How Narrative Merchants Set The Price of Attention
Why buying attention is a luxury few can afford and how social media is the battleground for narrative dominance.
Buying luxury is a signal you can access a scarce resource others cannot. It builds desire and even jealousy. While most people assume luxury is about watches or cars or clothes, it can be more than that. Monetized attention can be a luxury. Social networks are narrative battlegrounds. Those who can break through the noise have access to the luxury of attention.
Selling a luxury item is a price and marketing decision. Luxury items have scarcity built in and exist due to desire. And the marketer manufactures desire. People with the ability to craft and control narratives own the luxury of attention. You call these people Narrative Merchants.
Commodities are lower valued items because there is no scarcity. Competition drives prices down. Merchants selling commodities, or necessity goods, must build value in other ways. In narrative land, commodities are 98% of the accounts. These accounts re-share, re-tweet, and add fire to the original narrative.
Marketing drives both luxury and commodity markets but with different communication strategies. Luxury merchants communicate status and high value. Hermès sells Birkin bags at $15k+ to buyers willing to take all the steps required to buy one. Narrative Merchants also communicate status and high value through viral posts and shares. They use languaging, which can be a turn of phrase or description, that will change the readers point of view.
Target sells commodity knock-off’s at 0.1% the price of a similar luxury item. It is similar in narrative land. The majority of accounts share whatever the Narrative Merchant is peddling. In the end, buyers are happy whatever they buy.
Attention is a luxury and has a powerful sway on the market. Everyone wants a higher status of some sort. Luxury markets make it look real for anyone. And the marketing makes it look attainable for a price.
Narrative Merchants embody Girard’s theory of Mimetic Desire. We learn by imitating those we want to become. High status individuals have always been salespeople to the masses. They sell their ease of access to wealth and power and we respond by imitating them. Why? We want higher incomes. Higher status. Power.
Narrative Merchants set the price of attention. That price is a never-ending flywheel of fabricated messages. Social media levels the playing field. Everyone has access to the tools. But the design of narratives is still only controlled by a small number of people. We are not better of for it.