Putting Assumed Emotion in Fashion Brand Literacy: Understanding Brand-Identity Relationship in the Interdependent Asian Context

Abstract

Over the past decade, consumer researchers have been interested in understanding symbolic relationship between consumers and brands, especially on identity construction (Elliott & Wattanasuwan, 1998;Escalas & Bettman, 2005;Kirmani, 2009) and its implications on brand management (Arvidsson, 2005;Holt, 2002;. Following a cultural-psychological view to study how culture shapes brand-identity relationship, Eckhardt (2000) addresses that little attention have been paid to understand consumer behavior within interdependent cultures when compare with the prolific account of western literatures that reported the consumption behavior with an independent selfconstrual.This paper strives to address this absence through researching how a group of Chinese youngsters internalize their cultural values with a sense of assumed emotion and developed local specific brand literacy towards fashion brands' perception and consumption. Following Bengtsson and Firat (2006)'s concept of brand literacy, this interpretative research aims to extend our current understanding of symbolic brand consumption and brand-identity relationship in particular to the interdependent Asian context. The literature review discusses previous studies on brand symbolism in formulating brand-identity relationship and how social psychological understanding of interdependent construal of self can be applied to consumer researches. The cultural characteristics of Chinese consumers are also discussed with reference to previous indigenous consumer researches on symbolic brand consumption.As part of a greater project on fashion and brand consumption experience among young Chinese in Guangzhou, 18

Consuming counterfeit: A study of consumer moralism in China

“…This also echoed the ‘fitting in’ vs. ‘standing out’ debate that Griffiths () presented. In other words, in the view of the status matchers that took part in the present study, a person's consumption choices should align with his/her social position to meet the social expectations (Jiang & Cova, ; Lam, Liu, & To, ). For these participants, the primary ethical concern in buying counterfeits was not the issue of disrespecting the original design or violating intellectual property rights, but the extent to which the social group to which they belonged had the same understanding of the brand.…”

“…Her perception of counterfeiting was primarily based on her views of how a student should behave and dress. Lam et al () argued that the values and responsibilities associated with the social identities can become a force that legitimizes consumption habits, the way that people dress and what they use. Yet, our findings revealed that consumers appropriate these cultural values in their consumption of counterfeits as ‘ethical’ behaviour in the Chinese cultural context.…”

“…However, it is more pertinent to address the argument that the consumption of counterfeits is re‐signified as ethical behaviour in the Chinese context as it serves a societal function. This seemingly ‘unethical’ consumption choice is a virtue in Chinese culture, as it signifies that they are conscious of the need (and obligation) to consume in accordance with one's social identity as a student, daughter/son and youngster (Lam et al, ). Overshadowed by a strong sense of social orientation and the nuances of Chinese traditional values and institutional influences, the Chinese youngsters/students felt that buying luxury goods for hedonistic purposes was out of bounds, even if they could afford to do so.…”

Pop culture, destination images, and visit intentions: Theory and research on travel motivations of Chinese and Russian tourists

“…Whereas Chinese tend to seek relaxation and shopping more when traveling, Russians tend to seek physical activities and learning new knowledge/culture when traveling. Possessing different travel intentions is in line with previous research, which showed that tourists of different nationalities behave in different ways (Cho, 1991;Lam, Liu, & To, 2011). Further analysis was performed regarding differences between the countries' structural models.…”

Indian consumers’ mall patronage intentions: impacts of shopping motivations, subjective norms, materialism, and self-efficacy

“…India is a country of diverse cultures, in terms of people following different religions and speaking languages that can change every 20 miles; diversified cultures lead to different tastes, habits and preferences, and hence the motivations of mall shopping behavior may differ markedly from those of consumers in other countries (Devgan & Kaur, 2010). Additionally, as suggested by Lam, Liu, and To (2011), there exist clear cultural differences between the localities within metropolitan and nonmetropolitan cities, and hence the variables measured in this study reflect both the cultural phenomenon and often used variables in studies that examine consumer behavior with respect to purchase intention.…”