The impact of aesthetics on the Celtic craft market

Abstract

Fillis, IRThe impact of aesthetics on the Celtic craft market http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/3826/ Article LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LJMU Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain.The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. Abstract:Drawing on data from the Celtic craft sector, this paper uses aesthetics as a critical lens in explaining how small firms develop particular styles of marketing in order to survive and grow. This approach has not previously been adopted in explaining small business marketing behaviour, although there is a growing history of its use in the wider management and organisation arena. Interpretation of qualitative data from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has enabled the construction of a typology of different styles of marketing by craft firm owner/managers which also confirms the heterogeneous nature of the small business sector. Aesthetic profiling helps explain why some craft firms follow market demand, while others pursue market creation activities. A key outcome is the need to acknowledge the impact of aesthetic processes on small business marketing decision making. Investigation of the Celtic aesthetic informs how these processes are shaped through the development of a particular type of marketing grounded in creativity, intuition and opportunity recognition. Wider consumption, markets and cultural implications are also evaluated in terms of decision and meaning making in the cultural production process; the connections between critical marketing and aesthetics as ways of challenging marketing concepts and practices; how aesthetics contributes to entrepreneurial marketing; and finally how craft and the Celtic lens uncover wider connections with cultural production.

From “aesthetic” to aestheticization: a multi-layered cultural approach

“…national myths, cultural contradictions, institutional logics, and new technologies) into aestheticized versions. Through the aestheticization of markets, particular myths are made tangible, graspable, and experientable-not only on the level of brands but as a market genre (Fillis 2014). This is particularly evident in Celtic craft markets, Ostalgie retro markets, and Nordic food markets (Fillis 2014;Gyimóthy 2017;Brunk, Giesler, and Hartmann 2018;Ulver 2019), which interweave object-focused experiences with cultural myths by tying specific cultural narratives to consumption experiences that are specific to market genres.…”

“…For instance, aestheticization is a recurrent analytical subtext in prior work on taste formation in aestheticized markets, emphasizing mutual cooperation and a complex mixture of intellectual and sensory pleasures as well as the learned response involved in aesthetic experiences (Arsel and Bean 2013;Maciel and Wallendorf 2017;Maciel and Fischer 2020). Likewise, other studies imply that the processes of aestheticization reframe symbolic resources around subcultures and collective performances (Schouten and McAlexander 1995;Kates 2002;Kozinets 2002;Goulding and Saren 2009); branding practices (Holt 2002;Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry 2003;Wu, Borgerson, and Schroeder 2013); and markets enchanted by authenticity, craft, artisanship, and "the handmade" (Brown, Hirschman, and Maclaran 2000;Campbell 2005;Fillis 2014;Ulver 2019). Furthermore, aestheticization resonates in studies that analyze consumption contexts of retro consumption and marketing (Belk and Costa 1998;Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry 2003;Brown 2018;Brunk, Giesler, and Hartmann 2018) and spectacular environments (Maclaran and Brown 2005;Marrewijk and Broos 2012;Nuttavuthisit 2014).…”

“…It is thus unsurprising that aesthetics is a recurring concept in research at the intersection of consumption, markets, and culture (Hebdige 1979;Baudrillard 1983;Bourdieu 1986;Cova and Svanfeldt 1993;Featherstone 2007;Reckwitz 2017) and that there are recent calls for studying aestheticization in consumer culture to understand how consumer-cultural actors form and operate in specific symbolic universes (Rokka 2021). Prior literature on consumption and marketing portrays aesthetics as a foundation for many current market activities (Brown, Hirschman, and Maclaran 2000;Björkman 2002;Holt 2004;Dion and Arnould 2011;Fillis 2014;Pomiès, Arsel, and Bean 2020) and discusses aesthetics as a central element in the reinvention, revalorization, and appropriation of symbolic resources (Reckwitz 2017;). Moreover, the aesthetic matters deeply for the creation of special experiences and for performing symbolic-creative works (Willis 1990;Goulding, Shankar, and Elliott 2002;Kates 2002;Borghini et al 2009;Hewer and Brownlie 2010;Brown 2018).…”

Entrepreneurial Marketing Theory: Current Developments and Future Research Agenda

“…A wide range of studies, including the recent ones (e.g., Andersson et al, 2018;Crick et al, 2018;Fillis et al, 2017;Pitchayadol et al, 2018;Toghraee et al, 2017;Weerawardena et al, 2017;Yang & Gabrielsson 2017) in the review have adopted the case study methods to explore the phenomenon of EM. This indicates a high relevance of EM with the case study method, particularly due to the heterogeneous nature of SMEs (Fillis 2014). However, on the other hand, there are other useful methods as well, for example, ethnographic research (Martin 2009), and biographical research (Fillis 2015), that were not greatly tapped by the researchers so far.…”

Guest editorial

“…These contributions have a keen focus on understanding architectural elements of strategic communication (visual design and advertising rhetoric) as means to distinguish national brands and identities on a multicultural and transnational market. Regionalist studies have identified the domination of auto-exoticising cultural stereotypes, for example, when contrasting "Celtic" vs "Saxonian" entrepreneurial ethos (remarked by creativity and intuition) on the Irish craft market (Fillis, 2014), promoting linguistic idiosyncrasies (Strandberg, 2020) or a unique "taste iconicity" for Indian cuisine (Varman, 2017). So, what does another regional perspective add to the field of place branding?…”