Beyond Class: Towards Cultural Stratification of Consumers Through the Study of Objects

Through a deep exploration of the meanings that consumers attach to the material goods that they identify with, this paper attempts to stratify an economic class laterally into distinct consumer sub cultures (symbolic rather than material forms of differences are implicated here). Most Studies on culture tend to focus on taste in different art forms such as music, books etc. The paper demonstrates that the study of men and their possessions have much to offer in the quest of cultural understanding of today’s consumers. The study while weaving concepts of identities and material culture succeeds in identifying consumer archetypes that represent certain consumption ethos and subcultures. These archetypes would be useful to marketers who belief that in rapid growing markets such as India cultural factors are increasingly playing a significant role in influencing product and brand choice.

Citation:

Sandeep Dutta (2011) ,"Beyond Class: Towards Cultural Stratification of Consumers Through the Study of Objects", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Zhihong Yi, Jing Jian Xiao, and June Cotte and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: .