Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-08-06T19:06:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Lermen Haupenthal.pdf: 727361 bytes, checksum: 9ff9387207dc4e793f48c03879b6c9b9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-06T19:06:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Lermen Haupenthal.pdf: 727361 bytes, checksum: 9ff9387207dc4e793f48c03879b6c9b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-25 / UNISINOS - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / A partir de 2010 um fenômeno vem se intensificando no Brasil: a vinda de haitianos. O objetivo desta dissertação é entender o papel das escolhas e práticas de consumo no processo de aculturação dos haitianos no Rio Grande do Sul. O estudo fundamenta-se na abordagem de Cultura do Consumo. A metodologia utilizada para este trabalho foi de natureza interpretativista, um pesquisa qualitativa através de entrevistas em profundidade, observações participantes e análise da mídia popular. Os principais resultados encontrados nesta pesquisa envolvem consumir por consumir, desconhecendo o significado, a possibilidade de negociar e não controlar a adaptação pelo consumo, à cultura do assistencialismo, o desequilíbrio das escolhas e práticas de consumo, a prática comum e próxima e finalmente, a prisão de consumo. / From 2010 a phenomenon has intensified in Brazil: the coming of Haitians. The objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of choices and consumption practices in the acculturation of Haitians in Rio Grande do Sul The case study is based on the approach of Consumer Culture. The methodology used for this study was interpretive nature a qualitative research through in-depth interviews, participant observation and analysis of social media. The main findings of this study involve consuming for consuming, not knowing the meaning, the ability to negotiate and not control the adaptation by consumption, the culture of philanthropy, the imbalance of choices and consumption practices, the common practice and next and finally the prison consumption.

Today’s postmodern consumer culture is embedded with consumption and products are now used for their symbolic properties. Possessions have become so important for us that they have become a part of our extended selves and forms of differentiation between individuals and groups of people. The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the role of fashion brands in the identity construction of adults. The objectives of the research focused on how an individual’s identity of self is constructed with the help of fashion brands, especially in social environments, and how an individual’s social identity is formed through fashion brands and in- and out-groups. The topic is discussed while uncovering brand symbolism and relationships. Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) was used as a theoretical framework in this research. Focus group studies were chosen as a research method and total of three focus group discussions with participants aged between 19 to 32 years were held in Helsinki, Finland. The consumption of fashion brands was found to have a relevant role in the construction of an adult’s identity. Consumption of particular fashion brands was used to communicate personalities and identities, and relationships with fashion brands were found to become especially important in social situations. Fashion brands also stand central in the formation of in- and out-groups and friends were found to have the biggest influence over consumption choices. In-groups were found to form between people with interests towards the same fashion brands and unfavourable fashion brands were associated with members of out-groups. Adults were found to categorise people into groups based on the brands they wear and prevailing stereotypical mental images. Individual self-expression through fashion brands was found high, although given the concept of a salient identity, individuals were often found to conform to the expectations of the in-group. Most importantly, individuals and in-groups stated differentiation from out-groups to be a priority. / Program: Master programme in Fashion Management

Denna studie har behandlat ämnet konsumentkultur och vår studie har undersökt hur företaget Nudie jeans Co’s kultur angående hållbarhet tas emot och efterlevs av deras jeansköpare. Den metod som valts för vår studie är intervjuer med jeansköpare samt en representant från Nudie. För att få en förståelse kring konsumentkultur har en teoretisk referensram byggts upp kring McCrackens (1986) modell angående ämnet. Denna modell tar upp olika begrepp kring hur konsumentkultur överförs från företag till enskild konsument, samt vilka instrument som används för att göra detta. En modifierad modell har även gjorts, som förklarar hur Nudies kultur överförs till sina jeansköpare. Utifrån vårt resultat har det framkommit att jeansköparna har en del gemensamma egenskaper men att deras engagemang och kunskap kring jeansen skiljer sig åt. Jeansköparna har därmed delats in i fyra olika kategorier som vi valt att kalla nudienörd, mellanmjölk, den okunnige samt miljöfreak. Utifrån vårt resultat har det visat sig att Nudies jeansköpare inte ser företagets hållbarhetstänk som avgörande faktor då de köper jeans, utan faktorer som kvalitet och passform är det som styr. Däremot känner många av jeansköparna till flera av Nudies kärnvärderingar vad gäller hållbarhet, vilket tyder på att företagets kultur nått jeansköparna till viss del. Vi konstaterar att Nudie är rätt i tiden med sitt hållbarhetsarbete och den mening de tillskriver jeansen. Dock har syftet ännu inte nått jeansköparna på samma sätt som Nudie önskar eftersom företaget ligger något före jeansköparnas utveckling.

Esta Dissertação tem como objetivo desconstruir discursos acerca dos modos de ser jovem na contemporaneidade articulados ao consumo como prática social. Compreendo que é através das estratégias engendradas no âmbito da cultura do consumo que objetos, imagens, desejos, identidades, valores, modos de ser podem ser transformados em mercadorias: podem ser ‘adquiridos’, consumidos e por fim descartados. Tornam-se ‘objetos’ a serem usados e exibidos. Entre tantos artefatos que circulam e são produzidos nessa cultura de consumo, está o Caderno Patrola, encartado no jornal Zero Hora – jornal de maior circulação no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Assim, realizo uma leitura (entre tantas possíveis) a respeito de mídia, cultura de consumo e juventudes. De certa forma, é uma leitura que os Estudos Culturais, campo teórico no qual me movimento, possibilitam-me produzir. Para que esta Dissertação pudesse ser construída tal como está, o corpus de pesquisa se constituiu de diferentes materiais, a saber: seleção de edições do Caderno Patrola, pesquisas em diversos sites, incursões em comunidades virtuais do orkut e em blogs,, conversas com jovens leitores do Caderno através do Messenger e e-mails com a editora do Caderno. Nas análises, trago algumas reflexões a respeito dos modos de endereçamento do Caderno Patrola, discutindo algumas das estratégias do Caderno para interpelar os sujeitos jovens para suas páginas, bem como para convidá-los a consumir produtos que ‘anuncia’. Ainda, analiso o modo como os discursos do Caderno Patrola não apenas sugerem objetos de consumo que podem constituir certos modos de ser jovem, como também podem ensinar o que consumir para ‘possuir’ tais modos, para, assim, adotarse as ditas posições desejáveis de ser jovem. A partir das problematizações realizadas no decorrer do estudo acerca do Caderno Patrola, é possível compreender como se investe no promissor mercado jovem, não só fabricando produtos para eles como também transformando os produtos fabricados pelos jovens em algo rentável. Além disso, é possível constatar como as próprias culturas juvenis se tornam um produto, uma vez que muitos desejam ser, estar, permanecer jovem e, por isso, passam a consumir produtos ditos pertencentes a elas. Assim, através do potencial pedagógico do Caderno, procuro entender algumas das configurações da cultura de consumo, como somos produzidos nessa condição cultural e de que modo o Caderno, como um artefato dessa cultura, apresenta-se articulado a ela. / This Dissertation aims to deconstruct discourses concerning the ways of being young in the contemporary articulated to consumption as social practice. I understand that it is through the produced strategies in the scope of the consumer culture where objects, images, desires, identities, values, ways of being can be transformed into products: they can be ‘acquired', consumed and finally discarded. They become objects to used and to shown. As an artifact between much others that circulate and are produced in this consumer culture is the section Patrola – a newspaper supplement that circulates on Fridays in Zero Hora, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Thus, I realize a reading (one of those that is possible to) about media, consumer culture and youths. In some way, it is a reading that the Cultural Studies, theoretic field in which I movement myself, make possible to produce. In order to this dissertation be constructed as it is, the corpus is constituted of different materials: select edition of the Patrola section, research in many sites, incursions in virtual communities of orkut and in blogs, talks with young readers of the Patrola through Messenger and e-mails with the editor of the section. In the analyses, I reflect about modes of address of Patrola section, discussing some strategies of the section that interpellate young for its pages, as well as inviting them to consume the ‘announced' products. I also analyze how the discourses of Patrola not only suggest consumption of products that can constitute ways of being young, but how they can teach what consume to own theses ways, in order to adopt desirable positions of being young. From the problematization of this study concerning to Patrola, its possible to understand how one invests in the promising young market, not only producing manufactures for them as well as transforming the manufactured products by the young into income-producing. Still, I could examine how the youth cultures become a product, once that many people desire to be young through the consumption of products that one says to belong to them. Therefore, thought the section’s pedagogy potential, I looked for understand some of the configurations of the consumer culture, how we are produced in this cultural condition and the way that Patrola, as an artifact of this culture, is articulated to it.

Femvertising is a relatively new concept that describe the use of feminism in advertising. Femvertising aims to both strengthen the image of women and overrule stereotypical representations of women in advertising, whilst at the same time aims to sell products. This highlights a conflict within the concept, which is what makes femvertising an interesting subject to study. This study investigates the representation of women in contemporary fashion commercials withfemvertising messages. Further, it examines how young Swedish women create meaning in relation to these messages, and finally, how they interpret the conflict within the concept of femvertising.The main material consists of semi-structured interviews with ten young women, the secondary material consists of advertisements from three Swedish fashion brands; H&M, Gina Tricot and Monki. The theoretical framework consists of Stuart Hallsrepresentation theoryand encoding/decoding theory, as well as parts from the consumer cultural framework, a critical view on identity and fashionand finally, two critical theories on feminist messagesin advertisement. Through these theoretical perspectives the study has demonstrated that young female consumers care relatively little about feminist messages in advertising. Instead, consumers want companies to work with feminist values internally and throughout. Further, the results points to that young female consumers want a more including representation of female bodies in advertising and that consumers react in a positive way towards advertising that represents bodies which they can relate to. In conclusion the results suggests that it is not enough for companies to use feminist messages and values in their advertisement, if these messages are not reflected in the company itself.

Though brands are created and maintained using many different management strategies, market and academic research has offered evidence that brands presenting the strongest personalities are more likely to perform better and resonate longer with consumers. This paper examines the components of brand personality using connections between contemporary branding and 13 classic archetypes. The study also discusses the life cycle of the brand, including development of brand personality and achievement of iconic status in conjunction with archetypal marketing. The research of Faber and Mayer (2009) is the basis for an analysis measuring participant attitudes toward popular brands by matching them with archetypal descriptions and explores possible correlation between product category and archetype. Results show evidence for high levels of participant agreement when categorizing archetypal representations of popular brands as well as consistency across product category. Results are also indicative of a relationship between gender and archetype selection.

<p>The popularity of social media have increased over the last years, appearing under variousbrands with millions of members worldwide. This thesis exemplifies how the features in twoof the most popular social media of today, Facebook and Twitter, can enable individuals touse these forums as tools for presentation and promotion of their identities.</p><p>The empirical material was gathered through qualitative interviews with 13 users of socialmedia, illustrating how individuals actively strive to use these forums to create positiveassociations around their persons.</p><p>What is perceived as beneficial communication varies with individuals different socialcontexts, learned through socialization mechanisms similar to those in real life. Social mediacommunication allows individuals to highlight preferable parts of their personality whileminimising negative to a higher extent than what sometimes is possible in the physicalreality, thus increasing the possibilities to communicate a desired self. The insights providedin this thesis can contribute to the understanding of social media as a phenomenon, as wellas increasing the knowledge around individuals purposes and user preferences as consumersof these media.The popularity of social media have increased over the last years, appearing under variousbrands with millions of members worldwide. This thesis exemplifies how the features in twoof the most popular social media of today, Facebook and Twitter, can enable individuals touse these forums as tools for presentation and promotion of their identities.The empirical material was gathered through qualitative interviews with 13 users of socialmedia, illustrating how individuals actively strive to use these forums to create positiveassociations around their persons.What is perceived as beneficial communication varies with individuals different socialcontexts, learned through socialization mechanisms similar to those in real life. Social mediacommunication allows individuals to highlight preferable parts of their personality whileminimising negative to a higher extent than what sometimes is possible in the physicalreality, thus increasing the possibilities to communicate a desired self. The insights providedin this thesis can contribute to the understanding of social media as a phenomenon, as wellas increasing the knowledge around individuals purposes and user preferences as consumersof these media.</p>

The power dynamics of consumerism is an important aspect of contemporary consumer culture. Within the field of marketing and consumption, consumer culture theory (CCT) tends to understand power in terms of agency, the ability of consumers to emancipate from a market infused by the culture of consumerism. As such, CCT assumes a repressive hypothesis of power, as if consumerism was an external reality from which agentic consumers can escape by acts of dialectical opposition. In contrast, through a Foucauldian approach, the present study emphasizes the productive side of power, arguing that consumerism operates beyond dialectical oppositions to constitute consumption at different levels of scale – at the macro, meso and micro levels. More specifically, through qualitative data generated from official documents and interviews with state agency officials, consumers, and food manufacturers and retailers, the study undertakes a discourse analysis of date labeling in the food market. In accounting for the regulative, organizational and performative dimensions of consumption, the case of date labeling makes it possible to study consumerism at the intersection of the state, business and consumers. The study argues that consumption is constituted through a multiplicity of mundane power struggles that arise in the wake of date labeling. As such, it extends previous approaches by suggesting an extra-dialectical theory of consumer culture. Further, it argues that date labeling reinforces the mind/body dualism of consumerism by privileging cognition and choice at the cost of the human embodiment and sensory perception. It concludes that empowered performativity does not represent a negation of power, but that it emerges as a product of power and the consumerist attempt to constitute effective, predictable, responsible and controlled consumption. However, future research should continue studying the dominant institutional conditions of particular consumption contexts.

The popularity of social media have increased over the last years, appearing under variousbrands with millions of members worldwide. This thesis exemplifies how the features in twoof the most popular social media of today, Facebook and Twitter, can enable individuals touse these forums as tools for presentation and promotion of their identities. The empirical material was gathered through qualitative interviews with 13 users of socialmedia, illustrating how individuals actively strive to use these forums to create positiveassociations around their persons. What is perceived as beneficial communication varies with individuals different socialcontexts, learned through socialization mechanisms similar to those in real life. Social mediacommunication allows individuals to highlight preferable parts of their personality whileminimising negative to a higher extent than what sometimes is possible in the physicalreality, thus increasing the possibilities to communicate a desired self. The insights providedin this thesis can contribute to the understanding of social media as a phenomenon, as wellas increasing the knowledge around individuals purposes and user preferences as consumersof these media.The popularity of social media have increased over the last years, appearing under variousbrands with millions of members worldwide. This thesis exemplifies how the features in twoof the most popular social media of today, Facebook and Twitter, can enable individuals touse these forums as tools for presentation and promotion of their identities.The empirical material was gathered through qualitative interviews with 13 users of socialmedia, illustrating how individuals actively strive to use these forums to create positiveassociations around their persons.What is perceived as beneficial communication varies with individuals different socialcontexts, learned through socialization mechanisms similar to those in real life. Social mediacommunication allows individuals to highlight preferable parts of their personality whileminimising negative to a higher extent than what sometimes is possible in the physicalreality, thus increasing the possibilities to communicate a desired self. The insights providedin this thesis can contribute to the understanding of social media as a phenomenon, as wellas increasing the knowledge around individuals purposes and user preferences as consumersof these media.

Konsumenter använder varumärken dagligen och exponering av varumärken sker överallt: i reklam, böcker, filmer, människor och så vidare. Tidigare forskning visar att konsumenter använder varumärken för att bygga upp sin självbild och skapa sin identitet, samt att konsumenter kan ha mer eller mindre starka relationer till varumärken. Varumärken i sig är bara materiella markörer, de blir meningsfulla för konsumenterna först då de sätts in i ett sammanhang och får en individuell historia uppbyggt kring sig. Studiens syfte är att utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv visa hur meningsskapande i en relation mellan ett varumärke och en konsument kan se ut. Detta genom att reda ut frågeställningen: ”Hur kan en konsument skapa mening i sin relation till ett varumärke?”. En fallstudie har genomförts, där en individs meningsskapande kring ett varumärke har undersökts. Fallstudien bestod av två djupgående intervjuer och fem observationer. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av teorier kring bland annat meningsskapandeprocesser och varumärkessymbolik. Slutsatsen är tre faktorer som kan bidra till meningsskapande kring ett varumärke: överensstämmelse med konsumentens ”jag”, symbolisk innebörd och visuellt tilltalande, och användning. / Consumers use brands daily and the exposure of brands takes place everywhere: in advertisements, books, movies, people, and so on. Previous research shows that consumers use brands to create their self-image and identity, and that consumer can have stronger or weaker relationships with brands. Brands in their selves are only material markers, brands become meaningful to consumers when they are put into a context and receive an individual story built around them. The purpose of this paper is to show how consumers can create meaning in their relationship with brands. This is by sorting out the issue: “How can a consumer create meaning in the relationship with a brand? “. A case study has been carried out, in which an individual's meaning creation to a brand has been investigated. The case study consisted of two interviews and five observations. The results were analyzed using theories about meaning creation processes and brand symbolic. The conclusions are three factors that may contribute to the creation of meaning towards a brand: correspondence with the consumer's “self”, symbolic meaning and visually appearance, and the use of the brand.