ABSTRACT
Interior design is one of the most profitable industries in today’s market. This enterprise has an annual revenue of approximately 11.5 billion dollars. It is estimated that net sales will triple in the next five years. Rising demand for home goods makes it affordable for more and more consumers to be part of this growing trend. Besides manufacturing and selling home goods, this industry has created a need. Consumerism has ingeniously managed to convert a simple human necessity, such as having a shelter, into a stylized dream every time we open a magazine and we see a stunning living space. The homes and rooms advertised in magazines such as Sunset, Dwell, Better Home & Garden, and Architectural Digest quickly becomes a desire in the reader’s mind, one that can be achieved through the consumption of home goods. These powerful images translate as the accessibility of luxurious dreams at an affordable price. Reality TV, with trending shows like Design Star, and TV networks such as HGTV, played a crucial role in achieving this goal. Interestingly, what was once considered to be a market that targeted only women, has now surpassed the boundaries of gender, race, and even socio-economic class in the majority of developed and developing countries around the globe. Single men, for example, can obtain insight into fashion, fitness, and how to live. Alpha M, a blog created by Aaron Marino, is nowadays one of the most popular channels on YouTube among men. As of today, Marino’s channel has more than ten million subscribers and the number keeps growing. Like Marino, other bloggers with similar channels have not only achieved celebrity status, but they have also become an authority on how men in the twenty-first century should dress and decorate their home. Alpha M is a perfect example of what I would call a modern-day cyber consulting business in the branding of masculinity, in terms of fashion and interior design.
