Constructing the Market Through the Colour Spectrum

Drawing upon an ethnography of product development in the haircolor department of L’Oreal, in Paris, this study examines how consumers are described, represented and depicted, by managers throughout the product development process. It unveils the relation between the marketing department and the science laboratory, and the reification of consumers that emerges as a result. The product development process is used as a template for the analysis of the interplay between the social actors and the material culture of knowledge. Drawing on contemporary material culture studies inspired by Latour and Woolgar’s ethnography of the science lab, this paper seeks to examine critically, and reflexively, the making of the consumers in a global corporation.

Citation:

Pascale Desroches and Jean-Sebastien Marcoux (2007) ,"Constructing the Market Through the Colour Spectrum", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 8--8.