Consumer Culture Research Articles

Impact of Gender-Specific Marketing on Consumer Purchasing Behavior in Philippines

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze impact of gender-specific marketing on consumer purchasing behavior in Philippines. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Recent studies on the impact of gender-specific marketing on consumer purchasing behavior in the Philippines reveal that tailoring marketing strategies to gender preferences significantly influences buying decisions. Research indicates that campaigns designed with gender-specific appeals are more effective in resonating with target audiences, thereby enhancing engagement and driving sales. For instance, marketing messages emphasizing traditional gender roles or specific lifestyle aspirations often result in higher purchase intentions among female consumers, while campaigns highlighting strength and technology tend to appeal more to male consumers. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social role theory, consumer culture theory (CCT) & theory of planned behavior (TPB) may be used to anchor future studies on the impact of gender-specific marketing on consumer purchasing behavior in Philippines. Organizations should implement mentorship programs tailored to the specific needs of women in different sectors and career stages. Policymakers and organizations should develop and enforce structured mentorship policies that include regular evaluations, clear objectives, and accountability measures.

AN ECOCRITIQUE OF POSTMODERN CULTURE IN ORYX AND CRAKE

In this dystopian world where technology has brought about social degradation, Margaret Atwood interrogates the ways in which humans and animals transform into commodities in a techno-cultural and hyperreal society. The novel seems to be a warning about the possible catastrophic results of our wrongdoings in near future with the profit seeking and powerful multinational corporations recklessly controlling and misusing science and technology for their own purposes. It compares the life of an emerging new community comprised of humanoids called Crakers, non-violent, innocent, and peaceful creatures, in a post-apocalyptic world, and the world before apocalypse presented by the memories of Jimmy, initially believed to be the only human being who survived after a worldwide pandemic, or Snowman- his post-apocalyptic name used by Crakers. Atwood posits the world of Crakers as a place where there is no trace of irresponsible, and reckless damaging actions of the previous world as Crake, the young, genius scientist who has bioengineered them, has made them free of all the devastating, faulty human characteristics such as “racism, hierarchy, territorialism, fear of death,” as well as “harmful symbolisms” like “kingdoms, icons, gods, or money” (2003, p.305). On the other hand, in the pre-epidemic world, Atwood skillfully and vividly designs a world of consumer and pleasure-seeking corporate culture lacking ethical and ecological values. This chapter sets out to shed light on contemporary problems through the examples in the novel in which despite securing scientific and technological possibilities, people do not seem to achieve social and environmental progress.

Marginalisation in the name of empowerment: unpacking rural women’s standpoints on female empowerment in Chinese consumer culture

Drawing upon Feminist Standpoint Theory and interviews with 25 rural women from Northwest China, this study explores the standpoints of marginalised rural women on the trendy notion of female empowerment in Chinese consumer culture. The finding reveals that Chinese rural women are no longer excluded from the consumer feminist joy associated primarily with their Western and urban counterparts. While commodified feminist concepts tend to imply liberal ideals, its rural manifestation does not appear to evoke feminist sentiments or knowingness of feminist consciousness among rural women, but rather to collude with local patriarchy. Due to structural inequalities at both global and local levels, the prevalence of ‘female empowerment’ subtly exacerbates bodily distinctions and social stratification among various groups of women through consumer markets and digital media, reflecting the marginalisation of working-class rural women in China.

REALIZAÇÃO DO PRINCÍPIO DA SUSTENTABILIDADE DO DIREITO AMBIENTAL ATRAVÉS DO CONSUMO COLABORATIVO

Changes in social relations have been observed in recent decades. Due to the capitalist process, people are increasingly focused on consumption. This consumer culture, or consumer society, transfers consumer-commodity relations to other areas of human life. With environmental problems caused especially by the production society and hyperconsumption, a new paradigm is being presented in law, especially in Environmental Law, the principle of sustainability. This paradigm aims to apply the law guided by the preservation of life in all its forms and the well-being of current and future generations. In view of this, new consumers have emerged, who no longer adapt to hyperconsumption, seeking alternatives to it. One of these forms is collaborative consumption, which aims to expand old forms of consumption, such as bartering, donations, and loans, with new forms and using technology to reach a greater number of people. From this perspective, collaborative consumption is one of the ways to achieve sustainability.

K-Pop and Consumerism Culture: A Bibliometric Analysis Review

This research discusses consumerism behavior among Korean Pop (K-Pop) fans as an impact of the Hallyu Wave. This trend, rich in Korean culture, has become global and developed rapidly. The research method applied in this study is a Bibliometric Analysis review, using more than 50 scientific articles sourced from the Scopus database, which were then analyzed and visualized using Vosviewer, Nvivo, and Mendeley applications. The study results reveal that consumer behavior among K-pop fans is increasing and is driven by social media as a form of technological advancement. Advanced technology makes it easier and faster for things to spread, including the Hallyu Wave. This has made K-pop culture increasingly beloved worldwide. This phenomenon can influence people's lives globally, especially in a consumerist culture. This culture or phenomenon's entry also impacts K-pop fans positively and negatively. The article has a limitation in that the scientific data used is sourced only from the Scopus database, which means the findings of this study cannot be described comprehensively.

Chinese intimacies & consumer–culture–brand relations

ABSTRACT Two Western culture-inflected paradigms of intimacy dominate scholarship in the marketing and consumer behaviour disciplines: intimacy as interior-secrets-revealed and intimacy as knowledge-which-accumulates. This article decentres these concepts by exploring how intimacies in China emerge in complex co-created ways, from contextual settings, from the local construction of space and place, through kinship and its extensions, through ritual and embodied everyday practices, and through the situational instantiation of symbolic boundaries which separate the sphere of intimacy from the public and private spheres. The article shows how competing paradigms for intimacy, including the Western culture inflected paradigms, interact across diverse social domains in China, and further, how Chinese persons’ dispositions regards intimacy are shaped by broader processes of globalization. The article draws on autoethnography in China, as well as popular culture, social media, and brand communications analysis. It offers conclusions about how to theorize consumer-culture-brand relationships considering the analyses of intimacy explored throughout.

Particular and universal culture versus consumer culture: an epistemological approach

Several concepts are addressed in the article: culture, national culture, universal culture, consumerist culture. The most significant definitions of the respective terms, launched by such notorious anthropologists as E. Tylor, James Frazer, Robert Lowie, A.L. Kroeberand C. Kluckhohn, A. Mihu, G. Troc, Al. Tănase etc. are updated and analyzed. The author opted for those definitions and theories, which caused, first of all, contradictory discussions and that have largely contributed to the elucidation of the meanings of the concept. At the same time, several perspectives for defining the concept of culture were insisted upon: synthetic-analytical, determinism, relations, „culture-civilization”, „culture-environment”, „culture-nature”, „culture-individual/ social consciousness”, „culture - human personality”. The scientific approach is in accordance with the historical period in which we live, dominated by the phenomenon of globalization, by modern relativism and skepticism, by the devaluation of humanistic principles, including cultural values.

Finding the future in digitally mediated ruin: #nostalgiacores and the algorithmic culture of digital platforms

The #nostalgiacores are a series of interrelated hashtags on Instagram and TikTok where users recirculate content from the digital and consumer cultures of the 1990s and 2000s – childhood play centres, dead malls, long-gone toys, and superseded game consoles and phones. In this article, we explore these digital cultures using a critical platform studies approach that involves a combination of network analysis and close textual analysis augmented with purpose-built machine vision tools. We scrape a collection of 359,150 images from Instagram that used one or more of 30 ‘-cores’ hashtags (such as #y2kcore, #webcore and #childhoodcore) that we chose following a period of immersive qualitative investigation of #nostalgiacore scenes on Instagram during 2021 and 2022. 10,000 Instagram images were then randomly selected and processed using a purpose-built unsupervised machine vision model that clusters images together based on their similarities. This research is part of a multi-year project where we develop hybrid digital methods for critically simulating and exploring the interplay between our image-making practices and the algorithmic systems that cluster and curate them. By combining computational approaches with critical platform and cultural studies approaches we speculatively explore both practices of curation and their interplay with the algorithmic classification and recommendation models of digital platforms. Our platform-oriented mode of textual analysis helps us to explore how our digital cultures are both symbolically and technically nostalgic. Instagram users in the #nostalgiacore scene recirculate images from the past as part of practices of critically reflecting on digital platforms and consumer cultures. At the same time those images are recuperated as archives used to train the algorithmic models that optimise attention on digital media platforms like Instagram.

The Impact of Life-Sharing Social Media on Users' Consumption Behavior in the New Media Environment

In today's digital age, life-sharing social media has become an important part of an individual's daily life. These platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, are not only places where people share their lives but also important influencers and disseminators of consumer culture. With the popularity of social media and the development of technology, consumers' purchasing behaviour and consumption awareness have also been affected in an unprecedented way. However, although it is known that these platforms play an important role in consumer behavior, the specific mechanisms of their influence and the actual impact on consumer behavior are still worthy of in-depth study. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact mechanism of life-sharing social platforms on consumer behaviour and their significance in digital marketing. Through the research method of comprehensive literature analysis, this paper analyzes the role of life-sharing social media platforms in consumer decision-making, brand cognition, and purchasing behaviour. The research finds that the development of social media platforms expands consumers' social networks and information access channels, which in turn affects their purchasing decisions and brand preferences. This finding has important academic and practical implications for optimizing social media marketing strategies and driving progress in the field of consumer behavior research.

Critical Notes - A USEFUL, HAPPY BENTHAM: WHO SAVED HIM FROM MILL? WHEN FREEDOM IS MORE THAN JUST A MATTER OF TASTE

When it comes to Bentham, both pro- and anti-utilitarianists are profoundly challenged by the hedonist inheritance that has been deeply criticized, undermined, and somewhat overshadowed by the Millian perspective, which confined the presuppositions of a higher and clearer moral purism within the logical framework of satisfaction and happiness. Since the real test of Bentham’s philosophy lies in the requirements of asceticism, which are, at least at first glance, incompatible with hedonism, the major difficulty seems to be that of using both his moral writings and aesthetic considerations on pleasure and taste to face such a challenge. Would a Romantic Bentham still be valuable for the legacy of modern political philosophy? To what extent might literary figures rely on Bentham to save and protect free speech, and how much do theologians find the Benthamite perspectives on sympathies and antipathies, love and hate, acceptable? Should anyone save Bentham from being just an architect of the panopticon, by refashioning his philosophy as a pragmatic, more human, or even more altruistic utilitarianism than that of Mill, which invariably conquered the liberals? Could we defy reality for a moment, projecting a possible world in which a visit to a museum with Bentham would convince us that there is no such thing as good or bad taste, only a higher or lower amount of pleasure that we feel contemplating art and consuming culture? Finally, who could imagine Bentham happy?

Bargains, Handouts, and Hand-Me-Downs: Poor Households’ Use of (Re)distribution Systems

ABSTRACT Consumption practices represent a central mode of social integration. Yet, due to the lack of material resources poor households cannot meet the expectations of dominant consumer culture, thus facing limited choices and feelings of shame. Based on a qualitative long-term study of the welfare production of 40 poor Swiss households, this article sheds light on consumption patterns and experiences in different distribution systems, namely the primary market, the charity system, and redistribution systems for used goods. It shows that feelings of shame and processes of exclusion differ between distribution systems according to institutional features conducive to the (in)visibility of poverty.

The Contested Terrain of Sporting Consumption: Navigating Meaning, Identity, and Late Capitalist Marketing through Sneaker Customization

This discussion critically examines and questions assumptions about the meanings and motivations of sporting consumption. We argue that the practice of sneaker customization demonstrates the contested terrain of sporting consumption, wherein contemporary consumerism is characterized by a dynamic interplay between top–down structural determination (by mass commercial forces) and bottom–up creative agency (by everyday consumers). Based on in-depth interviews with 15 sneaker consumers, we narrate the complexities of late capitalist consumer culture through three overlapping “tensions” between the commercial sneaker industry and everyday sneaker consumers: (1) Sneakers as a vehicle to express individuality versus to demonstrate conformity; (2) Sneaker customization as a means of artistic expression versus being a commodity rationalized to maximize profit; (3) An affective versus instrumental attachment to sneakers. Overall, the analysis illuminates how the cultural and affective meanings that consumers attach to sneaker consumption operate; sometimes in conjunction with, more often in opposition to, but always in tension with the meanings that the sneaker industry attempts to embed through its ever-expansive means of marketing and advertising.

Transnational Chinese Beautyscapes: Ghetto Glamour and Fake Beauty in Abidjan

This article explores how beauty and fashion practices and imagination have evolved in Ivory Coast since the early 2000s, using secondary sources and ethnographic research conducted in Abidjan in 2017. In addition to identifying alternatives to prevalent Western norms of beauty and style, the article highlights the expansion of Chinese beautyscapes and the ongoing Sinonization of local fashion and aesthetic cultures. It also draws attention to the contradictory features of bobaraba, a term increasingly used to describe Chinese-made clothing and beauty accessories. Though bobaraba is praised as a ghetto glamour and an expression of the urban poor's participation in the global consumer culture, it is frequently viewed as “fake beauty” intended to create an illusion of beauty. This article demonstrates that Chinese consumer goods are increasingly influencing contemporary African fashion culture, beauty ideals, body stylisation, and even sexuality.

A Digital Archaeology of Early Hispanic Film Culture: Film Magazines and the Male Fan Reader

As a sociologically-oriented study, this project contributes to an archaeology of cinema fandom broadly, and early Spanish fan culture specifically, by spotlighting male readers of popular film magazines. Taking as an exploratory case study reader interactivity with the magazine Popular Film, analysis of correspondence and published photos of readers participating in reader contests demonstrates that the magazine’s cinema fan base was composed of a strikingly large proportion of readers who were male and that these were ardent enthusiasts of celebrity consumer culture. This is a notable contradistinction to the widely-held idea of the star-struck female movie fan. Methodologically, in conducting this study we reflect on the challenges of digital approaches to historical periodical research, where particular challenges are posed when working with magazines in a non-anglophone language, and when there are few baseline studies to rely on to guide and contextualize patterns picked up through strictly macro methods. We advocate for the affordances of a mixed macro-micro approach that combines distant reading with traditional textual studies of close reading. By adopting such a hybrid framework, digital methods provide new opportunities towards reconstructing profiles of magazine readerships and to unearth evidence of male movie fans in Spain.

Decoding the gamer’s code: a dive into game merchandise consumption through the lens of consumer culture theory

Decoding the gamer’s code: a dive into game merchandise consumption through the lens of consumer culture theory

Citrus and Surfaces: Print Media and the Appetite for the Other

ABSTRACT Racial stereotypes circulate between print media, accruing affective intensities as they do so. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “The Offshore Pirate” provides a case study in the affective networks that connect advertising ephemera with magazine fiction. Racialized southern archetypes found on citrus crate labels—the Southern belle, the swarthy pirate, and the minstrel caricature—come to life in Fitzgerald’s story set off the coast of Florida. The racial icons of consumer culture magnify oral pleasure and tropical escape. Tapping into this racial imaginary, “The Offshore Pirate” celebrates orality, liminality, and intermixture even as its plot seems to curtail these possibilities.

Margaret Anderson’s Compromise: Art and Advertising in the Little Review

ABSTRACT Despite its rhetorical attacks on “the public taste,” the Little Review carried many advertisements promoting precisely the mass consumer culture it allegedly rejected. This irreverent mixing of cultural registers has typically been read as an expression of enthusiasm vis-à-vis the social and cultural function of advertising on the part of the magazine’s editor Margaret Anderson. This article critically reexamines Anderson’s engagement with the form and function of promotional discourse to show that, rather than suspending the tension between art and advertising, she continually sought to shape her magazine’s relationship with commercial mass culture into a compromise on her own terms.

The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Identity

Purpose: The general objective of the study was to investigate the impact of globalization on cultural identity. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the impact of globalization on cultural identity. Preliminary empirical review revealed that globalization had a profound impact on cultural identity, reshaping perceptions and facilitating cultural exchange, which enriched local cultures but also challenged traditional norms. This led to the emergence of hybrid cultural forms, blending local and global elements, while also posing threats of cultural homogenization and the erosion of unique identities due to the dominance of global media and consumer culture. Efforts to preserve local traditions and promote cultural resilience were deemed crucial, including the adoption of supportive cultural policies and educational programs that emphasized cultural diversity and heritage. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Cultural Hybridization Theory, Cultural Homogenization Theory and World-System Theory may be used to anchor future studies on globalization and cultural identity. The study on the impact of globalization on cultural identity recommended advancing theoretical frameworks to better understand cultural interactions, implementing cultural education and awareness programs, and developing policies to protect and promote cultural diversity. It highlighted the need for legal protections for cultural rights, community engagement in cultural initiatives, and continuous research and monitoring of globalization’s effects on cultural identity. These recommendations aimed to enhance cultural preservation, support cultural expression, and ensure the resilience and sustainability of diverse cultural identities in a globalized world.

Closing nature connectedness to foster environmental culture: investigating urban residents’ utilization and contribution to parks in Vietnam

This study aims to investigate the potential for enhancing financial contributions to nature conservation and/or environment protection contributed by citizens and/or the private sector in Vietnam. Specifically, the study empirically examines the antecedents of the utilization patterns and financial contribution of city dwellers to public and national parks. We introduce and use a novel CBMM analytic method (Bayesian mindsponge mindspongeconomics combined with Culture Tower) to analyze the dataset of 535 Vietnamese urban residents surveyed in late 2020. Empirical results demonstrate that the more frequently individuals visit parks, the more likely they are to contribute financially to projects in parks as a whole. In addition, having trees in the house positively correlates with donations to national park conservation projects, while the intention to visit a national park in the next 12 months encourages urban residents to contribute to planting projects in public parks. These results suggest that improved environmental literacy and nature connectedness can help encourage citizens to act collectively to help alleviate the financial burden in dealing with environmental issues. We also found that the increased frequency of bushmeat consumption impedes people’s intention to support conservation projects, implying that the consumer culture of nature might be a hindrance in the efforts to engage the public. Based on the findings, this study offers not only the key solution to alleviate financial burdens for nature conservation but also paves the way to nurture and foster environmental culture associated with closer nature connectedness and improved consumption culture for a sustainable future in years to come.

הבית הבורגני בישראל הצעירה במבט גלובלי

Israeli critical research tends to view the Israeli home in the 1950s and 1960s as an institutional tool for shaping society. However, the central focus of individuals on the modern home, its design, and its furnishing during the second decade of the state's existence is evidence of its dominant position and its cultural, emotional, and ethical importance among the emerging Israeli bourgeoisie. As in Western European countries following World War II, the modern Israeli home expressed a desire to disconnect from a violent, crisis-filled and painful past and to build a new, modernist and, most importantly, stable future. Alongside government authorities and planning bodies, citizens, tenants, and families took advantage of design books and the guidance and advice provided by interior designers, architects, and self-proclaimed household management experts in order to participate in the design of the home. The building, the house and the apartment were also designed according to the family's requirements and its character, thus expressing the values of the Israeli bourgeoisie and its desire to integrate within consumer culture. The modern Israeli home became an emotional fortress, a protected refuge for middle-class Israelis against strangers and dangers.