Maha Hasan

Beneath the Veil Lies a Hidden Secret: How Hyperreality Gave Me a Second Life: a Postmodern Pakistani Perspective Maha Hasan

In the Postmodern era, the rules used to measure, define and predict consumption patterns and behaviour have been rendered ineffective. Such consumers, especially in the realm of hyperreality, exhibit the kind of individuality that is hard to measure using traditional marketing and research tools. The unpredictability of their behaviour and their tendency to value the symbolic meaning of brands more than the utilitarian make it difficult to group them using conventional demographic variables. Within the domain of hyperreality, users are subjected to various influencing factors, which ultimately help to evolve their self concept. Over the course of the study, different themes emerged from the analysis of the primary data. The themes are discussed in detail and recommendations have been given, which focus on identifying gaps and relating the different ways marketers can fill them, such as by providing different options and services to meet the needs of the evolved self-concept of the post-modern consumer.