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Conclusion
Marketing online requires more than merely creating a presence-inducing environment. In thestory of Dumbo, the feather did not elicit confidence in one social element without the behavior of
another social element. Behavior afforded behavior, but only through a mediating talisman.
Similarly, consumer products afford more than physical modifications to the environment. Through
learned rules of cultural use, consumer products afford personal achievement as culturally defined.
Products also offer social participation and cultural cohesion. Online product-only presentations
may create a sense of presence. However, no matter how vivid or interactive an environment may
otherwise be, without the cultural context of social presence, the product is meaningless.Brands by themselves do not afford consumers any opportunity to modify the physical
environment. Brands can afford consumers the opportunity to be aware of competing products, objects
that can modify the physical environment. Even in that use, however, the only affordance of brands
is that they can signify something. As discussed previously, brands signify consumers’
relationships to their environments. Sometimes, brands signify how consumers relate to their
physical environments. Most often, brands signify how consumers relate to their social
environments. Online marketing must afford consumers the opportunity to recognize brands that
signify their cultural roles and social relations.
Research that studies virtual product experience removed from cultural and social contexts
will likely fail to learn key product affordances. Consumers will certainly want to learn how to
use an object with which they are operationally unfamiliar. However, such experience isolated from
context may be more useful for users’ manuals than for marketing communications. Effective online
marketing design must be founded on research into the social and cultural affordances of products
and brands.
