A Sustainable Train of Thought

Triple Pundit: Branding citizen

The following bit caught my eye:

“We can apply the four key components of brand equity (according to Brand Asset Valuator) to the Citizen as well: differentiation (from consumer), relevance (growing feeling of responsibility among people as an appeal), esteem (would be well regarded and respected), knowledge (people are familiar with the concept of Citizenship).”

These might be useful metrics around which to judge/create a solution. In particular, they offer some interesting possibilities once we’re further along the path of transitioning society…

Citizen is probably interchangeable with Customer in this case - I think they both fundamentally contain the same principles of education and knowledge (understanding) and responsibility (achievement), just further along the slope of the curve. An important linkage between short and mid-term (and possibly long-term).

Edit:

Actually, perhaps the question to ask is whether the progression is: Consumer -> Customer -> Citizen. Or is Customer = Citizen?

Is the Citizen the pinnacle of the Understanding/Achievement relationship? How much more granular can the progression become? Or is the Consumer -> Customer transition a subset of the larger transition of society towards Citizen? Since definitions are always useful:

Citizen: a formal member of a political community, membership of which confers rights (such as the right of political participation) and responsibilities (adherence to the rule of law).

It would seem the concepts are connected—I can’t imagine a society of consumers acting as citizens, as consumers are typified by passivity, exactly the attribute the transition to customer attempts to address.