Consumer Multicultural Identity Affiliation: Reassessing identity segmentation in multicultural markets

Abstract

The increasing intra-national diversity of many modern markets poses challenges to identity segmentation. As consumers require greater recognition of their diverse identities from brands, marketing science and practice are in search of theories and models that recognize and capture identity dynamics as impacted by cultural influences both from beyond and within national market borders. This paper extends consumer acculturation theory into multicultural market realities and offers a Consumer Multicultural Identity Affiliation (CMIA) Framework 5 that distinguishes and integrates three key types of intra-and trans-national cultural influences informing identity dynamics. By examining consumer cultural identities within the CMIA framework in a mixed-method, two-country study, we show that gaining such an integrative view on cultural identity affiliations uncovers greater diversity and complexity (mono-, bi-, or multi-cultural) of consumer segments. We conclude with discussing future directions for CMIA applications to support marketing managers, scholars and educators dealing with culturally heterogeneous markets.

On Decomposing the ‘Thick’ and the ‘Thin’ for Measuring Cosmopolitanism in Multicultural Marketplaces: Why Unpacking the Foreign and Global Aspects of Cosmopolitanism Matters

“…A paradigm helpful for redressing the imbalances in conceptions of cultures' situatedness in country environments is one of multicultural marketplaces (e.g., Kipnis et al, 2016Kipnis et al, , 2014Kipnis et al, , 2012Demangeot et al, 2015;Rojas Gaviria and Emontspool, 2015;Seo et.al., 2015). As outlined in the next section, it re-defines evolved conceptions of culture(s) and unpacks implications of this dynamics for individuals' construal of cultural self and others, thus making way for refining the conceptual groundings and boundaries of consumer cosmopolitanism.…”

“…Multicultural marketplaces literature (e.g., Kipnis et al, 2016Kipnis et al, , 2014Kipnis et al, , 2012Kipnis, 2014;Craig and Douglas, 2006) distinguishes four following processes of culture (re)appropriation in relation to the locale: 1) localisation (whereby uniqueness of a culture is defined exclusively through its origins in a locale); 2) delocalisation (whereby a culture linked to a particular geographical locale is re-appropriated to be distinctly present in multiple locales); 3) translocalisation (whereby a homogenous, translocally-universal new type of culture is conceived to represent the idea of global unity); 4) hybridisation (whereby two or more cultures are converged to make a new culture). On an individual level these processes are considered to inform evolved conceptions of cultures.…”

An Analysis of the Influence of the Conspicuous Consumption of Fast Fashion on Identity Construction on Instagram

“…Therefore, consumers naturally need recognition of their identities. On the other hand, many of the brands, the science and the marketing practice are searching for theories and models that analyze and capture the identity dynamics present in the consumer relations (Kipnis, Demangeot, Pullig, & Broderick, 2019).…”

Brokering Intercultural Relations in the Rainbow Nation: Introducing Intercultural Marketing

“…Third, by positing intercultural marketing as a strategy approach recognizing the value of unity in superdiversity, we highlight the role of marketing in facilitating conviviality and synergistic welfare in multicultural marketplaces. Given calls for multiculturally-sensitive marketing to enhance well-being in multicultural marketplaces (Demangeot et al 2019; Kipnis et al 2019; Visconti et al 2014), conceptualization of intercultural marketing goals and tools and examination of their applications contribute to the development of marketing research and practice that can meaningfully drive equality, diversity and inclusion norms and empower consumers towards convivial intercultural relations.…”