Multicultural, not multinational: emerging branding strategies in culturally diverse societies

This paper proposes that approaches to culture-based brand positioning are diversifying in response to increasing complexities of consumer cultural identities, with uni- bi- and multicultural identities emerging. Acting as visualisations of consumers’ cultural identities, brands represent people’s ideas about their membership of cultural groups. Findings from a critical visual analysis of brand communications reveal that the brands’ positioning concepts include associations with single cultures, or two or more distinct types of culture that go beyond traditional global-local positioning strategies. This suggests that in culturally diverse marketplaces, coherent branding strategies that create ‘multi-cultural’ meanings can be used by marketers as a competitive positioning tool, to appeal to consumers that integrate multiple cultures in their identities

`They don't want us to become them': Brand Local Integration and consumer ethnocentrism

This paper investigates whether positioning strategies of foreign brands that integrate both foreign and 'localised' dimensions of country-of-origin (COO) appeals shape perceptions and attitudes of domestically biased consumers. Ethnocentric consumers hold strong favourable attitudes towards local-perceived brands. At the same time, brand positioning strategies of local brands acquired by multinational corporations and of foreign brands entering the local market often integrate foreign COO appeals with locally relevant manufacturing and/or symbolic appeals. The results indicate that foreign brand identities that integrate 'localised' appeals communicating respect of local traditions (through the use of local images, symbols, and recipes) and contribution to the local society's well-being (through local manufacture, employment, use of local ingredients) lead to more favourable consumer perceptions. In distinguishing between 'purely foreign' and 'locally integrated foreign brands', consumers perceive the latter to be more acceptable for consumption. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings and outlining directions for further research.No Full Tex

Special Session: Multicultural marketplaces (Theoretical and empirical ground advances)

Several disciplines such as sociology and human geography have recognized that the new era of ‘superdiversity’, where social actors all evolve in ‘lived multiculture’ (e.g., Neal, Bennet, Cochrane, & Mohan 2013; Vertovec 2007; Wessendorf 2013), poses new questions and requires theoretical development. Similarly, in marketing and consumer research, several authors have pointed to the need to distinguish between international and multicultural marketing (e.g., Askegaard, Arnould, & Kjeldgaard 2005; Craig & Douglas, 2006; Jamal 2003; Laroche, Papadopoulos, Heslop, & Bergeron 2003; Yaprak 2008). Large proportions of contemporary marketplaces become increasingly culturally diverse – in terms of their populations’ composition, the cultural origin of the marketers and brands active in the marketplace, and their consumers’ exposure to brands, advertising, media and ideologies from multiple cultural origins. Such continuous multicultural interactions and experiences facilitate the integration, appropriation and, in some cases, transformation of cultural meanings from other marketplaces to consumers’ lived multiculture realities in a given marketplace (Cayla & Eckhardt 2008; Demangeot, Broderick & Craig 2015; Eckhardt & Mahi 2004; Kipnis, Broderick, & Demangeot 2014). While international marketing research has primarily focused on cultural differences between geographically distant markets and, more recently, on the globalization of markets (Akaka, Vargo, & Lusch, 2013; Cavusgil, Deligonul, & Yaprak, 2005), multicultural marketplaces pose new questions and require theoretical development to reflect and cater for the complexities brought about by the unprecedented magnitude of cultural heterogeneity and interconnectedness in the majority of contemporary national markets. The purpose of this special session is to spotlight some of the recent theoretical and empirical advances in the ‘multicultural marketplaces’ research stream. The session brings together studies that each deploys different research lenses addressing four areas (identity complexity, intergroup conviviality, differentiation of socio-political contexts and multicultural adaptiveness) recently posed as requiring development in the multicultural marketplaces paradigm (Demangeot et al. 2015). Specifically, the study by Cross, Harrison and Thomas distinguishes unique phenomenological complexities of multiracial consumer identity and discuss whether and how advertising representations of multiracial populations affect these consumers’ perceptions of acceptance by the marketplace. Regany and Emontspool consider how the ethnic-focused product representation practices by retail spaces elevate recognition of cultural difference by consumers within one multicultural marketplace, contributing to the rise of new intergroup barriers. Johnson, Cadairo and Grier, conversely, consider the role of country-level ideological stances on cultural diversity in driving differential consumer responses to ethnocultural-specific meanings represented in restaurant environments. Finally, Galalae, Kipnis and Demangeot propose the concept of consumer psychological mobility to capture and explain variations in consumers’ capacity to adapt and adopt multicultural living as a consistent, active practice extending beyond cultural consumption tourism. The session highlights that mundane intersection of multiple cultural meanings and varying contextualizations of lived multiculture within societal ideologies facilitate emergence of new individual and group discourses informing distinctly different consumption expectations and practices. This necessitates innovative approaches to recognize and account for these differences. By empirically identifying specific challenges faced by marketing researchers and practitioners and debating their theoretical implications the session contributes to advancement of consumer behaviour and marketing research in multicultural marketplaces’ contexts

‘Super disabilities’ vs ‘Disabilities’?:Theorizing the role of ableism in (mis)representational mythology of disability in the marketplace

People with disabilities (PWD) constitute one of the largest minority groups with one in five people worldwide having a disability. While recognition and inclusion of this group in the marketplace has seen improvement, the effects of (mis)representation of PWD in shaping the discourse on fostering marketplace inclusion of socially marginalized consumers remain little understood. Although effects of misrepresentation (e.g., idealized, exoticized or selective representation) on inclusion/exclusion perceptions and cognitions has received attention in the context of ethnic/racial groups, the world of disability has been largely neglected. By extending the theory of ableism into the context of PWD representation and applying it to the analysis of the We’re the Superhumans advertisement developed for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, this paper examines the relationship between the (mis)representation and the inclusion/exclusion discourse. By uncovering that PWD misrepresentations can partially mask and/or redress the root causes of exclusion experienced by PWD in their lived realities, it contributes to the research agenda on the transformative role of consumption cultures perpetuating harmful, exclusionary social perceptions of marginalized groups versus contributing to advancement of their inclusion