiquity of marketing & brand identity. it’s an accessible read with entertaining characters and exciting cities. pattern recognition is certainly a book i will pick up every few years to check my own barometer of cultural change.