Maria Piacentini

Corporate social responsibility in food retailing

Describes a study investigating the motivations of food retailers to engage in corporate socially responsible (CSR) activities. Focusing on confectionery retailing and merchandising, the study sought to establish the extent of CSR activities and the motivations for companies to act as they do. An audit of food retailers was first conducted to establish the nature and extent of CSR activities. This was followed by a series of in‐depth interviews with key decision makers in food retailing organisations, to reveal motivations behind their policies on confectionery retailing. The authors found the main motivations driving confectionery merchandising decisions to be space maximisation, profitability and customer pressure. While certain proactive companies recognised the benefits of being seen as a socially responsible company, none of the companies was driven primarily by philanthropic motivations.

Perception of fruit as a snack: A comparison with manufactured snack foods

Abstract Perception of manufactured snack foods and fresh fruit was studied in 51 women working in Edinburgh. There were distinct differences between the two types of product. Fresh fruit and a canned snack fruit product were perceived as healthy and refreshing. Manufactured snack foods generally were perceived as both more convenient and more suitable for indulgence and comfort eating. Convenience aspects included storability, predictability of eating quality and absence of waste and mess. Among the fruit, bananas and apples were perceived as more convenient than oranges and kiwi fruit. The authors offer suggestions on how fruit consumption might be increased as part of a mobile, snacking lifestyle.

Perception and role of fruit in the workday diets of scottish lorry drivers

Forty-six lorry drivers working for two haulage firms in central Scotland took part in a study to determine their perception and the role of fruit in their diets on working days. A focus group session provided initial insights, with repertory grid being used to provide further understanding. Eating while at work was characterized by a pattern of extensive and irregular snacking. The snack foods tended to be branded items obtained from garage kiosks, forecourts, motorway service areas and truck stops. Fruit as a snack, although perceived as healthy, did not feature highly because it was considered both inconvenient and expensive. The study identifies a major role to be played by the roadside catering and retailing industries in supplying healthy snacks to their customers.

Consumer resource integration amongst vulnerable consumers: Care leavers in transition to independent living

Abstract The purpose of this study is to develop an improved understanding of how consumers facing multiple resource constraints deal with consumption-related experiences. By focusing on care leavers and exploring their transitions to independent living, the research develops new insights into resource interactions and consumption experiences. An interpretivist approach is adopted, comprising in-depth interviews and focus groups, to explore the interaction of operand and operant resources under conditions of resource constraints. Our findings show evidence of care leavers creatively combining constellations of their own resources to access and activate resources afforded by the marketplace. However, at the point of leaving care, our participants overall lack the well-interconnected operant resources that would provide greater capacity for generating value as they perform adult consumer roles. Disentangling the different types of resources, and exploring resource dynamics as people pursue life projects and consumption goals, enables more detailed and consumer-centric diagnosis of consumption patterns for resource-constrained consumers. The implications of this study are discussed, in particular in terms of alleviating the potential risk of care leavers becoming either under-skilled or marginalised consumers due to the lack of opportunities for systematic learning of consumer knowledge for coping in the marketplace.

Poverty in consumer culture: towards a transformative social representation

Abstract In this article, we consider the representations of poverty within consumer culture. We focus on four main themes – social exclusion, vulnerability, pleasure and contentment – that capture some of the associations that contemporary understandings have made with poverty. For each theme, we consider the portrayals of poverty from the perspective of key agents (such as marketers, media, politicians) and then relate this to more emic representations of poverty by drawing on a range of contemporary poverty alleviating projects from around the world. We conclude with a set of guidelines for relevant stakeholders to bear in mind when elaborating their representations of poverty. These guidelines may act as a platform to transform marginalising representations of poverty into more empowering representations.

Consumption lives at the bottom of the pyramid

Over the last decade, there has been increasing recognition of the value of understanding the lives of people throughout the world who experience impoverishment. ‘Bottom of the pyramid’ is the term used to describe people living in absolute poverty who, despite economic limitations, can be ‘resilient entrepreneurs’ and co-creators of new market opportunities that result in win-win situations for companies and consumers (Prahalad, 2004: 3). A range of metrics are used to define and describe people living in poverty, and although these metrics help identify the neediest across the world, such measures exclude people living in developed nations where poverty exists on a large scale, but where welfare policy provides a safety net. In this essay, we discuss some of the issues for those living in poverty in both developed and developing countries and argue that this will lead to a deeper understanding of the consumption experiences of those living in poverty.

Producing and consuming celebrity identity myths: unpacking the classed identities of Cheryl Cole and Katie Price

Abstract We investigate the ways in which celebrity identity myths are created, shaped, interpreted and utilised by media, celebrities and consumers. Two working-class female celebrities, Cheryl Cole and Katie Price, provide our focus, and we draw on an analysis of articles in the popular press, celebrity autobiographies and qualitative data collected with 16- to 18-year-olds. We find that class-infused celebrity identity myths (‘celebrity chav’) are constructed in terms of glamour, allure and charisma but also vulgarity, repulsion and ordinariness. Young consumers interpret these myths based on judgements of taste, morality, connection and worthiness and utilise them in order to support the identity goals of distinction, affirmation, belonging and enhancement.

‘Your Life When You’ve Got Everything is Different’: Forced Transformations and Consumption Practices

Purpose – By analysing the experience of homelessness, this chapter aims to understand how individuals experience involuntary life changes in uncertain contexts and analyses the role of consumption, in terms of possessions and practices, along the process. Methodology/approach – This study adopts a phenomenological approach, focusing on the homelessness experience. It involves an 18 month quasi-ethnography study in a charity that supports the homeless individuals, where interviews about their retrospective biographical accounts were performed. The data was analysed using existential phenomenological procedures. Findings – Informants’ pathways to homelessness reveal a four-stage process of forced self-transformation (initial self, forced negotiation, transition, transformed self) which takes place across two stressful situational contexts: the triggering events for transformation (i.e. that led informants to lose their home) and the persisting state of uncertainty (i.e. further survival living in the streets). Social implications – In the current postmodern times there is greater uncertainty surrounding individuals’ life changes. The consequences of the current economic crisis have threatened individuals to lose their homes. By having a better understanding of the way individuals experience this type of loss, the study brings new information about how to support them. Originality/value of chapter – This study highlights contexts where Van Genneps transformational routine may not be suitable in the current postmodern times, and provides an alternative transformational routine that takes into account the uncertainty that accompanies involuntary transformations.

Towards a richer understanding of consumers in social marketing contexts: revisiting the stage of change model.

Abstract In this paper, we present data from an 18-month-long longitudinal study of a sample of 40 people who received a test for cancer and who were subsequently advised by health professionals on the dietary changes that would lead to improved health. This study investigates the ways that behaviour change is instigated (or not) and how people cope with these changes. We use the Stages of Change model to categorise people by their dominant behavioural response to the test (maintainers, recyclers, no change). From these categorisations, we develop an in-depth understanding of the experience of their behavioural response. By looking at the three possible behavioural responses in this way, we provide insights into the different cognitive, emotional, and behavioural response to the disease trigger. We evaluate the implications for social marketing theory and public policy makers.

The Dirty pint: Consumption objects in young people's extreme alcohol consumption and enactment of self

Purpose – To extend understanding of the rituals and practices of alcohol consumption through a focus on the consumption object (the Dirty Pint) as a central actant in the practices of extreme alcohol consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Seventeen paired and group interviews were conducted with young consumers (aged 16–18). An Actor-Network Theory (ANT)-inspired approach to data analysis was used in conjunction with Bourdieus key concepts of habitus, field and capital to present a detailed understanding of the practices and rituals of extreme alcohol consumption. Findings – The same consumption object takes on a very different role and has different forms of agency, depending on the social space (field) in which it is embedded. The Dirty Pint acts differently within different social spaces or sub-fields of the field of adolescence, particularly when combined with individual subjects of differing habitus to produce an object+subject hybrid. Social implications – Paying attention to all the relevant actants (both human and non-human) involved in the practice of alcohol consumption could lead to more novel and relevant alcohol-harm reduction strategies or campaigns that young people can both relate to and take more seriously. Originality/value of paper – We stress the need to grant greater agency to objects in studying consumption practices and identity enactment and contribute to the literature on identity by extending Gergens (2009) ‘relational being’, conceiving of the self as embedded in both inter-subjective and inter-objective interactions and relationships (Latour, 1996).