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1998 Elliot Brand

This article discusses how brands can serve as symbolic resources that help individuals construct their identity. It outlines a model of the relationship between personal and social identity, and how domains of self-symbolism and social-symbolism interact. The article also examines how advertising shapes the symbolic meanings of brands that consumers then use to build and express who they are. Implications for brand strategy include the importance of building trust, conveying deep meaning, and allowing mass brands to have personal relevance for individuals.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
68 views15 pages

1998 Elliot Brand

This article discusses how brands can serve as symbolic resources that help individuals construct their identity. It outlines a model of the relationship between personal and social identity, and how domains of self-symbolism and social-symbolism interact. The article also examines how advertising shapes the symbolic meanings of brands that consumers then use to build and express who they are. Implications for brand strategy include the importance of building trust, conveying deep meaning, and allowing mass brands to have personal relevance for individuals.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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International Journal of Advertising: The


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Brands as symbolic resources for the


construction of identity
a a
Richard Elliott & Kritsadarat Wattanasuwan
a
University of Oxford
Published online: 02 Mar 2015.

To cite this article: Richard Elliott & Kritsadarat Wattanasuwan (1998) Brands as symbolic resources
for the construction of identity, International Journal of Advertising: The Review of Marketing
Communications, 17:2, 131-144

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Brands as symbolic resources
for the construction of identity
Richard Elliott and Kritsadarat Wattanasuwan
University of Oxford

The search for self-identity is a key determinant of postmodern consumption so it is


essential for marketers to understand the concept and dynamics of self, the symbolic
meaning of goods and the role played by brands. Building from the concept of advertising
literacy, this paper outlines a model of the dialectical relationship between self-identity and
social-identity, the domains of self-symbolism and social-symbolism, and the process of
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the mediated experience of advertising and the lived experience of products/ services.
Implications for brand strategy are discussed in relation to trust, deep meaning and the
possibilities for mass-market brands to have personal meaning for the individual.

INTRODUCTION

The individual in postmodern society is threatened by a number of


'dilemmas of the self (Giddens, 1991, p 201): fragmentation,
powerlessness, uncertainty and a struggle against commodification.
These dilemmas are driven by the 'looming threat of personal
meaninglessness' as the individual endeavours to construct and
maintain an identity that will remain stable through a rapidly changing
environment. Although the individual may fear mass
commodification because it threatens to remove choice and replace it
with standardisation, in fact, through ever-growing plurality of
consumer choice the individual is offered resources which may be
used creatively to achieve 'an ego-ideal which commands the respect
of others and inspires self-love' (Gabriel and Lang, 1995, p 98). The
implications for marketers of this perspective of the creative
consumer searching for identity through consumption are that it is
essential to understand the concept and dynamics of self, the
symbolic meaning of goods, and the role played by brands.

International Journal of Advertising, 17, pp. 131-144


© Advertising Association
Published by NTC Publications Ltd, Farm Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1EJ, UK

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

Central to postmodernism is the recogruuon that the consumer


does not make consumption choices solely from products' utilities
but also from their symbolic meanings (Belk, 1988; Bourdieu, 1994;
Dittmar, 1992; Douglas, 1982; Gabriel and Lang, 1995; Giddens,
1991; Goffman, 1959; McCracken, 1988). The functions of the
symbolic meanings of products operate in two directions: outward in
constructing the social world, social-!]mbolism; and inward in
constructing our self-identity, se!f!Jmbolism (Elliott, 1997). As
consumption plays a central role in supplying meanings and values for
the creation and maintenance of the consumer's personal and social
world, so advertising is recognised as one of the major sources of
these symbolic meanings. These cultural meanings are transferred to
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brands and it is brands that are often used as symbolic resources for
the construction and maintenance of identity (McCracken, 1987; Mick
and Buhl, 1992).

THE POSTMODERN CONSUMER AND IDENTITY

The self is conceptualised in postmodernity not as a given product of


a social system nor as a fixed entity which the individual can simply
adopt, but as something the person actively creates, partially through
consumption (Dittmar, 1992; Gabriel and Lang, 1995; Giddens, 1993;
Glover, 1988; Solomon, 1996; Tyler, 1978). The consumer exercises
free will to form images of who and what he or she wants to be,
although, paradoxically, 'free will' is directed by values that are
probably also a social product. Thompson (199 5, p 21 0) describes the
self as a !Jmbolic prqject, which the individual must actively construct
out of the available symbolic materials, materials which 'the individual
weaves into a coherent account of who he or she is, a narrative of
self-identity'.
The individual visualises her/him self according to the imagined
possibilities of the self. Markus and Nurius (1986) suggest that 'an
individual is free to create any variety of possible selves, yet the pool
of possible selves derives from the categories made salient by the
individual's particular socio-cultural and historical context and from
the models, images, and symbols provided by the media and by the
individual's immediate social experiences.' Thus the nature of the
self-concept is complex; the consumer may possess a variety of actual

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BRANDS AS SYMBOLIC RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

selves (or roles) and a variety of possible or ideal selves. If the


consumer possesses a multiplicity of role identities, how can these
multiple selves co-exist in harmony? How does each identity develop?
And how does the consumer express each self in a particular social
situation? We live in a symbol-rich environment and the meaning
attached to any situation or object is determined by the interpretation
of these symbols. Through the socialisation process consumers learn
not only to agree on shared meanings of some symbols but also to
develop individual symbolic interpretations of their own. Consumers
use these symbolic meanings to construct, maintain and express each
of their multiple identities.
Narrative identity theory (Ricoeur, 1984, 1992) suggests that in
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order to make time human and socially shared, we require a narrative


identity for our self, that is, we make sense of ourselves and our lives
by the stories we can (or cannot) tell. Thus we come to know
ourselves by the narratives we construct to situate ourselves in time
and place. This task can be greatly aided by symbolic resources; the
main one articulated by Ricoeur (1977) is literature which gives
structure and meaning to the complexity and confusion of life by
providing a causal model for the individual, linking disparate life
events into a coherent sequence. However, advertising can also be
used as a symbolic resource for the construction of narratives to give
sense to our life history and personal situation: the soap opera is still a
mainstay of advertising executions which situates the brand and the
consumer in a powerful representation of narrative sequence.
The development of individual self-identity is inseparable from the
parallel development of collective social identity. This problematic
relationship has been described as the internal-external dialectic of
identification by Jenkins (1996), who maintains that self-identity must
be validated through social interaction and that the self is embedded
in social practices. Endeavours to create the consumer's self-identity
often involve the consumption of products, services and media, and
there is always a tension between the meanings we construct for
ourselves and those we are exposed to socially. This dialectical
tension requires active negotiation of meaning. Dittmar (1992)
comments that 'material possessions have a profound symbolic
significance for their owners, as well as for other people, and the
symbolic meanings of our belongings are an integral feature of
expressing our own identity and perceiving the identity of others'.
Although McCracken (1988) suggests that ritual is the prime means

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

for the transfer of symbolic meaning from goods to the person, the
complex social practices of consumer culture extend far beyond the
concept of the ritualistic, and entail a reciprocal, dialectical
relationship between the individual and her/his cultural milieu.

IDENTITY AND SELF-SYMBOLIC CONSUMPTION

All voluntary consumption carnes, either consciously or


unconsciously, symbolic meanings; if the consumer has choices to
consume, he or she will consume things that hold particular symbolic
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meanings. These meanings may be idiosyncratic or widely shared with


other people. For example, using recycled envelopes may symbolise 'I
care for the environment', going to classical concerts may represent 'I
am cultured', supporting gay rights may signify 'I am open-minded',
or buying unbranded detergent may mean 'I am a clever consumer'.
A considerable literature suggests that consumers are what they
own, since their possessions are viewed as major parts of their
extended selves (Belk, 1988). Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton
(1981) suggest that the consumer invests 'psychic energy' such as
effort, time and attention in an object. This energy and its products
are regarded as a part of self because they have grown or emerged
from the self. The symbolic meanings of the consumer's possessions
may portray essences of her/his individuality, or reflect her/his
desirable connections with others (Kleine eta!., 1995), and symbolic
consumption helps the consumer to categorise his or her self in
society, to ease his or her self-transitions and to achieve a sense of
continuity and preparation for death (Belk, 1988). It may also be part
of the process of symbolic self-completion, where individuals who
perceive themselves as lacking a personal quality attempt to fill this
gap using symbolic resources (\X'icklund and Gollwitzer, 1982).
Although the consumer learns and develops consumption symbols
through socialisation processes and exposures to mass media (for
example, advertising), it does not mean that everybody who possesses
the same product bought it for the same symbolic meaning. A
product may carry a variety of meanings since the creation of
meaning is not deterministic and unidirectional, and each individual
may ascribe different and inconsistent cultural meanings to a product

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BRANDS AS SYMBOLIC RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

depending on the extent to which they share the collective


imagination (Ritson et al., 1996).

LIVED VERSUS MEDIATED EXPERIENCE

The symbolic resources available to the individual for the


construction of the self can be distinguished as being either lived
experiences or mediated experiences (fhompson, 1990). Lived
experience refers to the practical activities and face-to-face
encounters in our everyday lives. It is situated, immediate, and is
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largely non-reflexive, in that we take it for granted as 'reality'.


Mediated experience is an outcome of a mass-communication culture
and the consumption of media products, and involves the ability to
experience events that are spatially and temporally distant from the
practical context of daily life. It is recontextualised experience in that
it allows the experience of events that transpire far away and will vary
widely in its relevance to the self. The individual can draw selectively
on mediated experience and interlace it with lived experience to
construct the self. The life history and social situation of individuals
will lead to differential valorisation of forms of experience, varying
between those who value only lived experience and have little contact
with mediated forms, and others for whom mediated experience has
become central to the project of the self. However, central to
postmodern consumer culture is a growing range of opportunities for
the use of mediated experiences in the project of the self, countless
narratives of self-formation and countless visions of the world such
that we may be encountering 'symbolic overload' (fhompson, 1995,
p 216).

SYMBOLIC MEANING, ADVERTISING AND BRANDS

Advertising is recognised as one of the most potent sources of


valorised symbolic meanings (for example, Grunert, 1986; Lannon
and Cooper, 1983; Mick and Buhl, 1992; Sherry, 1987). As part of a
cultural system, advertising is viewed as a guideline to map out all
aspects of the consumer's existence (Ritson and Elliott, 1995); on the
other hand, all aspects of the consumer's existence are also guidelines

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

to map out advertising creatlvlty. The relationship between


advertising and the consumer is dialectical: advertising not only helps
in creating, modifying and transforming cultural meanings for the
consumer (Lannon and Cooper, 1983), but also represents cultural
meanings taken from the consumer's world view and invested into
the advertised product. This dialectical relationship drives a cyclical
flow of symbolic meanings derived from culture and transferred into
the semiotic world of advertising, then interpreted and used by
consumers to construct internally their self-concept and externally
their social world. 'Finally as part of the external construction of an
individual's life world the meaning returns back to its original starting
point, the mass of flowing meanings that represents culture' (Ritson
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and Elliott, 1995). Thus, advertising is both a means to transfer or


create meanings into culture and a cultural product itself.
Although advertisers aim to create particular meanings for their
brands in advertising, meanings interpreted by the consumer may be
varied and diverse. There is growing recognition that the consumer is
an active and participating audience (for example, Anderson and
Meyer, 1988; Livingstone, 1995; Mick and Buhl, 1992; O'Donohoe,
1994). The consumer may attend only to certain messages and
interpret or make sense of the meanings according to her/his
personal perception (Lannon, 1992) and her/his social knowledge
(Livingstone, 1995). The meaning of a particular advertisement is not
given within the advertisement itself, for as Anderson and Meyer
(1988) point out: 'meaning is not delivered in the communication
process, rather it is constructed within it'. But the meaning that
consumers construct from advertising is viscous in nature, and
signification through the media is likely to be much less potent than
signification through actual behavioural experience (Elliott et al.,
1993). Certainly, there is considerable empirical evidence that
attitudes formed through direct experience are stronger, more
accessible, held more confidently and are more predictive of
behaviour than those derived from mediated experience through
advertising (for example, Fazio and Zanna, 1978; Smith and Swinyard,
1988). Thus lived experience with a brand, through purchase and
usage over the life cycle, will tend to dominate the mediated
experience of advertising, and both forms of experience will be
validated through social interaction, particularly for brands with
social-symbolic positioning.

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BRANDS AS SYMBOLIC RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

IDENTITY AND SOCIAL-SYMBOLIC CONSUMPTION

The creation of meanings does not consist of a negotiation process


between advertising text, the brand and the consumer only during the
period of exposure to the advertisement. Since advertising is a form
of mass communication, its meanings also emerge in the
interpersonal communication among consumers and may later
become socially shared meaning: 'Shared meanings involving media
content will anse among participants in the social action
performances of reception and subsequent accommodation'
(Anderson and Meyer, 1988, p 47). Yet, these meanings are not solid,
but remain viscous and tentative. Anderson and Meyer (p 17) note
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that 'sense making is an ongoing process in which meanings emerge


in layers of time and circumstance and the development of one
meaning does not preclude the development of others. We are
prolific in our sense making, developing a depth and complexity of
meaning.' A variety of meanings are created as outcomes of the
consumer's personal interest-driven, culturally situated act of
advertising interpretation (Mick and Buhl, 1992).
Ritson and Elliott (1995) suggest that a model of advertising
literacy can integrate the issues of cultural and interactive advertising.
Modelled within the framework of contemporary literacy studies (for
example, Scribner and Cole, 1981), advertising literacy is not only the
skill to be able to understand and transfer the meanings from an
advertisement, but also the ability to use those meanings within the
social context of existence. Advertising literacy becomes a significant
factor employed by many consumers, especially teenagers, to locate
and relocate their social groups and their identities within those
groups, because advertising literacy is used by group members to
evaluate each other (O'Donohoe, 1994). The process of discursive
elaboration (Thompson, 1990) involves the social consumption of
advertising meanings, as they are described, discussed, argued about,
laughed at. Advertisements become 'tokens in young people's system
of social exchange' (Willis, 1990, p 57); they are a form of cultural
capital for teenagers, to be invested carefully to gain dividends in
terms of social status and self-esteem (O'Donohoe, 1994). Willis
(1990) notes that young people are increasingly involved with
advertisements and proposes that part of this increased interest in
advertising stems from the ability of advertisers to utilise the latest
fashions to make advertisements aesthetically pleasing as a product,

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

independent of the advertised item. He also describes young people


deriving 'symbolic pleasure' from the advertisements and in particular
they are appreciative of the 'active role' they are expected to play in
understanding the advertisements.
Buttle (1991) describes several studies that show how advertising is
used in some situations as a means of initiating social interactions,
while O'Donohoe (1994) notes that advertisements are also used on a
social level in peer relationships. Generally, her respondents saw
advertisements as being facilitators to conversation. This is not
uncommon: Anderson and Meyer (1988) note that mass media are
often a source of interpersonal debate. Until meanings from mediated
experiences of advertising have been subjected to discursive
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elaboration in a social context, and interwoven with behavioural


significations derived from lived experience with the brand, they
remain viscous, liable to be rejected or just forgotten. Only after this
discursive elaboration can symbolic meanings be fully 'concretised'
and become what Eco (1979, p 14) calls 'realised text'.
The process of the consumption of the mediated experience of
brand advertising, the lived experience of the purchase and usage of
brands, and the two realms of self-symbolism and social-symbolism,
are illustrated in Figure 1.

Internal-external dialectic of identification


Self-symbolism Social-symbolism

FIGURE 1 CONSUMPTION & THE SYMBOLIC PROJECT OF THE SELF

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BRANDS AS SYMBOLIC RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR BRAND STRATEGY

Brands can be used by the consumer as resources for the symbolic


construction of the self. The symbolic consumption of brands can
help establish and communicate some of the fundamental cultural
categories such as social status, gender, age, and such cultural values
as family, tradition and authenticity (McCracken, 1993). In order for
the meaning of brands to become fully concrete, the mediated
meaning derived from advertising and promotion must be negotiated
with the lived experience of purchase and usage; and particularly for
brands with social-symbolic positioning strategies these meanings
must be validated through discursive elaboration in a social context.
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But brands can also be used to counter some of the threats to the self
posed by postmodernity, such as fragmentation, loss of meaning and
loss of individuality.

Brands, trust and fragmentation


One of the prime features of the postmodern experience is
fragmentation, where the inherited self-identity of history is no longer
a stable, secure fact but requires active construction. 'A self-identity
has to be created and more or less continually reordered against the
backdrop of shifting experiences of day-to-day life and the
fragmenting tendencies of modern institutions' (Giddens, 1991,
p 198). This construction is partly achieved through developing
coherent narratives of the self, and partly through finding
opportunities for the investment of trust in institutions other than
traditional ones such as the Church. Brands offer consistency in an
ever-changing world and this reassurance is a vital element in their
added value (Feldwick, 1991). As in human social relationships, from
consistency over time develops predictability, then dependability and
eventually trust in the brand (Gurviez, 1996). In large part, trust in a
brand evolves from the delivery of consistent benefits over time, that
is, from lived experience that carries behavioural signification.
However, the viscous meaning derived from the mediated experience
of advertising can enhance the consumer's experience and give a
narrative coherence to it by giving words to thoughts they 'may know
but can only speak of incompletely' (Polanyi, 1967). Volkswagen has
captured perfectly this ability of the brand to replace other less

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

reliable relationships: 'If only everything in life was as reliable as a


Volkswagen.'

Brands and deep meaning


Brands can acquire deep meaning for consumers by their involvement
in the socialisation process, and from then on brands can evoke
profound feelings of nostalgia and provide comfort from insecurity.
Olsen (1995) has explored the history of brand use, brand loyalty and
inter-generational transfer in families with a recent history of
emigration. She found that certain moments in our lives become
powerful memories connecting brand, people and places and that
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'family brands become part of the tool chest in strategies for survival
during critical life passages'. Consumers bought brands that evoked
memories of their grandparents, often through the smell that instantly
returned them to the time and place of their childhood. Holbrook
and Schindler (1994) have suggested that there is a 'sensitive period
effect' for products; early childhood and particularly adolescence are
periods when we are most likely to develop preferences. Brands that
we have lived experience with may acquire a depth of meaning during
sensitive periods unattainable by brands at later stages in our lives. If
we have frequent sensual experience, particularly olfactory experience,
with brands during childhood, then at later stages of our lives we may
use them in nostalgic activity, and/ or to restore a sense of security.
Again, behavioural signification through lived experience with a brand
seems by far the most potent source of meaning, but advertising can
provide a narrative structure for concretising these emotional
meanings. Hovis bread and Yorkshire tea are both masters at
providing consumers with a narrative identity that encapsulates both
nostalgic reverie and current life situations. Levi's captures the
adolescent, sensitive period with its provision of both self-symbolic
and social-symbolic meaning through heavy advertising support that
is validated by discursive elaboration by teenagers.

Mass-market brands - individual meanings


The ubiquity of brands in developed capitalist societies is such that
we live in a rich 'brandscape' (Sherry, 1987) from which we must
select a personal 'brandspace' in which to live (Biel, 1993). In large
part, the creation of personal brandspace will be achieved through the
creation of deep meaning and the development of trust, but brands

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BRANDS AS SYMBOLIC RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

can also facilitate the development of personal involvement by


encouraging the meaning transfer processes of personal ritual and
social interaction. McCracken (1988) identifies four ritual activities
that transfer meaning from consumer goods to the individual:
exchange, possession, grooming and divestment rituals. Each ritual
presents an opportunity for the individual to affirm, assign or revise
the meanings derived from the mediated experience of advertising
and construct an individual meaning for themselves. At a social,
sub-cultural level, Ritson and Elliott (1997) have described how the
elusive audience of Generation X may be encouraged to actively
interpret advertising by using deliberately 'weak' texts which
encourage 'strong' reading. This openness relates to a lack of specific
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narrative direction and explicit meaning context. Instead these open


ads feature the product and simply evoke a positive general response
to the ad from the consumer, for example, by using music or imagery.
The consumer views the deliberately 'open' ad and, because it lacks
any strong intended meaning, is empowered to perform a very strong
reading of it. As a result the consumer derives a very personal
interpretation of the ad's meaning, related to his or her own
individual life situation and history. At this point, in need of the social
confirmation all those of Generation X crave, the consumer discusses
the meaning of the ad with others who share the same basic
interpretation of advertising. Thus an advertising literacy event occurs
and the individuals form an interpretative community, not purely by
demographic or psychographic factors but by their shared
interpretation of the meaning of the advertisement.

CONCLUSION

In postmodern consumer culture individuals are engaged in a


constant task of negotiating meanings from lived and mediated
experience as they endeavour to construct and maintain their identity.
As part of the resources for this task they utilise the symbolic
meanings of consumer goods and through an understanding of the
dynamics of the process of identity construction, opportunities can be
identified for brands to play an important role in the symbolic project
of the self.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING, 1998, 17(2)

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr Richard Elliott is Reader in Marketing at Oxford University and a


Fellow of St Anne's College. He has worked in brand management
with a number of multinationals, was marketing director of an
industrial goods company, and account director for an international
advertising agency. He entered higher education as a mature student,
read social psychology at LSE and has a PhD in marketing from the
University of Bradford Management Centre. His research interests
include socio-cultural aspects of advertising, dysfuctional consumer
behaviour and consumption and self-identity. His work has been
widely published in academic journals.
Kritsadarat Wattanasuwan is a lecturer in the department of
marketing at Thammasat University, Bangkok. She is currently
reading for a DPhil at the School of Management Studies, University
of Oxford.

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