CHAPTER 17

THE CREATION AND DIFFUSION OF CONSUMER CULTURE

1

Cultural Selection

The Artist Formerly known as Prince. Nipple rings. Platform shoes. Sushi. High-tech furniture. Postmodern architecture. Chat rooms. Double decaf cappuccino with a hint of cinnamon. We inhabit a world brimming with different styles and possibilities. The food we eat, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the places we live and work, the music we listen toall are influenced by the ebb and flow of popular culture and fashion.

The Movement of Meaning

INSTRUMENTS DESTINATIONS

OF MOVEMENT

OF MOVEMENT
Cultural Values & Symbols

Advertising & Fashion Systems

Consumer Goods Consumption Rituals Individual Consumer

Amandas emulation of hip-hop style illustrate some of the characteristics of fashion and popular culture: Styles are often a reflection of deeper societal trends (e.g., politics & social conditions). Styles usually originate as an interplay between the deliberate inventions of designers and business people and spontaneous actions by ordinary consumers. These cultural products can travel widely , often between countries and across continents. Influential people in the media play a large role in deciding which will succeed. A style begins as a risky or unique statement by a relatively small group of people, then spreads as others increasingly become aware of the style and feel confident about trying it. Most styles eventually wear out, as people continually search for new ways to express themselves and marketers scramble to keep up with these desires.
4

Culture Production Process

Symbol Pool Consumer Innovation/Grass Roots movement
5

Creative Subsystems

Managerial Subsystems

Culture production system

Communications Subsystems
Cultural Gatekeepers Formal Gate Keepers Casting Directors Radio Programmers Retail Buyers Textbook Authors Informal Gate Keepers Opinion Leaders Friends, Spouse Family Members Neighbors Etc.

Consumer

HIGH CULTURE AND POPULAR CULTURE Arts & Crafts: one distinction can be made between arts and crafts. An art product is viewed primarily as an object of aesthetic contemplation without any functional value. A craft product, in contrast, is admired because of the beauty with which it performs some function (e.g., a ceramic ashtray or hand carved fishing lures). High Art Versus Low Art: The distinction between high and low culture is not as clear as it may first appear. In addition the possible class bias that drives such a distinction (i.e. we assume that rich the rich have culture but the poor do not), high and low culture are blending together in interesting ways. Popular culture reflects the world around us; these phenomena touch rich and poor. In Europe, for example, advertising is widely appreciated as an art form. For over 10 years, people in France have paid up $ 30 to watch an all night program in a movie theater consisting of nothing but television commercials.
6

Adopting Innovations: Roughly one-sixth of the population

The Diffusion Of Innovations

(innovators are early adopters) are very quick to adopt new products, and one sixth of the people (laggards) are very slow. The other two-thirds, so called late adopters, are some where in the middle, and these adopters represent the mainstream public. These consumers are interested in new things, but they do not want them to be too new. In some cases, people deliberately wait to adopt an innovation because they assume that its technological qualities will be improved or that its price will fall after it has been on the market awhile. Even though innovators represent only 2.5% of the population, marketers are always interested in identifying them. These are the brave souls who are always on the look out for novel developments and will be the first to try a new offering. Early adopters share many of the same characteristics as innovators, but an important difference is their degree of concern for social acceptance, especially with regard to expressive products, such as clothing, cosmetics, and so on. Generally speaking an early adopter is receptive to new styles because he or she is involved in the product category and also places high value on being in fashion.

symbolic innovation communicated a new social meaning (e.g., new hairstyle or car design), where as a technological innovation involves some functional change (e.g., central air conditioning or car air bags). Prerequisites For Successful Adoption: Compatibility: the innovation should be compatible with consumers lifestyles. As one illustration, a manufacture of personal care products tried unsuccessfully several years ago to introduce a cream hair remover for men as a substitute for razor and shaving cream. It failed because men were not interested in a product they perceived to be too feminine and thus threatening to their masculine self-concepts. Trialability: because an unknown is accompanied by high perceived risk, people are more likely to adopt an innovation if they can experiment with it prior to making a commitment. Complexity: the product should be low in complexity. Observability: innovations that are easily observable are more likely to spread, because this quality makes it more likely that other potential adopters will become aware of its existence. Real Advantage: most importantly, the product should offer relative, advantage over other alternatives.
8

Types of Innovations: Innovations can occur in different forms. A

The Fashion System

The fashion system is an integral part of symbolic innovation. It consist of all those people and organizations involved in creating symbolic meanings and transferring these meanings to cultural goods. Fashion can be thought of as a code, or language, that helps us to decipher these meanings. CULTURAL CATEGORIES Customers worn by political figures or movie and rock stars can affect the fortunes of the apparel and accessory industries. The Louvre in Paris was recently remodeled to include a controversial glass pyramid at the entrance designed by the architect. In the 1950s & 1960s mush of America was preoccupied with science and technology.

Psychological Models Of Fashion: one of the earliest theories of fashion proposed that shifting erogenous zones (sexually arousing areas of the body) accounted for fashion changes, and the different zones become the object of interest because they reflect societal trends. J.C Flugel, a disciple of Freud, proposed in the 1920s that sexually charged areas wax and wane in order to maintain interest, and that clothing styles change to highlight or hide these parts. Sociological Models Of Fashion: A perspective based on class structure cannot account for the wide range of styles that are simultaneously made available in our society. Consumers tend to be more influenced by opinion leaders who are similar to them. Finally, current fashions often originate with the lower classes and trickle up. Grassroots innovators typically are people who lack prestige in the dominant culture (e.g., urban youth). Since they are less concerned with maintaining the status quo, they are more free to innovate and take risks.

10

Fashion Life-Cycles

A classic is a fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle. It is in a sense antifashion because it guarantees stability and low risk to the purchaser for a long period of time. A fad is a very short lived fashion. Fads are usually adopted by relative few people. Adopters may all belong to a common subculture, and the fad trickles across members but rarely breaks out of that specific group. The fad is nonutilitarian---that is, it does not perform any meaningful function. The fad is often adopted on impulse; people do not under go stages of rational decision making before joining in. The fad diffuses rapidly, gains quick acceptance, and it is short lived.

11

Fad Or Trend?

Does it fit basic lifestyle changes? If a new hairstyle is hard to care for, this innovation will not be consistent with womens increasing time demands. What are the benefits? The switch to poultry and fish from beef came about because these meats are healthier, so a real benefit is evident. Can it be personalized? Enduring trends tend to accommodate a desire for individuality, whereas styles such as Mohawk haircuts or the grunge look are inflexible and dont allow people to express themselves. It is a trend or a side effect? An increased interest in exercise is part of a basic trend toward health consciousness, although the specific form of exercise that is in at any given time will vary. Who has adopted the change? If the innovation is not adopted by working mothers, baby boomers, or some other important market segment, it is not likely to become a trend.
12

Transferring Product Meanings To Other Cultures

As if understanding the dynamics of ones culture werent hard enough, these issues get even more complicated when we talk on the daunting---but essential task of learning about the practices of other cultures. The Diffusion Of Western Consumer Culture ID Like To Buy The World A Coke.. The west and specially the United States is a net exporter of popular culture. Western symbols in the form of images, words, and products have diffused through out the world. This influence is eagerly sought by many consumers, who have learned to equate western lifestyles in general and the English language in particular with modernization & sophistication. As a result, people around the world are being exposed to a blizzard of American products and media that are attempting to become part of local lifestyles.

13

The American appeal is so strong that some non U.S. companies go out of their way to create an American image. Kellogg Co. is trying to carve out a market for breakfast cereal in India, even though currently only about 3% of Indian household consume such products. The British are avid tea drinkers, but how they will react to American styled iced tea? U.S Cos such as Snapple are hoping they can convince the British that iced tea is more than hot tea thats gotten cold. Pizza hut is invading, of all places, Italy.
14

Emerging consumer cultures in transitional economies:

Some of the consequences of the transition to capitalism include a loss of confidence and pride in the local culture, as well as alienation, frustration and an increase in stress as leisure time is sacrificed to work ever harder to buy consumer goods. The yearning for the trappings of Western material culture is perhaps most evident in parts of Eastern Europe, where citizens who threw off the shackles of communism now have direct access to coveted consumer goods from the United States and Western Europe---if they can afford them.

15

CREEPING AMERICANISM: A NEGATIVE BACKLASH: Critics in other countries deplore the creeping Americanization of their cultures. Debates continue in many countries on the imposition of quotes that limit American television programming. The French have been the most out spoken opponents of creeping Americanization. They have even tried to ban the use of such Franglish terms as Le drugstore, le fast food and even le marketing.
16

THE END
ANY QUESTIONS?

17