Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

We do not live to buy Why subcultures are different from brand communities and the meaning for marketing discourse

We do not live to buy Why subcultures are different from brand communities and the meaning for... Purpose – The purpose is to investigate the concepts of subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community with a view to better understanding these three groups and their distinct differences. Design/methodology/approach – The method relies on a literature review and a case study of sporting subculture. Using commentary from the surfing community as an example of subcultural groups we see how they define themselves against consumption oriented groups. Findings – Subcultures are completely different from brand communities (or subcultures of consumption) and while they can be said to share certain common traits the broad philosophical foci of these two groups are vastly incommensurate with one another. Practical implications – Marketing discourse has perpetually conflated subculture with forms of consumption, i.e. brand communities, yet they are different. By acknowledging and interrogating the key differences marketers may better apprehend the needs, character and activities of subcultural participants and market more strategically. Originality/value – By dissecting the differences between subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community, this paper offers a re‐conceptualisation of these terms in marketing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to dispel some fundamental misapprehensions in marketing and offer an entirely fresh perspective on the value and meaning of subculture. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy Emerald Publishing

We do not live to buy Why subcultures are different from brand communities and the meaning for marketing discourse

Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/we-do-not-live-to-buy-why-subcultures-are-different-from-brand-8CCBkhYQpz
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0144-333X
DOI
10.1108/01443330710757230
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose is to investigate the concepts of subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community with a view to better understanding these three groups and their distinct differences. Design/methodology/approach – The method relies on a literature review and a case study of sporting subculture. Using commentary from the surfing community as an example of subcultural groups we see how they define themselves against consumption oriented groups. Findings – Subcultures are completely different from brand communities (or subcultures of consumption) and while they can be said to share certain common traits the broad philosophical foci of these two groups are vastly incommensurate with one another. Practical implications – Marketing discourse has perpetually conflated subculture with forms of consumption, i.e. brand communities, yet they are different. By acknowledging and interrogating the key differences marketers may better apprehend the needs, character and activities of subcultural participants and market more strategically. Originality/value – By dissecting the differences between subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community, this paper offers a re‐conceptualisation of these terms in marketing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to dispel some fundamental misapprehensions in marketing and offer an entirely fresh perspective on the value and meaning of subculture.

Journal

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jun 26, 2007

Keywords: Cultural studies; Brands; Consumption; Marketing; Consumer behaviour

References

  • The Colonial Harem
    Alloula, M.
  • Making consumption magic: a study of white‐water rafting
    Arnould, E.J.; Price, L.L.; Otnes, C.
  • Rip Curl rebrand rides the waves
    Baveystock, F.
  • The mountain man myth: a contemporary consuming fantasy
    Belk, R.W.; Costa, J.A.
  • Step into Liquid
    Brown, D.
  • The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumption
    Campbell, C.
  • An exploration of high‐risk leisure consumption through skydiving
    Celsi, R.L.; Rose, R.L.; Leigh, T.W.
  • Mapping consumers’ mental models with ZMET
    Christensen, G.; Olsen, J.
  • Subcultural conflict and working‐class community
    Cohen, P.
  • Community and consumption: Towards a definition of the linking value of product of services
    Cova, B.
  • The Production of Culture: Media and the Urban Arts
    Crane, D.
  • Surfing your Horizons
    Creagan, M.
  • Quiksilver aims to cash in on pop‐culture surf craze: Sportswear marketer with ‘Nike essence’ infiltrates film, books
    Cuneo, A.
  • The Division of Labour in Society
    Durkheim, E.
  • The Rule of Sociological Method
    Durkheim, E.
  • Metaphysical, (videorecording)
    Falzon, A.
  • Surf's still up for $1b quiksilver
    Frew, W.
  • The Subcultures Reader
    Gelder, K.; Thornton, S.
  • Nostalgia and consumption preferences: some emerging patterns of consumer tastes
    Holbrook, M.B.
  • Why do brands cause trouble? A dialectical theory of consumer culture and branding
    Holt, D.B.
  • Surfers: a study of the growth of a deviant subculture
    Irwin, J.K.
  • Subculture: the Fragmentation of the Social
    Jenks, C.
  • Europe's Myths of Orient: Devise and Rule
    Kabbani, R.
  • The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization
    Kaplan, J.; Loow, H.
  • The protean quality of subcultural consumption: an ethnographic account of gay consumers
    Kates, S.
  • Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture
    Kitano, H.H.
  • Textual Analysis: A Beginner's Guide
    McKee, A.
  • The No So Solid South: Anthropological Studies in a Regional Subculture
    Morland, K.J.
  • Brand community
    Muniz, A.M.; O’Guinn, T.C.
  • Religiosity in the abandoned Apple Newton brand community
    Muniz, A.M.; Shau, H.J.
  • The Social System
    Parsons, T.
  • Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient
    Said, E.
  • Subcultures of consumption: an ethnography of the new bikers
    Schouten, J.W.; Alexander, J.
  • Mirrors of masculinity: representation and identity in advertising images
    Schroeder, J.; Zwick, D
  • Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Behaving and Being
    Solomon, M.R.
  • Riding waves of success
    Stolz, G.
  • Marketplace mythology and discourses of power
    Thompson, C.
  • Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital
    Thornton, S.
  • Billabong makes splash with sales growth
    Wishenthal, S.