I would probably disagree with that! Maybe not large scale, large corporation marketing directly but we are all targets. You only have to read posts on this forum over a period of months to see just how much we succumb to influences, either directly or indirectly.
'Everything is political' and everything is marketing too. We do all succumb to it to some extent. I'd agree with you, my 'so true' was about the less consumerist, ride from home types part of Scud's post- (and then also thinking a bit more about the 'Postman's been' thread here I know we're probably wrong
). We're all influenced by each other and ideas shared though, sure.
I think mainstream brands eg Evans or Wiggle's marketing tend to go for the largest groups and easy wins, the short-term boosts from things already in motion. The smaller or bigger-budget smart brands go for the smaller groups of opinion-formers, 'grammers, early-adopters etc and then build something from there often almost from scratch - that's where we may be a target. It's all quite blurred I think, ie I'm both not the target customer in many ways (outside of basic demographics) but could become part of that by being prominent and influential on social media.
making us believe that ownership will enhance our experience in any number of ways. It's all aspiration I suppose.
- which is exactly why I have a new road bike with a classic style despite having an old but perfectly functional bike for that same use already. The sense of the bike expressing something I value, something a good marketeer sums up in an image or tagline.
always interests me. From the industry side I'd say there is little power to steer or control. More that they just react to try to build. Specialized, prob the biggest bike co with the biggest budgets, have never really started any trends. They've just been very good at taking ideas from the grass roots and running with them. 'The Industry' ie as a whole jumps on trends once they get scale.
