Cultural Meanings and Consumers' Discourses about Their Brand Abandonment

Abstract

Although we know a lot about how brand meanings are created and perpetuated in relation to and through cultural discourses, remarkably little work has been done in the marketing field to develop a better comprehension as to how brand meanings are enacted through distancing behaviors, such as brand abandonment. In the marketing literature, abandonment has usually been associated with relationship crises, most commonly as the result of consumer dissatisfaction. This study investigates consumers who abandoned previously consumed brands in two distinct product categories, soft drinks and automobiles. Through investigation of two emblematic brands -Coca-Cola and Fiat -the analysis illustrates cultural discourses that consumers use to give meanings and socially negotiate their brand abandonment. Considering the repertoire of meanings attached to both the brands and consumers' commitment to their distancing behavior, the analysis presents three types of brand abandonment: (a) contingent, (b) balanced and (c) aversive. This paper also presents brand abandonment as an enabler of social distinctions, highlighting two discrete discourses promulgated and perpetuated by consumers: (a) Life evolution, and (b) Rationality, self-control and sovereignty.

Anticonsumption beyond consumers: The role of small organic producers in environmentally oriented anticonsumption

“…Our second contribution is to expand the anticonsumption boundary beyond the current “individual consumer‐centric perspective on anti‐consumption” recognizing the producers’ anticonsumption discourses and practices. While the central perspective of anticonsumption studies has been to focus on consumer discourses (Cherrier, ; Diniz & Suarez, ), attitudes (Iyer & Muncy, ; Sudbury‐Riley & Kohlbacher, ), behaviors (Lee & Ahn, ; Lee et al, ), and practices (Black & Cherrier, ; Perera et al, ), our results follow a poststructuralist tendency of consumption system description (Sassatelli, ), in which producer and consumer roles are not clearly structured. The actors’ position in the market follows network organization (Schatzki, ) around hegemonic and alternative dimensions.…”

“…Although the market exclusion well described by Arnould () shows the dark side of a capitalist dynamic, anticonsumption could be a useful tool to change this exclusion and poverty scenario and to support a balance between individual's market access rights and limits. As Diniz and Suarez () described, anticonsumption refers not only to a voluntary exit from the market but it is also a reflection about consumption as a social act and its disequilibrium. In this case, anticonsumption even in peripheral countries—such as the African countries studied by Arnould () or the Brazilian case studied by Diniz and Suarez ()—does not mean stopping consumption, but rather reflects how particular forms of consumption are rejected due to their individual, social, or environmental disequilibrium.…”

“…The anticonsumption concept becomes an important approach to understand harmful consumption, such as cigarette consumption (Suarez, ), soft drinks (Diniz & Suarez, ), and automobiles (Dalpian et al, ; Suarez & Chauvel, ). These previous studies also draw attention to the relationship between consumption restriction, health, quality of life, and environmental issues, going beyond a simple description of consumer behavior against a disliked brand or product.…”

Abandono de Consumo: Mudanças nos significados de consumo de café na onda dos cafés especiais

“…O anticonsumo vem ganhando espaço nos estudos de marketing, contudo, sua delimitação apresenta pontos de divergência entre os estudos atuais (Chatzidakis & Lee, 2013;Diniz & Suarez, 2018;Hogg et al, 2009a;Pinto, 2015). Para Chatzidakis e Lee (2013), o anticonsumo envolve as causas contra o consumo, as quais são expressivas e conscientemente articuladas.…”

Gestão De Custos Com Comunicação Integrada De Marketing Nas Clínicas De Fisioterapia E Estética No Município De Piripiri-Pi

“…Entre as principais atribuições do marketing estão o ato de criar um produto de acordo com as necessidades do cliente, precificá-lo estrategicamente; gerir a distribuição e promover esses mesmos produtos e serviços (Diniz & Suarez, 2018).…”