The Adnostic

Dave and I have been watching the new season of Dexter and it's hard to watch that show and not think about rituals. The main character mentions it often, sometimes calling it "The Code." How he goes about selecting his victims, carrying out the executions, and then blending back into normal life. His ritual and the rituals of the other serial killers he stalks are very important. They can't break from the ritual any more than they can stop breathing.

We all have our rituals. How we wake up in the morning and prepare for the day is one that I'm sure we all have some version of. I usually blink painfully awake, grab my phone from the charger, and read the previous night's twitter feed until I feel alert enough to dress myself and head to the gym for my daily must-fit-into-wedding-dress workout. It's not necessary, but it's the way I like to meet the day - slowly.

This ritual can sometimes be mistaken for or even interchanged with habit. It gives us a modicum of pleasure to re-experience the familiar or to meet something new in a way that feels proper to us. Rituals can give something mundane an air of mysticism, or a sense of power over something unfamiliar.

I stumbled across this on High Snobriety via NotCot. A collaboration between the champagne maker Piper Heidsieck and the super sexy shoe designer Christian Louboutin - a resurrection of the almost forgotten ritual from the 1880's where courtly revelers would sip champagne from their lover's shoe.

What forgotten rituals about your product can you reinterpret to the benefit of your brand and to enrich the experience of your customers? Can a ritual help make your obscure brand more familiar to new customers?