Brand: Spiritual or Religious Entity?

Professor Benoit Heilbrunn draws on abundant resources and references from social and human sciences to conduct original research on marketing at ESCP-EAP. This approach leads him to question spirituality, sacredness, and belief in the consumer society. Author of numerous books and articles, Heilbrunn regularly discussed the convergence between religion and brands by looking at how their economy resolves around the mystery of the Trinity through the three complementary sides of an absent god: a "sensorial" side, linked to the material products of the consumer good and to its tangible aspects, directly prehensile by consumers; a "rhetoric" side, which refers to the ideological dimension of the brand, to its place and its capacity to convey values and imagination; a "pragmatic" side, which points towards engaging corporal practices and which orchestrate, among others, the rituals of buying and consumption.