Consumption Studies

In this article, we explore the imbrication of service work with consumer markets and larger structures of inequality, including gender and class divides as well as social and economic differences. In line with current soci-olinguistic scholarship on language and work, we are interested in the activity of serving people-both in the sense of being or becoming people who serve as well as in the practice of providing services to people. To do so, we offer an ethnographic account of the regime of labor surveillance as well as the daily work practices of female workers at a Starbucks coffeehouse in London, UK. We wonder about how employers organize the bodies of workers into signs, codes and messages that appeal to customers' class expectations of this type of consumption. By documenting the regimentation and surveillance of labor at Starbucks, we inquire into the prescribed rules that guide 'proper' presentations of physicality; further, we ask questions about the mechanism through which the body at Starbucks is made to express its positioning within a structure of labor and its relationality to others, especially customers.

Although the new middle classes in emerging markets are a matter of significant interest for marketing scholars and managers, there is little systematic research on their values and preoccupations. This article focuses on the new middle class consumers to identify the new, shared socio-ideological sensibilities informed by the recent neoliberal reforms in emerging markets, and examines how these sensibilities are actualized in consumption. Through an ethnographic study of fashion consumption in Turkey, the authors explicate three salient new middle class sensibilities, which implicate the mastery of ordinary in pursuit of connections with people, institutions, and contexts. These sensibilities crystallize into a particular mode of consumption– formulaic creativity, which addresses consumers’ desire to align with the middle and helps them reconcile the disjuncture between the promises of neoliberalism and the realities of living in unstable societies.

Resumen: objetivo/contexto: en los últimos diez años, la etnografía se ha consolidado como un servicio central del portafolio de muchas empresas de investigación de mercados en Colombia que ofrecen a sus clientes etnografías de consumo. El objetivo de este artículo es describir y analizar la manera como los profesionales de la investigación de mercados entienden y emplean la etnografía. Metodología: la investigación que dio lugar a este artículo tuvo varias fases. Inicialmente, se identificaron las instituciones que ofrecen etnografías de consumo en Colombia. A continuación, se hizo el análisis de los portafolios de servicios de las instituciones identificadas, así como el análisis del discurso con el que ofrecen sus servicios, en particular el de estudios etnográficos. Finalmente, se realizaron más de veinte entrevistas a profesionales de la investigación de mercados en Bogotá, Cali y Medellín, todos con experiencia en la realización de etnografías de consumo. Conclusiones: en Colombia no ha sido analizado en profundidad el proceso de integración del método etnográfico en las empresas de investigación de mercados, a pesar de que recientemente profesionales de este campo están abriendo espacios para hacer el debate en la academia. Un ejemplo de esto es que en el XVII Congreso de Antropología en Colombia de 2019 por primera vez hubo cuatro mesas dedicadas a antropología aplicada al consumo, los mercados, la industria y las empresas. Originalidad: estos espacios son ideales para discutir los postulados y hallazgos de este artículo, en especial nuestra conclusión de que, en el campo de la investigación de mercados, se usa e instrumentaliza el discurso de la antropología para dotar las etnografías de consumo de legitimidad académica y científica, aunque sus prácticas y presupuestos metodológicos son desestimados.

Palabras claves: antropología de negocios, estudios de consumo, etnografía, etnografías de consumo, investigación de mercados, mercadeo.

“The Businessman’s New Clothes”: The Use of Ethnography in Market Research

Abstract: Objective/context: In the last ten years, ethnography has consolidated itself as a central service in the portfolio of many market research companies in Colombia that offer their clients consumer ethnographies. The objective of this article is to describe and analyze how market research professionals understand and use ethnography. Methodology: The research that led to this article involved several phases. Initially, we identified the institutions that offer consumer ethnographies in Colombia. This was followed by an analysis of the service portfolios of these institutions, as well as an analysis of the discourse with which they offer their services, particularly in terms of ethnographic studies. Finally, more than twenty interviews were conducted with market research professionals in Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, all with experience in carrying out consumer ethnographies. Conclusions: Despite the fact that professionals in this field have recently opened up spaces for debate in academia, in Colombia, the process of integrating the ethnographic method into market research companies has not been analyzed in depth. An example of this is that at the XVII Congress of Anthropology in Colombia in 2019, for the first time, there were four tables devoted to anthropology applied to consumption, markets, industry, and business. Originality: These spaces are ideal for discussing the postulates and findings of this article, especially our conclusion that, in the field of market research, the discourse of anthropology is used and instrumentalised to endow consumer ethnographies with academic and scientific legitimacy, even though its methodological practices and assumptions tend to be underestimated.

Keywords: Business anthropology, consumer ethnographies, consumption studies, ethnography, market research, marketing.

“O novo paletó do empreendedor”: o uso da etnografia na pesquisa de mercado

Resumo: objetivo/contexto: nos últimos dez anos, a etnografia se estabeleceu como um serviço central do portfólio de muitas empresas de pesquisa de mercado na Colômbia que oferecem etnografias de consumo a seus clientes. O objetivo deste artigo é descrever e analisar como os profissionais de pesquisa de mercado compreendem e utilizam a etnografia. Metodologia: a pesquisa que deu origem a este artigo teve várias fases. Inicialmente, foram identificadas as instituições que oferecem etnografias de consumo na Colômbia. Em seguida, os portfólios de serviços das instituições identificadas, bem como o discurso com o qual oferecem seus serviços, em particular o de estudos etnográficos, foram analisados. Por fim, foram realizadas mais de vinte entrevistas com profissionais de pesquisa de mercado em Bogotá, Cali e Medellín, todos com experiência na realização de etnografias de consumo. Conclusões: na Colômbia, o processo de integração do método etnográfico nas empresas de pesquisa de mercado não foi analisado em profundidade, ainda que os profissionais dessa área estejam abrindo espaço para o debate na academia. Um exemplo disso é que no XVII Congresso de Antropologia da Colômbia de 2019, pela primeira vez, havia quatro mesas dedicadas à antropologia aplicada ao consumo, mercados, indústria e empresas. Originalidade: esses espaços são ideais para discutir os postulados e as conclusões deste artigo, especialmente a de que, no campo da pesquisa de mercado, o discurso da antropologia é utilizado e instrumentalizado para dotar a etnografia de consumo de legitimidade acadêmica e científica, embora suas práticas e suposições metodológicas sejam desprezadas.

Palavras-chave: antropologia empresarial, estudos de consumo, etnografia, etnografia do consumidor, pesquisa de mercados, marketing.

Previous research on sustainability and health-related product labels has sought to develop segmentation frameworks based on consumers' self-reports. However, consumers are likely to overstate the effect that these labels have on their purchasing behavior. Moreover, existing consumer segmentation frameworks do not distinguish among product labels based on whether they offer public benefits (e.g., environmental benefits, animal welfare, social equity) vs. private benefits (e.g., cost savings, health benefits) vs. both. This article addresses these gaps by 1) developing a consumer segmentation based on consumers' actual purchases of sustainability and health-related products and 2) differentiating product labels based on the benefits they offer e public, private or both. Using cluster analysis, it assesses the actual daily consumption of 132 Italian consumers over 30 months and more than 370,000 transactions. The results indicate three segments of consumers: collectivists, individualists and indifferents. Moreover, the findings show that consumer segments are affected differently depending on whether a product label promises either public benefits, private benefits or both.

This paper contributes to theories of brands as sites of identity work and convergence. It takes as its subject relations of belonging and participation as they shape communal
‘scenes’ out of which spring intimations of spaces of cultural production as branding ecosystems. To illustrate ways in which this line of thought ignites discourses on branding as a mode of
relational being, we explore the social environment fomented around Warhol’s court, ‘The Factory’, that iconic symbol of the mediated logic of his oeuvre. Drawing on archival accounts of
Factory life, we explore cultural production as illustrative of brands and branding as social technologies exciting the imaginary and its theater of possibility. And to understand how
collective consumption of relations of connectivity nurture conditions suggestive of new branding forms, we consider the existential logic of ‘branding being’, of thinking ‘spaces’ made available through branding as a mode of relational being.

Since Harry Gordon Selfridge first opened his eponymous department store on Oxford Street in 1909, London’s retailing industry was then revolutionized as Selfridge “literally changed everything about the way Londoners shopped” (Woodhead, 2007, pp.1) – the artsy shop windows, inventive in-store promotions, glitzy fashion shows and other entertainment, as well as premium customer services and facilities mesmerize every elite consumer. In the adventurous American retailer’s vision, shopping is at once a visual and tactile, gratifying and pleasurable experience that can be best relished in “a moment of private self-indulgence and enjoyment” (Woodhead, 2007, p.34). However, in the late twentieth century, due to the unprecedented growth and changes in retailing services and consumption around the world triggered by the irreversible force of globalization, post-industrialization, urbanization, transnational mobility and money flows, branding and marketing, information and communications technology and so forth, rather than just a corner of the street, we witnessed the “malling” of a large portion of urban space and gradual standardization of cityscapes in rapidly developing consumer societies, particularly in China and East Asia – from multi-story shopping malls, flagship stores, concept boutiques to guerrilla pop-up shops. Meanwhile, more and more consumers are becoming addicted to online surfing and shopping, and marketers and retailers tend to explore the online sphere, building their brands and selling their merchandises, leading to the rapid “malling” of virtual space.

Does such a metamorphosis guarantee everlasting growth in sales and further perpetuation of consumerism in our society and culture? On one hand, the emergence of online shopping, reliance on global travelers’ and tourists’ impulse (or price-conscious) consumption in global cities, have created new challenges for brands and retailers improvising strategies to sell and impress the clienteles through their physical (also virtual) shops, no matter how enthralling they be; on the other, they are striving to adapt to/experiment new modes of brand and design communication. Now our society is already saturated with brand icons and images, online and offline, and then there are simply too many options – from promotional strategies, communication channels, product variety to ways of consumption – to dazzle and distract consumers at once and in every nanosecond. Placing all these as the backdrop of branding and retailing practices, several key questions emerge: is retail design still significant like in the good old days amid the new chances and challenges? What are the alleged changes and actual practices in the contemporary retail industry and retail design as a tool of brand communication that we, whether as a researcher, practitioner or even just an ordinary consumer, have to pay attention to? What are their immediate implications and divergent effects to consumers, culture and society? More radically speaking, for instance, can the evolving virtual shopping experience and its potential synchronization with 3D printing technology (i.e., “prosume” a piece of recyclable/reprintable luxury fashion online with just a click and within a couple of minutes when one has an “omnipotent” 3D printer at home) completely substitute and eradicate the offline one in the foreseeable future (Leopold, 2015; Lindgren, 2015)? In this chapter, based on interdisciplinary theories and recent empirical research in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we attempt to address the above questions, and the discussions will focus on the retail market conditions and their social, cultural and economic significance in the two locales within the East Asian market, providing insights to a wide range of audiences who are concerned about the future of the retail industry, as well as briefly discussing the impact of evolving retail designs, dictated by market trends, on the creative liberties of the designers.

Reference:
Leopold, C., 2015. Fashion designer makes entire collection using small 3D printers. Digital Journal, [online] 27 July.
Lindgren, T., 2013. Fashion system Shanghai: The advent of a new gatekeeper. In J. L. Foltyn & R. Fisher ed., Proceedings of 5th Global Conference: Fashion – Exploring Critical Issues. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary.Net, pp.1-8.
Woodhead, L., 2007. Shopping, seduction & Mr Selfridge. London: Profile 2007.

Jamie Oliver—the global celebrity megachef extraordinaire—does not like sugar. Butter and olive oil, yes, but sugar is a serious problem because, as he puts on his website, ‘[o]besity is one of the biggest issues facing our children’s generation, with huge consequences for our NHS and wider economy’ (jamiesfoodrevolution.org, 2017). But what are we supposed to do about this problem given that, as he explains, ‘in 2017, diet poses a greater threat to UK families’ health and life expectancy than anything else’? Turn to Twitter, of course, to tweet our members of parliament using the novel hashtag of #GE2017—this because Prime Minister Theresa May has just called a General Election—but also that of Jamie’s branded handle of #FoodRevolution. These exhortations come on the back of Jamie’s relative success with his 2016 TV, internet and social media campaign blitz unironically called ‘Jamie’s Sugar Rush’, in which he claimed to have single-handedly persuaded the UK government to institute a future tax on sugary drinks. Given this and his multitude of other media appearances—much like other celebrity chefs, terrestrial and digital food media (e.g. food TV, tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and Youtube) and more traditional food publications (e.g. cookbooks, magazines and books)—Jamie has contributed to the production of a thoroughly mediatized foodscape.

While the processes of production and consumption are increasingly interrelated in society, there is a bourgeoning literature on consumers' increased power through the prosumption process and its evolutions and manifestations in various industries, markets and social contexts. This article challenges the theoretical assumption that all types of 'prosumers' become directly empowered by digital technology or have an equal opportunity to participate in the production process through Web 2.0. By extending Ritzer's reconceptualised idea of prosumption beyond the Global North, our research analysed two specific East Asian cases of fashion consumers whose countries shared rapidly rising economic status and cultural significance yet underwent different sociocultural trajectories. Using focus group interview, we investigated how these consumers interact differentially with the existing social structure, cultural values and other emergent social agents, and the extent to which they are able to exert an influence on the production of immaterial fashion. Contesting the expressivist take of the 'cultural turn' which overemphasises consumers' awareness of and control over symbolic fashion, this article's major theoretical contribution relates to symbolic consumption in the case of fashion – as a unique case blending material, immaterial and symbolic consumption – among young Chinese and Korean consumers geographically located out of the global fashion centres. We explored prosumption's vicissitudes and limits as a theoretical concept, challenging its universality across different cultures, political-economic models and product categories, also demonstrating the multifaceted relationships and dissimilar types of power balances between production/producer and consumption/consumer. The study concluded with the new and differing orders of fashion consumption in Korea and China: the recognition of the overlapping effects of economic, sociocultural, habitual and technological factors which constitute different levels of empowerment and create different types of 'prosumers', including 'elite prosumers' and 'passive prosumers'; and the power reshuffling among fashion producers, emergent social agents and consumers in the digital age.