Jacob Östberg

Negotiating cultural boundaries: Food, travel and consumer identities

This study addresses the role of food in boundary crossing and maintenance processes in the context of short‐term mobility. We utilize an identity and practice theory approach to understand the ways travelers relate to food in the encounter with the cultural different Other. The study was conducted through interviews with 28 American consumers after a 10‐day trip to China. A semiotic data interpretation revealed the ways the informants made sense of their cultural experience in China through a continuous process of categorization of foods. Counter to the expectations of food consumption as the site of boundary crossing, we find that consumption of food abroad becomes a symbolic project of maintaining boundaries with the Other and sustaining a sense of home. The encounter with the Other through food caused anxiety and alienation, which consumers dealt with by consuming familiar, western foods that enabled the maintenance of an embodied sense of comfort and a familiar sense of home. We further suggest that lack of local cultural capital and marketplace mythologies about the Other as factors that shaped and elevated the negative experience during travel.

Coffee Grounds and the Global Cup: Glocal Consumer Culture in Scandinavia

Whether contemporary consumer cultures across the globe are becoming homogenized or whether they are still characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity has been the topic of a lively debate within the social sciences for more than a decade. On one side of this debate stand proponents of the homogenization thesis who argue that the proliferation of large multinational companies colonize local cultures (e.g. Ritzer 1996). On the other side are scholars who argue for alternatives to the globalization of consumer cultures and illustrate how consumers might, to follow the typology suggested by Ger and Belk (1996), resort to nationalism and a return to the roots, consumer resistance, local appropriation, or creolization. Thompson and Arsel (2004) question both the heterogenization and the homogenization strands and suggest that large, dominant corporations might forge hegemonic brandscapes. By this, the authors mean “the hegemonic influences that global experiential brands exert on their local competitors and the meanings consumers derive from their experiences of these glocal servicescapes” (Thompson and Arsel 2004, 632). The purposes here are twofold: we wish to explore how the hegemonic brandscape may operate in a cultural context outside of North America by exploring coffee cultural discourses in the Scandinavian context. As a kind of commentary to, or re-inquiry of, Thompson and Arsel’s (2004) study of the hegemonic influence that the Seattle-based company Starbucks exerts on the US coffee culture we explore how the logic of the hegemonic brandscape becomes glocalized in the Scandinavian context. While we

Prisoners in Paradise: Subcultural Resistance to the Marketization of Tattooing

This study explores the increasingly popular use of brand symbols as imagery for tattooing. Through interviews with tattoo artists and netnographic research in tattoo communities, we capture a perceived boundary between the sacred, non‐commercial sphere of tattooing and the profane, profit maximizing sphere of the commercial world. In the tattoo subculture, brands are generally considered inappropriate for tattooing. Nevertheless, the tattoo artists more or less willingly accept the role of service providers for consumers wishing to embody brand symbols. The commercial sphere hence plays a role in the cultural identity of the tattoo culture as an Otherness, from which the tattoo culture defines itself.

Authenticating by re-enchantment: The discursive making of craft production

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the way brand authentication operates through discursive enchantment as a series of ongoing negotiations among different market actors. We suggest that one specific type of enchantment, the concept of craft production, has been given too sparse attention in conceptualisations of authenticity. Through a qualitative multi-method inquiry based into the guitar subculture and a brand genealogy of the pseudo-Swedish guitar brand Hagstrom, we show how the rationalising trajectories of modernity can not only have disenchanting effects, but can also be dis-authenticating. We illustrate how various marketplace participants collectively engage in brand re-enchantment processes that provide the springboard for re-authenticating rationalised production through five enchanting craft discourses: vocation, dedication, tradition, mystification, and association.

The Mythological Aspects of Country-of-Origin: The Case of the Swedishness of Swedish Fashion

In both practical marketing management and marketing scholarship the concept of County-of-Origin has been widely employed the last couple of decades. Despite the ubiquity of country-of-origin references in contemporary marketing there are conceptual blind spots in our understanding of the concept. In this article the theoretical perspective of country-of-origin is discussed using the empirical example of Swedish fashion to illustrate how marketing related to the notion of place is al- ways contingent on the various mythologies always already present. Departure is hence taken in the notion that an under- standing of contemporary Swedish fashion cannot be decoupled from an overall understanding of Swedens role in popular culture. This base in popular culture, together with the partic- ular historicity of Swedish fashion, forms a basis of different versions of Swedishness on which contemporary fashion brands —both Swedish and foreign—can build. A number of different ways in which Swedish fashion brands relate to these available mythologies of Swedishness, as well as other place myth- ologies is outlined. On a theoretical level the paper addresses calls for more research on the symbolic aspects of coun- try-of-origin.To argue that the place where something “comes from” is important for the success of a market offering is by no means a novel thought. In mainstream marketing country-of-origin is typically seen as a cognitive cue, i.e. “an informational stim- ulus about or relating to a product that is used by consumers to infer beliefs regarding product attributes such as quality”. Culturally influence marketing researchers have critiqued this notion and added that country-of-origin is not merely a piece of information that goes into making decisions, rather coun- try-of-origin might link a product to a rich product-country im- agery, with sensory, affective and ritual connotations. Furthermore, since contemporary production and branding proc- esses are rather complex, oftentimes encompassing multiple lo- cations, the designation product-country image is sometimes used rather than country-of-origin to signal that it is rather the place that something is associated with that matters, rather than where something is produced.Brands are important for consumers for several reasons. In the view of McCracken, consumption objects as well as brands represent bridges to displaced meanings, i.e. properties of our personality that we cannot attain in the here and now. The lack of these properties, we are led to believe, is what pre- vents us from being realized as a better version of ourselves. By the magical whims of advertising it is as if these proper- ties come to reside in the consumption objects. It is in this light that the notion of Swedish fashion, or any other place connected to a product group, needs to be thought about. Brand owners who try to connect their brand to a particular place trust that consumers will value this positively, and con- sumers value the place branding activities since they help them both in making decisions and in constructing a coherent life narrative. Country-of-origin might influence consumer product evaluations in three principle ways: cognitive, affective and normative. Cognitive means that country-of-origin is used as a cue for product quality, e.g. consumers might hold beliefs that garments sown in Italy are of high quality and garments sown in Turkey are of low quality. Affective means that coun- try-of-origin has symbolic and emotional value to consumers, e.g. consumers emanating from a particular country might be emotionally attached to certain brands and products from that country. Normative means that consumers might hold social and personal norms related to products from certain countries, e.g. some might not want to purchase products produced in sweatshops in which worker safety cannot be assured and oth- ers might want to purchase only locally produced products in order not to affect the environment with unnecessary shipping costs.In order to discuss the use of Swedishness in the marketing of Swedish fashion the potential marketing positions related to place can be structured according to the two dimensions Intended Market and Place Marketing Approach. Intended Market refers to whether a brand caters to the Intranational (Swedish) Market alone or whether they are also aspiring to a broader International audience. Place Marketing Approach refers to whether a company is leveraging the mythologies rooted in the Intranational (Swedishness) in building their brand or whether a company are using the mythologies the International, which might encompass both other places and no place at all. These two dimensions create four possible positions: provincial, national, pseudo-international, and cosmopolitan. One important insight from this article is that the possible meaning positions that a company can take is not limited to the factual location of the company; either a national or an international marketing approach can be taken by Swedish or international companies.A Swedish company leveraging a Swedish marketing approach could be said to have an indexical connection to the place. They can, in some way, claim lineage to the country of Sweden either because production takes place there or because the company in some other way is based in Sweden. Other companies might also leverage the mythologies of Swedishness but they then merely have an iconic connection to the place. There is a resemblance between the expression of the company and that of the available mythologies of the place, but no gen- uine physical connections. The same reasoning goes for the companies adapting a pseudo-international approach; they have an iconic connection to the places from which they draw their mythologies. By thinking about marketing based on coun- try-of-origin in this way we decouple the available strategies from the physical location of the companies and instead view various country-of-origin mythologies as cultural resources that can be leveraged by companies in their brand building activities. Depending on the intended market companies will need to adapt the way in which they perpetuate the available mythologies. This is especially the case for companies with a strong position on the local market but with aspirations to go global. These companies might then oscillate between a provin- cial position on the Swedish market and Swedish position on the international market.Abstract In both practical marketing management and marketing scholarship the concept of County-of-Origin has been widely employed the last couple of decades. Despite the ubiquity of country-of-origin references in contemporary marketing there are conceptual blind spots in our understanding of the concept. In this article the theoretical perspective of country-of-origin is discussed using the empirical example of Swedish fashion to illustrate how marketing related to the notion of place is always contingent on the various mythologies always already present. Departure is hence taken in the notion that an understanding of contemporary Swedish fashion cannot be decoupled from an overall understanding of Sweden’s role in popular culture. This base in popular culture, together with the particular historicity of Swedish fashion, forms a basis of different versions of Swedishness on which contemporary fashion brands —both Swedish and foreign—can build. A number of different ways in which Swedish fashion brands relate to these available mythologies of Swedishness, as well as other place mythologies is outlined. On a theoretical level the paper addresses calls for more research on the symbolic aspects of country-of-origin. To argue that the place where something “comes from” is important for the success of a market offering is by no means a novel thought. In mainstream marketing country-of-origin is typically seen as a cognitive cue, i.e. “an informational stimulus about or relating to a product that is used by consumers to infer beliefs regarding product attributes such as quality”. Culturally influence marketing researchers have critiqued this notion and added that country-of-origin is not merely a piece of information that goes into making decisions, rather country-of-origin might link a product to a rich product-country imagery, with sensory, affective and ritual connotations. Furthermore, since contemporary production and branding processes are rather complex, oftentimes encompassing multiple locations, the designation product-country image is sometimes used rather than country-of-origin to signal that it is rather the place that something is associated with that matters, rather than where something is produced. Brands are important for consumers for several reasons. In the view of McCracken, consumption objects as well as brands represent bridges to displaced meanings, i.e. properties of our personality that we cannot attain in the here and now. The lack of these properties, we are led to believe, is what prevents us from being realized as a better version of ourselves. By the magical whims of advertising it is as if these properties come to reside in the consumption objects. It is in this light that the notion of Swedish fashion, or any other place connected to a product group, needs to be thought about. Brand owners who try to connect their brand to a particular place trust that consumers will value this positively, and consumers value the place branding activities since they help them both in making decisions and in constructing a coherent life narrative. Country-of-origin might influence consumer product evaluations in three principle ways: cognitive, affective and normative. Cognitive means that country-of-origin is used as a cue for product quality, e.g. consumers might hold beliefs that garments sown in Italy are of high quality and garments sown in Turkey are of low quality. Affective means that country-of-origin has symbolic and emotional value to consumers, e.g. consumers emanating from a particular country might be emotionally attached to certain brands and products from that country. Normative means that consumers might hold social and personal norms related to products from certain countries, e.g. some might not want to purchase products produced in sweatshops in which worker safety cannot be assured and others might want to purchase only locally produced products in order not to affect the environment with unnecessary shipping costs. In order to discuss the use of Swedishness in the marketing of Swedish fashion the potential marketing positions related to place can be structured according to the two dimensions Intended Market and Place Marketing Approach. Intended Market refers to whether a brand caters to the Intranational (Swedish) Market alone or whether they are also aspiring to a broader International audience. Place Marketing Approach refers to whether a company is leveraging the mythologies rooted in the Intranational (Swedishness) in building their brand or whether a company are using the mythologies the International, which might encompass both other places and no place at all. These two dimensions create four possible positions: provincial, national, pseudo-international, and cosmopolitan. One important insight from this article is that the possible meaning positions that a company can take is not limited to the factual location of the company; either a national or an international marketing approach can be taken by Swedish or international companies. A Swedish company leveraging a Swedish marketing approach could be said to have an indexical connection to the place. They can, in some way, claim lineage to the country of Sweden either because production takes place there or because the company in some other way is based in Sweden. Other companies might also leverage the mythologies of Swedishness but they then merely have an iconic connection to the place. There is a resemblance between the expression of the company and that of the available mythologies of the place, but no genuine physical connections. The same reasoning goes for the companies adapting a pseudo-international approach; they have an iconic connection to the places from which they draw their mythologies. By thinking about marketing based on country-of-origin in this way we decouple the available strategies from the physical location of the companies and instead view various country-of-origin mythologies as cultural resources that can be leveraged by companies in their brand building activities. Depending on the intended market companies will need to adapt the way in which they perpetuate the available mythologies. This is especially the case for companies with a strong position on the local market but with aspirations to go global. These companies might then oscillate between a provincial position on the Swedish market and Swedish position on the international market.

The Noveaux Pauvres of Liquid Modernity

Purpose: The purpose of the current research is to enhance our understanding of how nouveaux pauvres consumers use consumption to cope with their life situations. We use the term nouveaux pauvres to represent middle class consumers who experience a decrease in sociocultural status relative their previous situation.Methodology: The data for this study were collected over a four-year period in Sweden, Turkey and the US. Various qualitative data collection and analysis methods were used, such as phenomenological and ethnographic interviews, as well as ethnographic observation.Findings: We identify three different ways that nouveaux pauvres consumers experience their loss of status. Some experience feelings of shame and guilt, others are left in a vacuum and some grieve their lost identity position. We then propose three different strategies that nouveaux pauvres consumers might choose in order to cope with the loss of status. Some engage in inventing a new consumer role for themselves, others choose a more reluctant strategy of opting out of social circles and isolating oneself, and finally there are those that engage in straightforward reconstruction of their old identity. Furthermore, each of the three consumption strategies links to a specific kind of downward movement—from unfamiliar/familiar to unfamiliar/familiar social spaces—for each individual.Originality/value of paper: The consumer experience of downward status transformations has been curiously neglected in consumer culture theory. Since contemporary consumer cultures are increasingly characterized by liquidity and movement, it is likely that the experience of descending in status will be more common in the future and therefore of utmost importance to understand more fully.

The electric guitar – marketplace icon

The electric guitar is an ubiquitous part of contemporary consumer culture. In this Marketplace Icons contribution, we illuminate the iconicity of the electric guitar and what lies behind its thick layers of distorted riffs, mad soloing escapades and eccentric onstage performances, specifically within the rock genre. The genesis of electric guitar playing involves a series of technological alterations of the guitar that freed it from a mere background instrument allowing for new musical roles. It quickly became apparent that all the technical solutions designed to get rid of what was defined as unwanted noise could be turned “against” the clean tone and instead be used to create a unique sound. The control of these noise elements, such as feedback and distortion, became a core element of mastering the modern electric guitar. Rather than just being a marketplace icon, we argue that the electric guitar is fetishized because both its audio quality – the loudness and the potential roughness of the sound – and its visual looks and onstage performances symbolizes youthful rebellion, the essence of rock and roll.

THE CULTURAL ROLE OF STIGMATIZED YOUTH GROUPS: THE CASE OF THE PARTILLE JOHNNYS OF SWEDEN

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical domain of identity construction by discussing an aspect of identity-not, i.e. how identity is largely formed by delimitations of what one d ...

Academic liner notes: a re-inquiry of Chris Hackley’s (2012) CCT Blues

ABSTRACT While in certain sub-areas of marketing and consumer research, alternative modes of investigation and representation have been mushrooming for a while - i.e. publications of poetry, poetry sessions at conferences, videography, and fiction - we suggest music and complementary academic liner notes as another form of alternative investigation and expression. This paper offers accompanying notes to our original contribution in musical format as an alternative mode of representation and critical dramatization in marketing and consumer research. The song is called CCT Blues and is perfomed by Postmödern talking sans frontiers avéc fromage [the song can be found on Applemusic, iTunes, and Spotify searching for CCT Blues and the artist name.] These liner notes guide the academic listener through our reflexive critical dramatization of the current intellectual condition of the CCT research area in form of a cover song of Chris Hackley’s CCT Blues [2012a. CCT Blues Electric Version.wmv, June 2. Accessed November 25, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1pgyaiw610]. Consequently, this paper offers a backstage pass into the world of producing and packaging our critique in audio format.

Hero shots: involved fathers conquering new discursive territory in consumer culture

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore how visual expressions of culture offer new discursive territory within which consumer cultural ideals can be negotiated on a global scale. Through a critical visual analysis of the revelatory case Swedish Dads, we find hero shots depicting involved fathers where children’s needs and the hermetic confines of the home take center stage, as opposed to the traditional fatherhood ideals portrayed in western contemporary advertising, media, and popular culture. We demonstrate how the Swedish state’s gender ideology was encoded into a communicative event in the form of hero shots and subsequently dispersed by visual consumers as well as political and commercial stakeholders pushing this particular agenda and/or capitalizing on its tendencies. This in such a way that the event conquered new discursive territory fostering new types of consumer cultural negotiations on fatherhood ideals also in other cultural settings.