Reclaiming the witch: Processes and heroic outcomes of consumer mythopoesis

Although previous research has investigated consumer mythopoesis (consumers’ identity work using marketplace myths), little is known about its enactment involving ambiguous myths. Here, we investigate the myth of the witch (predominantly depicted by dominant mythmakers as a villain but recently repositioned more positively) and describe how consumers reclaim the empowering and heroic aspects of the ambiguous witch myth. Based on a qualitative study using archival data and in-depth interviews with self-proclaimed witches, we argue that the witch’s ambiguity originates in different mythopoetic cycles. Then, we describe the following processes through which consumers reclaim positive cycles: incarnating the myth, coming out to selected others and practising myth-related craft. Finally, we show that reclaiming results in new forms of heroic agency that amplify the myth’s ambiguity and identity value. Our results reveal that consumers cope with market-wide paradoxical injunctions, stressful situations and marginalisation by transforming these pressures into acts of self-heroism

Reframing gender and feminist knowledge construction in marketing and consumer research: missing feminisms and the case of men and masculinities

Gender has been theorised and studied in many ways and across different disciplines. Although a number of these theorisations have been recognised and adopted in marketing and consumer research, the significance of feminism in knowledge construction has largely remained what we would call ‘unfinished’. Based on a critical reframing of gender research in marketing and consumer research, in dialogue with feminist theory, this article offers theoretical and practical suggestions for how to reinvigorate these research efforts. The analysis highlights dominant theorisations of gender, relating to gender as variable, difference and role; as fundamental difference and structuring; and as cultural and identity constructions. This reframing emphasises various neglected or ‘missing feminisms’, including queer theory; critical race, intersectional and transnational feminisms; material-discursive feminism; and critical studies on men and masculinities. A more detailed discussion of the latter, as a relatively new, growing and politically contentious area, is further developed to highlight more specifically which feminist and gender theories are mainly in use in marketing and consumer research and which are little or not used. In the light of this, it is argued that marketing and related disciplines have thus far largely neglected several key contemporary gender and feminist theorisations, particularly those that centre on gender power relations. The potential impact of these theoretical frames on transdisciplinary studies in marketing and consumer research and research agenda(s) is discussed

A Discourse Analysis of Pilgrimage Reviews

This paper is the first to provide an account of the discursive features of online consumer reviews of pilgrimage sites. Drawing from pilgrimage studies and narrativity theory in consumer research, we explore how consumers communicate the spiritual and material aspects of pilgrimage experiences by examining a corpus of 833 consumer reviews on TripAdvisor of the most sacred pilgrimage sites of the world’s major five faith groups. Pilgrims include analytical discursive features to communicate the material aspect of their consumption experience. They reserve narration for spiritual transformation and the experience of strong emotions. Moreover, review ratings are only reflective of the spiritual aspect of their consumption experience. As such, our research complements previous studies by highlighting the material, physical aspect of this extraordinary consumption experience

The semiotics of visual organizational texts: How to link the subjective semiotic gaze with objective research rigor

The work introduces methods to analyze visual organizational texts (e.g., advertising, corporate web sites, etc.) in rigorous manners with the help of procedures based on structural and interpretive semiotics

The male gaze and the queer eye: Male consumers’ reading strategies of media representations of men

The work analyzes evolving media representations of men and male consumers' interpretive strategie

Event Marketing

Il testo, in lingua inglese, prende in esame gli eventi come strumenti di comunicazione di marketing. Analizza i motivi dietro la loro diffusione, li inquadra a livello teorico, e illustra, in maniera manageriale, i principali ambiti di attività (goal setting, targeting, budgeting, definizione del messaggio), il rapporto tra brand e agenzia, e le modalità di misurazione dei ritorni sull'investimento

The emergence of Italy as a fashion country: Nation branding and collective meaning creation at Florence's fashion shows (1951-1965)

We analyse the emergence of Italy as a fashion country with a reconstruction of the history and impact of the collective fashion shows that Giovanni Battista Giorgini organised in Florence in 1951-65. Our cultural analysis highlights the role events play in the mobilisation of local actors and the creation of nation brands, which we conceive as ongoing narrations built on a country’s material and symbolic resources that differentiate its image in valuable ways for export markets. Despite their decline, the Florentine shows created an intangible asset that facilitated the ascent of Milan as Italy’s fashion capital in the 1970s

The analysis of visual texts in structural and interpretive semiotics

The article proposes research methods to analyze visual texts produced by organizations with the help of conceptual instruments developed by interpretive and structuralist semiotics

Servizi online e virtualità delle manifestazioni fieristiche italiane: un'analisi empirica

Il saggio presenta un'analisi dei servizi offerti tramite WEB dagli Organizzatori fieristici italiani, mettendoli a confronto con un benchmark internazional