The rain hasn’t stopped for hours. Wind rattles the shelter’s windows as the storm outside swells, flooding the streets they used to call home. In a crowded gym, a family of four sit huddled together on makeshift beds pushed side by side each other. The parents wrap donated blankets around their shoulders; the teenagers lean against each other. Someone suggests a movie: something light, something old. They settle on a childhood favourite, a worn-out Pixar film, its colours flickering softly on the phone screen. Familiar voices, the opening music, the brand logo before the title… For a few minutes, it feels like the flood damage caused to their home no longer matters because they are together.
This is not just nostalgia. Research shows it is a form of collective coping. When the world feels unstable, why do we cling to familiar household brands and family rituals?
A study in everyday survival
In our recent research published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, we explored how families use everyday brands and consumer rituals to restore a shared sense of identity after major life-changing disruptions.
Drawing on interviews and the diaries of 22 French families during the Covid-19 lockdowns, we found that major life disruptions, sudden collective shocks like pandemics, wars, or natural disasters, destabilise shared identities. When crisis strikes, family units don’t merely adapt their routines; they rebuild who they are together through consumption.
Brands act as scaffolding for reconstructing “who we are together”. Products, platforms, and rituals, from Netflix series to board games to family meals, become tools for resilience and belonging.
And this pattern extends well beyond Covid. In an era of growing environmental volatility, it matters more than ever. According to global risk reports, the number of natural disasters causing major economic losses is at record highs. As more and more communities around the world face upheaval, these small, mundane gestures of consumption are likely to become even more vital.
How we make sense when the world stops making sense
The study identifies three-way people use shared consumption to soothe anxiety and reclaim a sense of belonging.
1) Ritualised structuring: re-creating routine
When time feels suspended, people rebuild daily habits through familiar brands. This can involve watching the same show every night at eight to mark family time or deciding that Tuesday night is reserved for a sisterly chat over WhatsApp while watching a cooking show. Even a simple coffee in a beloved mug every morning can signal the start of “normal” life again.
These rituals restore predictability and reinforce family structure: who does what, when, and with whom?
2) Collective revalorising: rediscovering shared fun
Shared consumption becomes a new form of togetherness. Families dust off old board games like Monopoly and Cluedo. Parents can cook with kids using brands that “belong” to the household (e.g. Nutella pancakes, Lego projects). The activity is not about the brand itself; it is about reasserting family character traits: “We’re playful,” “We’re resilient,” “We do this together.”
3) Intergenerational romanticising: reviving lineage
Families can also turn to the past for comfort, rewatching classics from childhood, cooking passed down recipes, or creating family newsletters to share stories across generations. These rituals ease anxiety by reconnecting with lineage and continuity. A form of quiet resistance to the fear that the future is slipping away.
Together, these practices form a kind of psychological architecture: a way to impose meaning, order, and belonging amidst chaos.
What brands really mean in a crisis
Not all brands can play that role. The ones that endure crises often do so not because they shout louder, but because they embody stability, shared experience, and emotional legacy.
During an economic downturn or after a parent’s layoff, trusted retailers can become family anchors and symbols that life can still be rearranged. A brand like Ikea, for example, could help families adjust to smaller homes by buying back larger furniture and offering adaptable, modular pieces that transform rooms into communal areas. That kind of gesture does more than move products: it helps families reimagine togetherness and regain a sense of control.
In climate disasters, local brands can strengthen communities and become symbols of solidarity. After the 2025 Texas flash floods, Walmart offered free meals to affected families. Initiatives like that could go further, for example by creating spaces where families gather, connect, and rest. The value is not just in the food; it is in rebuilding collective morale.
Even in political upheaval, cultural and media brands provide continuity. National broadcasters, for instance, can help by reviving beloved classic films that families can watch together. A subtle act of collective reassurance, reminding people of their shared cultural heritage.
The insight is simple but powerful: during disruption, consumption is not escapism. It’s sense making.
Belonging as a Business Asset
If brands can become emotional lifelines, it is because consumption in moments of rupture is not mindless escapism. Sharing a meal, lighting the same candle, queuing up the same movie… these acts whisper, “We’re still ourselves.”
The brands that subsist are not the ones that dominate conversations, but those that quietly fit into our family coping mechanisms. Our research shows that brands become vectors of family history, creators of gathering occasions, and delineators of individual, relational, and collective times and activities. They are, in effect, identity technologies which act as everyday anchors for group belonging and continuity.
As societies face mounting major challenges, from climate anxiety to digital disconnection and geopolitical tension, the emotional dimension of the marketplace will matter more than ever. When the world falls apart, the brands we hold onto are not about consumption at all; they are about remembering who we are.
Feature image credit: Unsplash
