Eva Kipnis

Toward Intercultural Competency in Multicultural Marketplaces

Intercultural competency plays a pivotal role in creating a more equitable and just marketplace in which situations of marketplace vulnerability are minimized and resilience is enhanced. Intercultural competency is the ability to understand, adapt, and accommodate anothers culture. In this essay, the authors present a framework of intercultural competency development in multicultural marketplaces. They discuss resilience-building actions for multicultural marketplace actors, specifically, consumers, companies/marketers, community groups and nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers for three phases of intercultural competency development.

‘They don't want us to become them’: Brand Local Integration and consumer ethnocentrism

Abstract This paper investigates whether positioning strategies of foreign brands that integrate both foreign and ‘localised’ dimensions of country-of-origin (COO) appeals shape perceptions and attitudes of domestically biased consumers. Ethnocentric consumers hold strong favourable attitudes towards local-perceived brands. At the same time, brand positioning strategies of local brands acquired by multinational corporations and of foreign brands entering the local market often integrate foreign COO appeals with locally relevant manufacturing and/or symbolic appeals. The results indicate that foreign brand identities that integrate ‘localised’ appeals communicating respect of local traditions (through the use of local images, symbols, and recipes) and contribution to the local societys well-being (through local manufacture, employment, use of local ingredients) lead to more favourable consumer perceptions. In distinguishing between ‘purely foreign’ and ‘locally integrated foreign brands’, consumers perceive the latter to be more acceptable for consumption. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings and outlining directions for further research.

Consumer ethnicity three decades after: a TCR agenda

Abstract Research into consumer ethnicity is a vital discipline that has substantially evolved in the past three decades. This conceptual article critically reviews its immense literature and examines the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being. We identify two gaps accounting for scant transformative contributions. First, today social transformations and conceptual sophistications require a revised vocabulary to provide adequate interpretive lenses. Second, extant work has mostly addressed the subjective level of ethnic identity projects but left untended the meso/macro forces affecting ethnicity (de)construction and personal/collective well-being. Our contribution stems from filling both gaps and providing a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants.

Consumer mobility and well-being among changing places and shifting ethnicities

(Market)places are spatial entities which individuals and groups might experience as meaningful. By highlighting the role of place in ethnic consumer research, this article argues that increased mobility and changing places render relatively stable notions of ethnicity outdated. We identify three main trajectories to revitalize future research on ethnicity. First, we demonstrate the need for research on ethnic identity to be underpinned by a better understanding of the role of place in identity processes. Second, we contend that the established migration/acculturation paradigm should be replaced by the mobility/adaptiveness paradigm. Third, we consider the profound effects of interethnic contact among mobile and immobile populations within shared places on individual and societal well-being.

Editorial: Parameters of transformational marketing

Along with social, cultural, and technological advancements, the twenty-first century has heralded challenges of a global scale, such as the worldwide economic crisis. These challenges have seen the weakening of global economic powers and emergence of new global players; environmental concerns of global warming and pollution implications; increasing risky health behaviours such as drug-taking, alcohol, and obesity; social injustice; ethnic and religious tensions; and many others. Marketing activities and the ideology of markets and consumption have diffused globally so that living, working, and consuming are prolific, complex, interdependent activities. At the same time, changing economic expectations apply limitations and modifications to the consumption environment. As Schultz (2009) asserts:

On Decomposing the ‘Thick’ and the ‘Thin’ for Measuring Cosmopolitanism in Multicultural Marketplaces: Why Unpacking the Foreign and Global Aspects of Cosmopolitanism Matters

Cosmopolitanism as a phenomenon evolved such that in one given locale, individuals’ conceptions of ‘cultural others’ may or may not be constrained to this locale’s boundaries. This can be attributed to many national markets emerging as multicultural marketplaces, for example, environments of intra-nationally diverse cultural composition that are transnationally connected to cultures in other locales. From consumption perspective, such evolution of consumer environments and resultant evolved nature of cosmopolitan outlook inform distinctly divergent expectations and responses to cultural associations assigned to consumer goods and experiences. This chapter reviews these developments against extant consumer cosmopolitanism measurement scales. It posits that multicultural marketplaces’ paradigm necessitates decomposition of these measures to reflect the transnational (‘thin’) and intra-national (‘thick’) dimensions of cosmopolitanism construct.

Special Session Gazing into the Shadows: Contemplating the Research Agenda for the Dark Side of Brands and Branding

Branding is one of the essential pillars of marketing, but not everything that brands represent is positive. Indeed, a considerable amount of brand-related activities takes place in the shadowy periphery of society. The purpose of this special session is to explore these darker sides of brands and branding and to spotlight a future research agenda related to two distinct yet interrelated trends—brands embracing the shadows and the shadows embracing branding. Brand researchers and managers recognize brands as complex, multifaceted entities that possess “good” and “ugly” qualities (Fitzsimons 2015). Some of the recently explored darker sides of brands and branding include links between brand attachment and community conflict manifested in oppositional “trash-talking” and “schadenfreude” feelings of pleasure for the opposition’s misfortune (e.g., Ewing et al. 2013; Hickman and Ward 2007; Japutra et al. 2014) and brands’ ability as cultural artifacts to invoke or exacerbate the vulnerability of individuals and communities who may feel ignored or misrepresented in brand communications (Kipnis et al. 2013; Schroeder and Borgerson 2005; Yang 2011). At the same time, revealing the darker side of a brand’s identity and then utilizing that revelation strategically to enhance perceptions of brand sincerity and authenticity is a growing trend in practitioner discourse (Silk 2015; Yakob 2015). Hence, there is a need for more research and critical reflection on brands in legitimate market contexts embracing their shadowy dimensions.

Special Session: Multicultural Marketplaces (Theoretical and Empirical Ground Advances)

Several disciplines such as sociology and human geography have recognized that the new era of “superdiversity,” where social actors all evolve in “lived multiculture” (e.g., Neal et al. 2013; Vertovec 2007; Wessendorf 2013), poses new questions and requires theoretical development. Similarly, in marketing and consumer research, several authors have pointed to the need to distinguish between international and multicultural marketing (e.g., Askegaard et al. 2005; Craig and Douglas 2006; Jamal 2003; Laroche et al. 2003; Yaprak 2008). Large proportions of contemporary marketplaces become increasingly culturally diverse—in terms of their populations’ composition, the cultural origin of the marketers and brands active in the marketplace, and their consumers’ exposure to brands, advertising, media, and ideologies from multiple cultural origins. Such continuous multicultural interactions and experiences facilitate the integration, appropriation, and, in some cases, transformation of cultural meanings from other marketplaces to consumers’ lived multiculture realities in a given marketplace (Cayla and Eckhardt 2008; Demangeot et al. 2015; Eckhardt and Mahi 2004; Kipnis et al. 2014).

Origination: the geographies of brands and branding

Brands are increasingly recognised as prominent entities imbued with meanings that stem well beyond signifying a consumable object. Associations evoked by and assigned to a given brand can be inter...

Marketing Cases from Emerging Markets

Introduction.- Socio-Cultural Influences.- Market Orientation and Brand Strategies.- Product Development and Market entry.- Marketing communications and Social Media Marketing.- Conclusion.