Brand personification and symbolic consumption among ethnic minority teenage consumers: An empirical study

Abstract

A plethora of evidence suggests that developed societies such as the UK are becoming increasingly multicultural by the day. Hence, the diversity of consumption in these societies becomes gradually evident in the form of residents' age, gender, income, and ethnicity. Accordingly, this paper explores the brand personification and symbolic consumption in respect of London-based Black African teenage consumers. The study is rooted in the interpretive research paradigm with 36 in-depth interviews conducted with the target respondents. The study shows the interactions of personal, social, cultural, psychological, and commercial factors in how these young ethnic minority consumers make their consumption decisions, define, and manage their various 'selves' in the postmodern society. It specifically highlights that they use symbolic consumption to address their need for acceptance in the society. It updates the extant ethnic minority studies and enriches the current understanding about symbolic consumption and brand personification especially with a focus on a specific segment of the society. The managerial implications of the study are highlighted in the paper.

Ethnic Consumer Markets and Movie Marketing: An Empirical Study on Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ and Predictive Analytics of Ethnic Consumer Behavior of Moviegoers

“…A study of young Black consumers' decisions living in the UK investigates the significance of brand personification. Gbadamosi (2015) gathers data from Black teenagers in relation to their consumer choices and ethnic identity. The researcher finds that customers with a need for social acceptance based on their identity make specific ethnicity-driven choices (Gbadamosi, 2015).…”

“…Gbadamosi (2015) gathers data from Black teenagers in relation to their consumer choices and ethnic identity. The researcher finds that customers with a need for social acceptance based on their identity make specific ethnicity-driven choices (Gbadamosi, 2015). Such symbolic consumption is explained by people's desire for self-construction since young people strive to create a balance between their ethnic and national identity as well as positive personal characteristics and culture-based narratives.…”

“…Therefore, the use of marketing by Black Panther that focused on displaying influential Black actors in roles of power developed a story that was appealing to young minority populations. As Gbadamosi (2015) argues, celebrity endorsements and marketing communications, and social need are among the factors that formulate the relevance of certain brands and events. Thus, the recognition of Black Panther as a major event in the history of comic-based and action films could further contribute to moviegoers' decisions.…”

Colour cosmetics consumption among Moroccan women: Examining the nexus of attitudes, religion and the media

“…The notion of self-concept and identity has been very fundamental to the discourse of consumer behaviour for a long time (Banister & Hogg, 2004;Belk, 1998;Elliott, 1997;Gbadamosi, 2015). The extant literature has strongly linked self-concept to self-esteem (Grubb & Grathwohl, 1967;Rucker et al, 2011).…”

Journal of Brand Management – Year end review 2015

“…: The weak brand retain-or-discard decision in brand portfolio management (Shah, 2015) The impact of brand strength on satisfaction, loyalty and WOM: An empirical examination in the higher education sector (Casidy and Wymer, 2015) Three's company: Investigating cognitive and sentiment unit imbalance in co-branding partnerships (Baxter and Ilicic, 2015) Measuring the short-term spill over impact of a product recall on a brand ecosystem (Mackalski and Belisle, 2015) A conceptual framework for the assessment of brand congruent sensory modalities (Stach, 2015) Hip to be cool: A Gen Y view of counterfeit luxury products (Francis et al, 2015) 'You'll never tweet alone': Managing sports brands through social media (Parganas et al, 2015) Measuring consumer design perceptions for digital devices: A multi-dimensional scale (Mishra et al, 2015) Global brands in emerging markets: The cultural antecedents of global brand preference (Dalmoro et al, 2015) Consumer-brand relationships within the luxury cosmetic domain (Hodge et al, 2015) Brand personification and symbolic consumption among ethnic minority teenage consumers: An empirical study (Gbadamosi, 2015) Using social media to communicate employer brand identity: The impact on corporate image and employer attractiveness (Kissel and Buettgen, 2015) BRAND AND LINE EXTENSIONS…”