James A. Fitchett

Paradoxes of consumer independence: a critical discourse analysis of the independent traveller

The ideology of independence lies at the very core of the marketing agenda. For the free market to operate as a legitimate means of social organization, the right to be independent and to be free to enact ostensibly independent choices is to all intents and purposes sacred. Independence is an especially critical concept for marketing academics and practitioners to understand given the need to reconcile consumer demand for a sense of individuality, freedom and self, with an organizations need to commodify consumption activities in order to realize market growth. This paper examines the ways in which a sense of independence is successfully offered to consumers within paradoxically mass-market communications. The study investigates what it means to be an independent traveller by implementing a critical discourse analysis of alternative guidebooks. Findings suggest that guidebooks construct independence by reifying inaccessibility, interpreting value, and constructing inauthenticity for consumers. This promulgates a powerful myth of the independent traveller as someone who defies inaccessibility, hunts for bargains, and avoids inauthenticity. Crucially, each of these cultural practices also acts to engender an implicit relation of dependency between the text and the tourist that is found to contradict, but ultimately not threaten, the whole notion of independence that the consumption experience itself is predicated on.

Beyond incommensurability? Empirical expansion on diversity in research

Purpose – This paper is a practical attempt to contribute to the ongoing reappraisal of the dichotomies and categories that have become prevalent throughout marketing research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews current literature on incommensurability and undertakes a comparative re‐examination of two studies.Findings – How the authors view their research is constituted in retrospective terms through a marketing and consumption logic based on the principles of division, distinction and difference. Re‐examination of some empirical case material suggests that in practice the perceived duality separating research traditions is unsound. A misplaced reading of paradigm incommensurability has resulted in research practices appearing oppositional and static when they are essentially undifferentiated and dynamic. An over‐socialised research epistemology has raised the tangible outcomes of research activities to be dominant in directing research practice.Research limitations/implications – The compara...

The evolution of conspicuous consumption

Purpose – Conspicuous consumption refers to the competitive and extravagant consumption practices and leisure activities that aim to indicate membership to a superior social class. Studies examining the symbolic role of luxury brands and status symbols, and the importance of interpersonal relations and upward social mobility via consumption choices, have been widely discussed in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature. There is, however, limited research on how the all‐encompassing concept of “conspicuous consumption” has evolved since the introduction of the term by Thorstein Veblen in 1899 in The Theory of the Leisure Class. This paper seeks to review some of the issues.Design/methodology/approach – Using a chronological periodization the paper examines and discusses the impact of wider institutional and socio‐economic forces on the evolution of conspicuous consumption phenomena. The paper adopts a historical framework related to economics and marketing.Findings – The paper shows how the concept...

Just for fun? The emotional regime of experiential consumption

Experiential consumption emphasizes emotional and hedonic qualities in the marketplace stressing the importance of experiences for ‘the good life’ and positioning consumption as a legitimate way to generate interesting and relevant experiences. The concept of emotional regimes (Reddy, 2001) is used to emphasize the dialectics between structural changes in the modern marketplace and the modern way of perceiving and practising hedonic behaviour. The article considers the main ideas that have furthered modern hedonism and the practices that have transformed the abstract longing for sensitivity into concrete experiential appetites. The development of a regime of experiences is outlined, consisting of a set of techniques to bring about sensual pleasure, a discourse to verbalize the methods of pleasure seeking, and an ideology that turns pleasure into a legitimate existential goal in life for the sake of self-actualization.

Myth and ideology in consumer culture theory

The special issue of Marketing Theory (2013) on consumer culture theory (CCT) updates and restates the main aims and controversies in CCT as well as offers a number of novel interpretations on the history and possible future direction of the movement. Whilst the anchor paper from Thompson et al. (2013) is notable for the invocation of Bakhtin’s concept of Heteroglossia, its main significance is as a reply to ongoing critiques of the CCT project. In this commentary article, we highlight the common tendency among critics to emphasize the paradigmatic and institutional basis for CCT as residing in the context of academic discourse. These accounts utilize what Coskiner-Balli (2013) discusses as the mobilization of cultural myths. One consequence of this process of retelling the CCT creation narrative is that it diverts and obscures other ideological readings of CCT. We highlight what we understand as the underlying neo-liberal sentiment at the centre of the CCT project. A neo-liberal perspective repositions some of the main criticisms of CCT, especially those regarding the overemphasis on consumer subjectivities.

Marketing Sadism: Super-Cannes and Consumer Culture:

This article examines the possibilities and futures of consumer society and the progression of a post-moral marketing paradigm through a critical review of J.G. Ballard’s Super-Cannes.

The fantasies, orders and roles of sadistic consumption: game shows and the service encounter

Desire, fantasy and imagination are integral aspects of the consumption experience. This paper critically develops a Sadean analytical framework to further explore these aspects of consumption in contemporary cultural settings. The philosophy of the Marquis de Sade is introduced, followed by a detailed examination of Sadism as text and social structure. Five components of Sadean narratives are identified and applied in two consumer behavior cases. The first applies a Sadean analysis to the popular television game show The Weakest Link. The second provides a Sadean interpretation of the service encounter. A justification for Sadean approach is considered together with a brief discussion of some of the moral questions raised by the analytical approach.

Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Space Use in a Dwelling Using RFID Tracking

Abstract The UK housing industry stands accused of delivering homes that are overly expensive, environmentally unsustainable and deficient in number (Barker, 2004). To resolve the proclaimed shortage—primarily the result of demographic changes within households (Office for National Statistics, 2006)—the Government intends that the number of annual new additions in England by 2016 will have increased by a third to 200,000. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has stated that post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is the preferred means to assess how well these new homes meet the changing lifestyle needs of consumers and whether effective use is being made of the limited land resources (CABE, 2005). However, a standard approach for housing POE is yet to be developed. This paper describes a project in which a households occupancy of each room in a dwelling was discreetly collected using a radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking system. This gave a temporal portrayal of how each space was used, occasionally contradicting the beliefs of the household. It is proposed that repeated studies like this could enable a POE database to be established that would make generalized conclusions possible. Alternatively, selective in-depth case studies could inform the line of questioning taken in traditional survey methods for gathering mass consumer opinions.

Relationship marketing and the order of simulation

This paper applies Jean Baudrillard’s order of simulacra to further investigate the paradigm of relationship marketing (RM). A brief overview of RM is given, followed by a summary of the main critical perspectives taken towards the approach. We argue that Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and post-industrial culture provide a useful analytical approach through which to resolve some of these critiques. Relationships are simultaneously ‘real’ and ‘imagined’. In the culture of simulation all cultural forms, including relationships, are open to critical analysis and interrogation. They are a construct that results from the complex interplay between signs, code and programme, which for our purposes are manifest as the market, marketing institutions and marketing technologies.

Veblen and Darwin: tracing the intellectual roots of evolutionism in consumer research

This paper charts some of the theoretical inertia in marketing theory by revisiting the contribution of Veblen to consumer research in light of recent movements towards integrating evolutionary concepts from the biological sciences. By outlining the heritage of Darwinism to the social sciences more generally, and the legacy of Veblen in particular, we aim to provide some insights into how and why evolutionism has until recently remained marginal to consumer research and how these concepts can be incorporated into the discipline through existing theoretical discourse. Our account provides some insights into the processes by which disciplinary movements become structured out of and (back) into the mainstream discourses of marketing knowledge. We discuss literatures on evolutionism and consumer behaviour focusing on the work of economist and social analyst Thorstein Veblen.