Lecture 2- Consumer Identity Work Flashcards
(20 cards)
What does belk (1988) said about possessions?
It’s an extended self, where we use products (possesions) as key to expand, strengthen the sense of self.
Poststructuralist inclination
Instead of believing there’s one fixed reality or truth, we understand that the environment was constantly being re-shaped, re-defined and re-construct.
Cultural Meaning Transfer Model
cultural meaning are transfered from the cultural constituted world to consumption objects through the advertising and fashion system.
(McCracken 1986) says meaning moves through three stages like a little cultural relay race:
Culture → Product
Meaning starts in culture—like freedom, elegance, toughness—and gets attached to stuff through ads, celebs, movies, music, etc.
(Example: Leather jackets = rebellion thanks to pop culture)
Product → Consumer
When we buy or use those products, the cultural meaning transfers to us.
(You wear the leather jacket, you feel like a rebel—or at least you’re signaling it)
Consumer → Others
We communicate those meanings to other people through how we style, display, or talk about the products.
(Like when someone sees your minimalist Apple setup and thinks “ooh, clean and creative.”)
Identity Projects
the ways consumers actively build, express, and negotiate their sense of who they are through the things they consume, own, and experience.
Identity is thought to be socially constructed in specific cultural context through interactions with others, rather than an inherent trait.
Postmodernity:
traditional identity anchors (family, tradition, place) have become gradually replaced by aesthetic, affective, and temporary neo-tribal communities, such as communities of consumption.
Lambert (2018): Psychotic, Acritical, and Precarious? What does Lambert argue about the neoliberal consumer subject?
Lambert critiques how neoliberalism pushes individuals—especially young women—to constantly construct their identities through consumption and self-performance.
Instead of freedom, neoliberalism promotes pressure to be self-made, productive, and perfect—making people feel it’s their fault if they “fail” to become their best self.
This creates a “psychotic” subject (unstable, always rebranding), who is:
Acritical – doesn’t question the system, just follows it;
Precarious – fragile sense of self, always needing validation.
👉 Identity becomes a personal responsibility, not a shared social project.
The relationship of the marketplace and family life
It is contentious. families move through marketplace journeys together as a collective, using their experiences to anchor both everyday life and life transitions.
since the idea of family isnt fixed–different cultures, time periods have different models.
Thus marketers must:
must rethink traditional family stereotypes and recognize diversity (e.g., LGBTQ+ families, single parents, multicultural households).
Cultural Discourses of family
these discourses are historically instantiated, politically motivated, and socially articulated. Cultural ideas that shaped by history politics and religion. Consumers often struggles to live up these ideals, creating opportunities for marketers to offer solution or basically capitalize.
Market place as double agent to families: Friend & Foe
The market supports family life (e.g., vacation packages, tech to connect long-distance families).
BUT it can also commodify it (e.g., competitive parenting via Pinterest-worthy birthday parties, or “outsourcing” parental roles).
Family as social reproduction
Families pass down values and roles through daily consumption (e.g., meal prep, chore division, family activities).
This includes gender norms, like moms doing all the shopping and cooking—unless explicitly challenged
Emotional and Affective Dimensions of Consumer Culture
Emotion are always present in markets, thus marketing shapes and channels our feeling through advertisements, commercials…they infuse cars, beauty product with excitement, hop and romance.
Affect and Emotion
as a force of intensity that arises in people’s encounter with the world.
for example: people might be affected when they encounter stories and images of poverty. the emotions will play an important role in how someone acts and how they will relate themselves to others.
Emotion- the interpretation of an encounter affect
Primary socialization
begins in early life and learned through family ubringing, peer groupinvovement, education and adolescent.
Emotions are socially learned
Consumers learn when and how to expereince, act on, and express which type of emotions in two ways: through primary socialization and by following the prevailing feeling rules of specific.
Feeling rules
basically the norms or guidelines the assigned feeling or emotion in different establishment apps and social events that constrict the type, intensity, and duration of the experienced emotions
🔑 5 Key Marketing Models of Identity Representation
Colorblind Model (Dominant Image, Dominant Lifestyle)
→ Ignores race/ethnicity completely. Pretends everyone’s the same = invisibilizes difference.
Cultural Assimilation Model (Non-dominant Image, Dominant Lifestyle)
→ Encourages minorities to conform to dominant (usually white, Western) norms.
Multiculturalism Model (Range of Dominant & Non-dominant Images; Typically (but not always) Dominant Lifestyle)
→ Celebrates difference—but often in a polished, safe way that avoids complexity or conflict.
Cultural Appropriation Model (Non-dominant Image Centered and/or Stereotypical Non-Dominant Lifestyle)
→ Borrows elements from marginalized cultures without including or crediting them. (Can be stereotypical)
Identity Niche Model
→ Targets specific identity groups as profitable “niches” (e.g., LGBTQ+ ads during Pride) without systemic inclusion.
3 Market place sentiments
- An emotion such as happiness, anger, disgust
- A brand, person, or event toward which the emotion is targeted
3.A group of people who collectively experience the same emotion toward the brand, person, or event.
*Marketplace sentiments can be positive an negative
Critical Reflections on Consumer Identity
Markets don’t just respond to consumer identities—they shape them. The freedom to choose is often an illusion structured by market forces, norms, and ideologies.
Intersectionality. Tech and Algorithmic Bias
Intersectionality Matters: One-size-fits-all identities erase overlapping experiences of race, class, gender, etc.
Tech and Algorithmic Bias: Digital personalization can reinforce exclusion or stereotype.
