I need a reflection paper for this article which about consumer behavior. Cultur

Question

I need a reflection paper for this article which about consumer behavior.

Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods GRANT McCRACKEN* Cultural meaning in a consumer society moves ceaselessly from one location to another. In the usuai trajectory. cuftural meaning moves first from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods and then from these goods to the individual consumer. Several instruments are responsible for this movement: advertising, the fashion system, and four consumption rituals. This articie analyzes the moverment of cutural meaning theoretically. showing both where cultural meaning is resident in the contemporary North American consumer system and the means by which this meaning is transferred from one location in this system to another onsumer goods have a significance that goes be a consumer good. Then the meaning is drawn from the object and transferred to an individual consumer. In other words, cultural meaning is located in three places carry and communicate cultural meaning (Douglas and the culturally constituted world, the consumer good and the individual consumer, and moves in a trajectory at two points of transfer: world to good and good to yond their utilitarian character and commercial value. This significance rests largely in their ability to Isherwood 1978; Sahlins 1976). During the last decade a diverse body of scholars has made the cultural sig nificance of consumer goods the focus of renewed ac- ademic study (Belk 1982; Bronner 1983; Felson 1976; Furby 1978; Graumann 1974-1975; Hirschman 1980; Holman 1980; Leiss 1983; Levy 1978; McCracken 1985c; Prown 1982: Quimby 1978: Rodman and Phi individual. The Figure summarizes this relationship. In this article I propose to analyze this trajectory of mean ing. taking each of its stages in turn Appreciating the mobile quality of cultural meaning in a consumer society should help to illuminate two libert 1985; Schlereth 1982; Solomon 1983). These aspects of consumption in modern society. First, such a perspeve encourages us to see consumers and con the social sciences that now devotes itself with increasing sumer goods as the way-stations of meaning. In this scholars have established a subfield extending across clarity and thoroughness to the study of"person-object relations. In this article, I propose to contribute a theo retical perspective to this emerging subfield by showing that the meaning carried by goods has a mobile quality manner. we focus on structural and dynamic properties of consumption that have not always been emphasized Second. the "trajectory" perspective asks us to see such phenomena as advertising. the fashion world. and con- for which prevailing theories make no allowance sumption rituals as instruments of meaning movement A great limitation of present approaches to the studyWe are encouraged to acknowledge the presence of a of the cultural meaning of consumer goods is the failure to observe that this meaning is constantly in transit Cultural meaning flows continually between its several locations in the social world, aided by the collectiveofincoherence and discontinuity. In sum, this perspec- large and powerful system at the heart of modern con sumer society that gives this society some of its coher ence and flexibility even as it serves as a constant source and individual efforts of designers, producers, adverts ve can help to demonstrate some of the ful complexity ers, and consumers. There is a traditional trajectory to this movement. Usually, cultural meaning is drawn from a culturally constituted world and transferred to of current consumption behavior and to reveal in a more detailed way just what it is to be a "consumer society Grant McCracken is Assistant Professor, Department of Con- sumer Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada NiG 2WI. The author thanks the following individuals for their con bution to the paper: Michael Ames, Duncan Joy, Mary Ellen Roach Higgins, K.O.L. Brridge, and the anonymous reviewers of this Jour- LOCATIONS OF CULTURAL MEANING: THE CULTURALLY CONSTITUTED WORLD The original location of the cultural meaning that ultimately resides in consumer goods is the culturally 71 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH Vol 13June 198

Explanation / Answer

Culture & Consumption:

The article is about culture and consumer. The article says that culture meaning of consumer goods is difficult to define. There are different kinds of people in this world who are shaped by their own cultures and traditions. Each culture is unique in terms of their time, nature. Each cuture determines the taste and preferences of their own goods.

Different culture categories:

There are different categories of culture in terms of gender, age, status. Occupation etc. For example in north America, the cultural differences of their people are marked by their age, and category like they belong to adult or children group. The marketers usually seek to establish or encourage a new cultural category of person example: the teenager in order to create a new market segment.

The cultural categories determine how the world is divided into different segments. The objects or products are usually created on the basis of cultural preferences of the customers. The process by which a culture makes its cultural categories has been studied in detail by anthropologists. Goods may be seen as an opportunity to make culture material.

Cultural principles:

Cultural principles are nothing but the ideas which makes the cultural categorization. It is observed that cultural categories and cultural principles are mutually related to each other. For example the clothing that differentiates between men and women and also high and low classes reveals the nature of differences that exist between these categories. Both cultural categories and principles organize the world and the efforts to change this world.

Instruments for transfer of goods:

Advertising works as potential method of bringing the consumer good and representation of culturally constituted world together. Advertising is a conduit through which the meaning flows from culturally constituted world to consumer goods. Thorough advertising old and new goods give up old meanings and take on the new ones. Advertising maintains a consistency between the order of culture and the order of goods.

There is another concept of fashion system which is a more complicated instrument than advertising. Because in case of fashion system the process has more sources of meaning, media of communication etc. The fashion system works in a different way to transfer meaning to its goods.

Locations of cultural meaning: consumer goods.

The consumer goods are the locus of cultural meaning is a well established fact that needs demonstration. For example, clothing, food , transportation all serve as a media for expression of cultural meaning. Consumers may manipulate the meaning as a status of consumer item. When we examine the cultural meaning of consumer goods, we may wish to determine where cultural meaning came and how it was transferred.

Exchange rituals, possession rituals, grooming rituals and finally divestment rituals are some of the rituals that are available in the cultural meaning. All of these rituals are those are version of the instruments that transfer the meaning from world to goods since they move the meaning from consumer to goods.

Locations of cultural meaning:

Individuals living in western culture enjoy a wide range of choice of goods. Our culture has studied its own beliefs with an enthusiasm which has led to the possession of goods.

It is therefore evident that advertising, fashion system and the rituals have been identified as a means to transfer the good from culturally constituted world to consumer goods.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.