Future Marketing as Technology for Manipulating Symbolic Consumption

At the end of the 20th and in the beginning of the 21st centuries, many publications appeared with the aim of trying to characterize the new state of society, which is characterized by an orientation towards economic goals and values. The concept of a consumer society continues to develop, and many authors associate the peculiarities of modern consumption with the spread of digital technologies. An analysis of these publications, as well as the latest trends in social economic development, made it possible to identify the cause of the latest socio-economic changes– the formation of a new neo-capitalist formation. There was a reorientation of the entire economy from the production of real goods to status consumption. Within the framework of neo-capitalism, the purpose of consumption of goods and services is not to satisfy real needs, but to obtain status characteristics that are associated with a product or service. This type of consumption requires an individual to invest more and more financial resources, since the average consumer does not have the financial ability to maintain high standards of status consumption. Neocapitalism stimulates consumer activity and production well, but it has a destructive effect on society as a whole. Failure to maintain the desired level of consumption leads the individual to a state of psychosocial stress– anomie. In general, the proposed concept will be of interest to both marketing practitioners and specialists in the field of socio-economic theory. It will allow you to move from an intuitive understanding of the changes taking place to a conceptual explanation.