Instructor: Peter Oehlkers
Office Hours: MW 11:30-12:30; Rm. 42, 21 Comm
Office Telephone: 824-8564
e-mail: Peter_Oehlkers@emerson.edu
Webpage: pages.emerson.edu/Faculty/Peter_Oehlkers/CS617.html

COURSE DESCRIPTION.

This course has several goals. First, it is designed to introduce students to cultural approaches to the study of consumer behavior.  This includes understanding consumption in terms of cultural meanings and practices as well as understanding such meanings and practices in cross-cultural perspective.  Second, it is designed to introduce students to some of the methods used by researchers who take a cultural approach to the topic of consumer behavior. Third, it is designed to allow students to produce a small-scale primary research project of their own using the theories and methods discussed in the class.

This class will run as a reading intensive seminar.  Students should come to class having done the reading for the given class period, thought about it, and be prepared to talk about it.   Students will be assigned to lead the discussion of at least one  reading during the course of the semester.  Students will also write weekly reaction papers on the assigned reading.

REQUIRED TEXTS.

Jon Steel (1998), Truth, Lies and Advertising. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Grant McCracken (1988). Culture & Consumption. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

Marieke de Mooij (1998). Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

David Howes, Ed. (1996). Cross-cultural consumption: Global markets, local realities. New York: Routledge.

Some assignments ask you to download articles via the Emerson College  Library web page. These can be obtained through  Infotrac (General Business File ASAP). This includes recent issues of Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing.

EVALUATION.

Reaction papers:  3% x 10 = 30%  of grade.
Original research project, including presentation = 50% of grade.
Class participation, including article presentation = 20% of grade.

LEARNING DISABILITY POLICY.

If you have a disability that requires accommodation, you must see Anthony Bashir at the Learning Assistance Center before that accommodation can be provided.
 

COURSE SCHEDULE

CLASS 1 (M, September 11): Administrative introduction to the course.

CLASS 2 (W, September 13): Introduction to Study of Consumer Behavior

Ward, S.  (1987) Consumer Behavior, in C. Berger & S. Chaffee (eds.), Handbook of Communication Science, Sage Publications.

CLASS 3 (M, September 18): Account Planning as Context for Studying Consumers (I)

In Steel, Truth, Lies & Advertising
Chapters 1-4

CLASS 4 (W, September 20): Account Planning as Context for Studying Consumers (II)

In Steel, Truth, Lies & Advertising
Chapters 5-7

Online: Ruth Shalit's article on unusual methods of consumer research (see webpage)

ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE.

CLASS 5 (M, September 25): Consumption in historical perspective

In McCracken, Culture and Consumption
Chapter 1: The making of modern consumption
Chapter 2:Ever Dearer in our thoughts: Patina and the representation of status before and after the eighteenth century
     Chapter 3: Lois Roget: Curatorial Consumer in a modern world

To be downloaded:

Csaba, F. F. & Askegaard, S. (1999). Malls and the orchestration of the shopping experience in a historical perspective, Advances in Consumer Research 26, 34-40

Cova, B. (1997). Community and consumption: towards a definition of the "linking
value" of products or services, European Journal of Marketing, 31 (3),  p297.

CLASS 6 (W, September 27): McCracken's Theories of Culture/Communication/Consumption (I)

In McCracken, Culture and Consumption
Chapter 4:  Clothing as language: An object lesson in the expressive properties of material culture
Chapter 5: Meaning manufacture and meaning in the world of goods
Chapter 6: Consumer Goods, Gender Construction, and a rehabilitated trickle-down theory

ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE

CLASS 7 (M, October 2): McCracken's Theories of Culture/Communication/Consumption (II)

In McCracken, Culture and Consumption
Chapter 7: The evocative power of things: Consumer goods and the preservation of hopes and ideals
Chapter 8: Diderot unities and the Diderot effect: Neglected cultural aspects of consumption.
Chapter 9: Consumption, Change, & Continuity.

CLASS 8 (W, October 4): Consumer ethnographies.

To be downloaded:

Belk, R.W. & Costa, J.A. (1998). The Mountain Man Myth: A Contemporary Consuming Fantasy, Journal of Consumer Research, 25 (3), p218.

Olsen, B. (1995). Consuming Rastafari: Ethnographic research in context and meaning, Advances in Consumer Research 22,  481-485

Wallendorf, M. & Arnould, E.J. (1991).  We gather together: Consumption rituals of Thanksgiving day, Journal of consumer research 18, 13-31.
[To be presented by Namrata Patel]

Celsi, R. L., Rose, R. R. & Leigh, T. W. (1993). An exploration of high-risk leisure consumption through sky-diving, Journal of consumer research 20, 1-23.

ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE

CLASS 9 (Tuesday, October 10): Depth approaches.

To be downloaded

Thompson, C.J. (1997) Interpreting consumers: a hermeneutical framework for deriving marketing insights from the texts of consumers' consumption stories,  Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (4),  438.

Parker, B.J. (1998). Exploring life themes and myths in alcohol advertisements through a meaning-based model of advertising experiences, Journal of Advertising, 27(1).
[To be presented by Julie Bettencourt]

CLASS 10 (W, October 11): Focus groups.

To be downloaded

Geissler, G. L. & Zinkhan, G.M. (1998). Consumer perceptions of the world wide web: An exploratory study using focus group interviews, Advances in Consumer Research 25, 386-392

ASSIGNMENT  #4 DUE

 CLASS 11 (M, October 16): Ethnic Identities and Consumption

To be downloaded.
Holland, J & Gentry, J.W. (1999). Ethnic consumer reaction to targeted marketing: a theory of intercultural accommodation, Journal of Advertising, 28(1).

Grier, S.A. & Brumbaugh, A.M. (1999). Noticing cultural differences: ad meanings created by target and non-target markets, Journal of Advertising, 28(1).

Article on diversity in advertising from The Detroit News. (see webpage)
[To be presented by Jason Larch]

Article on marketing to Asian Americans from The Los Angeles Times. (see webpage)
[To be presented by Angeline Fan]

Article on marketing to Hispanics from the New York Times. (see webpage)
[To be presented by Rosie Miremberg]

CLASS 12 (W, October 18): Gender, Sexual Identities and Consumption

To be downloaded.
Kates, S.M. (1999). Making the ad perfectly queer: marketing normality to the gay men's community?, Journal of Advertising, 28(1).To
[To be presented by Jennifer Kleiber]

Maynard, M.L. & Taylor, C.R. (1999), Girlish images across cultures: analyzing Japanese versus U.S. Seventeen magazine ads, Journal of Advertising, 28(1).
[To be presented by Sirichai Srithanuthamakul]

ASSIGNMENT #5 DUE. (Note: In place of a regular reaction paper, students will be asked to provide a proposal for their research project at this time)

CLASS 13 (M, October 23): Culture(s) and Consumption

In de Mooij, Global Marketing and Advertising
Chapter 3, Culture [To be presented by Lucy Zheng]
Chapter 4, Dimensions of Culture
Chapter 5, Values and Marketing
Chapter 6, Culture and Consumer Behavior [To be presented by Deniz Tan]

CLASS 14 (W, October 25): Cross-cultural advertising

In de Mooij, Global Marketing and Advertising
Chapter 7, Culture and how advertising works [To be presented by Roxanne Contractor]
Chapter 8, Value paradoxes in advertising appeals [To be presented by Gigi Chang]
Chapter 9, Cross-cultural advertising research [To be presented by Wei-yu Ning]

ASSIGNMENT #6 DUE.

CLASS 15 (M, October 30): Advertising (continued)

In de Mooij, Global Marketing and Advertising
Chapter 10, Executional style and culture
Chapter 11, Advertising styles [To be presented by Sally Chang]

To be downloaded
Alden, Steenkamp, & Batra (1999) Brand positioning through advertising in Asia, North America, and Europe: the role of global consumer culture, Journal of Marketing, 63 (1).
[To be presented by Shu-ying Chen]

CLASS 16: (W, November 1) Cross-cultural consumption: ﾒThe mirror of Consumptionﾓ

In Howes, Cross-cultural consumption:
Introduction: David Howes, Commodities and Cultural Borders
Chapter 1: Jean Comaroff, The Empireﾕs Old clothes: Fashioning the colonial subject
[To be presented by Carla]
Chapter 2: Constance Classen, Sugar cane, Coca-Cola and hypermarkets: Consumption and surrealism in the Argentine northwest
Chapter 3: Jean-Marc Philibert & Christine Jourdan, Perishable goods: Modes of consumption in the Pacific Islands

ASSIGNMENT #7 DUE

CLASS 17 (M, November 6): Cross-cultural consumption: Consuming the other

In Howes, Cross-cultural consumption:
Chapter 4: Allison James, Cooking the books: Global or local identities in contemporary British food cultures
Chapter 5: Brad Weiss, Coffee breaks and coffee connections: The lived experience of a commodity in Tanzanian and European worlds
[To be presented by Hsin-yen Yang]
Chapter 6: Carol Hendricksen, Selling Guatemala: Maya export products in U.S. mail-order catalogues
[To be presented by Gisella]
 

CLASS 18 (W, November 8): Cross-cultural consumption: Consumption and Identity

In Howes, Cross-cultural consumption:
Chapter 7: Mary M. Crain, Negotiating identities in Quito's cultural borderlands: Native Women's performances for the Ecuadorean tourist marketﾓ
Chapter 8: David Howes, Cultural Appropriation and resistance in the American Southwest: Decommodifying Indianness.
[To be presented by Karen Schoneman]
Chapter 9: Marian Bredin: Transforming image: Communication technologies and cultural identity in Nishnawbe-Aski
Epilogue: Constance Classen & David Howes, The dynamics and ethics of cross-cultural consumption

ASSIGNMENT #8 DUE

CLASS 19 (W, November 15): Consumption and Acculturation

To be downloaded
Penaloza, L. & Gilly, M.C. (1999). Marketer acculturation: the changer and the changed, Journal of Marketing, 63(3).
[To be presented by Chih-Yi Chen]

Oswald, L.R. (1999). Culture Swapping: Consumption and the ethnogenesis of middle-class Haitian immigrants, Journal of Consumer Research, 25(4)
[To be presented by Taruna Sharma]

ASSIGNMENT #9 DUE (Note in place of a normal reaction paper, students will describe their progress so far on their projects)
 CLASS 20 (M, November 20): Playful Consumption

See Website for links to other texts.

To be downloaded:

Gould, S.J. (1998). Deconstructing and inscribing cross-cultural consumption through drinking Tahitian Tikis tea: Is it too late or never too late to experience the authentic culture of Polynesia? Advances in Consumer Research 25, 31-36

CLASS 21 (M, November 27): Critical Perspectives on Consumption

Frank, T. (1999) Brand You: Better selling through anthropology,  Harper's Magazine, July, 74-79.
[To be presented by Pachareerak Sujarittanonta]

See Website for links to other texts.

ASSIGNMENT #10 DUE

CLASSES 22-26 (November 29; December 4, 6,11,13): Class presentations
 

FINAL PAPER DUE ON DECEMBER 18