Tackling the Subaltern Quandary

Abstract

The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.

Consumption of Bottled Water at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Who Purchases First?

“…Besides the business opportunities in these new markets, there is the question of how marketing to these new demographics plays a role in poverty alleviation (Kotler et al 2006). Therefore marketing literature on the BoP can be divided into two streams: case studies on specific markets (Alur and Schoormans 2013; Banbury, Herkenhoff, and Subrahmanyan 2015; Chikweche and Fletcher 2011a; Davies and Torrents 2017;Jagadale, Kadirov, and Chakraborty 2018;Viswanathan et al 2014;Viswanathan and Rosa 2010), and how marketing strategies and consumer behavior more generally might differ in these markets (Agnihotri 2012;Bonsu and Polsa 2011;Kotler et al 2006;Piacentini and Hamilton 2013;Sheth 2011;Subrahmanyan and Tomas Gomez-Arias 2008;Yurdakul, Atik, and Dholakia 2017).…”

“…Prahalad's work overlooked the heterogeneity of this demographic (Agnihotri 2012;Kotler et al 2006). Rather than being one homogenous group with similar purchasing power, BoP consumers are driven to purchase products for different reasons and have different socio-demographic characteristics that drive them to make purchase decisions (Jagadale, Kadirov, and Chakraborty 2018;Sheth 2011). In addition to consumer heterogeneity, markets themselves are heterogeneous in the sense that one particular geographically demarcated market can be made up of consumers that have means to purchase and those who do not (Sheth 2011).…”

Television viewing and conspicuous consumption of households: evidence from India

“…Conspicuous consumption enhances household indebtedness, which becomes accentuated in the case of rural households and households with lower educational attainment among members (Jaikumar and Sharma, 2020). It initiates a "positional trade mill" fueling ever-increasing levels of conspicuous consumption for status gain (Linssen et al, 2011), which in turn, makes BoP consumers complicit in perpetuation of marketing systems which de-dignify and exploit them (Jagadale et al, 2018).…”

“…As education, besides, conferring status through recognizable professional titles and degree certificates, also increases consumer resistance to media exemplars (Charles et al, 2009;Moav and Neeman, 2012;Gupta and Jaiswal, 2015), it can potentially reduce urge among BoP households to consume conspicuously for status gain. Therefore, policymakers should increase state support for education and work for making education economically rewarding for BoP households (Karnani, 2017;Jagadale et al, 2018). They can also promote and enable financial savings by them because savings confer status and improve subjective well-being of households in high poverty societies (Martin and Hill, 2015).…”

“…The broad umbrella of compensatory consumption also includes conspicuous consumption (Koles et al, 2018). As BoP consumers yearn for gaining access to consumption choices conforming to mainstream society for overcoming their low self-esteem and dignity deficits (Barki and Parente, 2006;Jagadale et al, 2018), compensatory motives form one of the primary motives behind conspicuous consumption of the BoP consumers (Subrahmanyan and Gomez-Arias, 2008). In their search for alternatives for gaining elusive social status and overcoming powerlessness (Rucker and Galinsky, 2008), BoP households become highly receptive to televised messages (Varman and Belk, 2008).…”