development, it is that culture makes almost all the difference
and Huntington, 2000). Yet culture, in
the sense of the inner values and attitudes that guide a population, frightens
scholars. It has a sulfuric odor of race and inheritance, an air of
immutability. In thoughtful moments, economists and other social scientists
recognize that this is not true, and indeed they salute examples of cultural
change for the better while deploring changes for the worse
and Huntington, 2000). But applauding or
deploring implies the passivity of the viewer--an inability to use knowledge to
shape people and things. The technician would rather change interest and exchange
rates, free up trade, alter political institutions, manage. Besides, criticisms
of culture cut close to the ego and injure identity and self-esteem
and Huntington, 2000), not only on the individual level but on an entire
country. Because culture and economic
performance are linked, changes in one will work back on the other.
globalization paved the way for an integrated market that crosses cultural
borders. As such, the focus on the local brands had been diminished and dwarfed
by the multi-national companies who are more powerful in terms of brand recall
and financial stability. Thus, their ability to manipulate cultural preferences
is enhanced. Issues such as national identity and local fashion culture had
been the main argument against the entry of glabal brands in the local market.
However, its inevitability is in the offing.
(1996) contended that his impression
that the standard economic approach to national identity is a mess. It wobbles
between the assumption of irrelevance of nationhood to rational behavior of
firms, families and governments and implicit nationalism (national income,
national competitiveness, and so on); between reduction of national
identification to maximization of wealth or welfare and non-economic
explanation, and between seeing nations as bearers of modernization and as
primitive, anti-capitalist forces (Klamer, 1996)
science in the sense of political economy contains the intellectual credentials
and advanced tools of analysis to endogenize national identity and to enrich
both its own stock of knowledge and the insight of the public
1996).
globalization and nations in particular espouses that a globalist market need
not necessarily be contained on a cultural universalism but rather, the reality
would remain that there will always be economic nationalism. As such, there is
no actual economic anarchy but a competitive economic nationalism focused on
information and cultural industries that drives global capitalism into the
twenty-first century (
1992). Such contradictions point to continuing problems with beliefs about
globalization as the definitional force majeur of late-twentieth-century
life. Nations and nationalism, like ethnics and tribalism, far from dissolving
into a system of impersonal economic or technological forces or culturally
fragmented spheres, have rarely been as visible or potent (Ferguson, 1992).
believers, even critics, cite media technology, popular culture, markets, and
consumption flow data as irrefutable signifiers of a more interdependent global
capitalist system and consumer marketplace (
1992). However, when we look behind the rhetorical
curtain of market globalism, we find neither the material condition nor its
assumed impact to be as inevitable or universal as alleged. Globalism and
localism co-exist in the 1990s in a context of transnational economic
interdependence fed by direct foreign investment (DFI), common patterns of
material and cultural consumption, and a pervasive, global information and
entertainment system of satellite, computer, cable, VCR, telephone, fax, television,
and digital technologies (Ferguson, 1992).
The Language of Clothing
to what others saw as "a picture is worth a thousand words" and
generally concede that dress and ornament are elements in a communication
system. Social scientists recognize that a person's attire can indicate either
conformity or resistance to socially defined expectations for behavior
1995). Writing on the changes that
occurred in the early part of the nineteenth century in
and
Richard Sennett (1974 cited in Rubenstein, 1995) pointed out that standardized
modes of dress offered a protective "cover-up" at a time when the
distinction between private space and public space first emerged. When one
lived and worked among strangers rather than family members, there was a need
to protect one's self and one's inner feelings. Wearing the expected mode of
dress enabled individuals to move easily among the various spheres of social
life(Rubenstein, 1995).
clothing plays in social life but the ways in which visual images direct,
affect, and reflect societal, cultural, and personal discourse have not been
fully appreciated.
1957 cite in Rubenstein, 1995) observed that fashion, the latest desired
appearance, allows for personal modification, enabling the individual to pursue
competing desires for group identity and individual expression. There is no
institution, "no law, no estate of life which can uniformly satisfy the
opposing principles of uniformity and individuality better than fashion."
The self is also an audience, and clothing allows individuals to view
themselves as social objects. By extricating the self from a setting or
situation, the individual can scrutinize the image he or she presents in view
of the social response that is desired. This separation and objectification, in
turn, allows the individual to correct the image if necessary
1995).
gone, and the structure and expression of social life have changed, the inner
necessities that animate social life have not (Rubenstein, 1995). Clothing
signs enable a political authority, such as the police, to define itself and
advance its claims. In the form of a visual image that transmits meaning, a
clothing sign provides the cultural frame within which the political authority
can function. Required attire, clothing signs specify a range of feelings and behaviors
that are expected (Rubenstein, 1995)
clothing signs inconspicuous, often too mundane to be consciously noted. More
likely to be noticed are changes, increases or decreases, in the use of
clothing signs (Rubenstein. 1995). Clothing symbols may also be misinterpreted
and their meaning trivialized. Clothing symbols are an important component of a
people's cultural heritage (Rubenstein, 1995).
Culture
culture by tracing it to the early royalties. The court of Philip the Good,
duke of
(d. 1467), is considered "the cradle" of fashion. Philip exploited
the resources available in the territory he controlled to create new clothing
styles. Until this time
had been the center of luxurious court dress. As mentioned, the International
Gothic Style had been generated in
about 1380, and attire in this style was worn in many of the courts in
politics and marriage. After the beginning of the fifteenth century, however,
court in the northern French duchy of
This area lay along the spine of Europe, directly within the Mediterranean
trade route for goods being transported to the North Sea and
People, talent, and commodities flowed into its markets. Members of the court
took increased interest in their clothes, adorning themselves with elaborate
costumes to display wealth and an awareness of style (Rubenstein, 1995)
youth and old age began to break down. The separate forces of feminism and the
commercial beauty culture were behind the changes in society's perception of
older women (Rubenstein, 1995). Fashion magazines and beauty advice books
recommended that women of all ages should be permitted and even encouraged to
look as young as they wished (Rubenstein, 1995).
attitudes that had been with their society for a long time. The fashion
industry urged people to transform their clothed appearance in accordance with
a set of quite traditional body ideals and signifiers of femininity, marketed to
them as entirely new (Maynard, 1995).
For instance, these ideals, spelled out via a rhetorical language and imagery
expressing ideas about women's individualized sexuality and selffulfilment,
were conceptualized in the fashion for the 'New Look'--a style nevertheless
redolent with references to the upper-bourgeois fashions of the late nineteenth
century (Maynard, 1995). The
style constituted part of the historical shifts marking out feminine
desirability, increasingly defined during the 1930s and 1940s in terms of the
dynamics of heterosexual attractiveness. The new femininity of 'sex appeal',
and its 'Look', was significant in that it signalled changes to the ideals of
femininity of previous decades, towards more modern incitements to sexual
pleasure, especially suited to youthful consumers
1995).
couture industry in Paris, and later given the label of the 'New Look' by the
Americans, was a deliberate and nostalgic evocation of the luxury of the Belle
Epoque in the years leading up to the First World War
1995). Picture Post, in 1947,
described in glowing terms this vanished era which the 'Look' recalled. The new
lavish use of furs, brocades like shimmering moonlight, glittering gold, silver
and pearl-encrusted embroidery, and rustling taffetas, covered with cobweb fine
lace, marked a return to the days when fashion was the prerogative of the
wealthy, leisured woman and not the everyday concern of the typist, saleswoman,
or housewife (Maynard, 1995).
American and World Culture
you is wearing clothing imported from
A quick check of the label may reveal that it is a shirt from the Gap made in
made in
(Figueroa,
1996).
the
a growing segment of the
clothing market. As industry analysts, business people and, increasingly,
workers, realize, such a development is by no means accidental. It is the
product of a search for higher profits by U.S. apparel companies, by some of
their competitors like Korean-owned contractors, and, above all, by large
clothing buyers such as Wal-Mart and Macy's at the expense of low-wage labor in
Latin America. It is also the product of trade policies and political decisions
adopted by the
and Latin American governments (Figueroa, 1996).
wholesale apparel sales were $78.4 billion while retail sales were $211 billion
in 1994.1 There are about 30,000 clothing manufacturers in the
United States, which employ over 800,000 production workers in this country
(down 30% from the mid-1970s). They directly or indirectly employ at least
400,000 people overseas. More textile and apparel is produced and sold today in
the
than at any other time in the nation's history (Figueroa, 1996).
clothing market, one of the most attractive in the world, has become the final
destination for an increasing amount of apparel assembled overseas, much of it
in
represented 66% of total sales in the
compared to only 28% in 1973. Likewise, textile imports have grown from 5.8% of
the U.S. market in 1973 to 21.7% in 1992.2 The share for garments
imported from Latin America under special duty-free tariff programs has
increased from 3.9% of the U.S. clothing market in 1970 to 16.7% in 1993
1996).
undergoing significant changes, which have produced clear winners and losers.
Increased market integration -- in the wake of neoliberal economic
restructuring and "free-trade" accords -- means that a particular
country's role in the industry is determined to a large extent by the size of
its domestic market, its level of industrialization, and its access to modern
technology (Figueroa, 1996).
consumers and brand: the stronger the attachment, the better the branding.
Nothing connected with "branding" should surprise
anyone any more (Frank, 2001). Whenever the word is spoken, it seems, there
instantly follows some scarcely believable anecdote of corporations expanding,
metastasising, covering more and more of our world and our culture, putting
their mark in some unthinkable new spot or on some inviolable hero, ransacking
the temples of art, laying claim to the legacy of the historical avant-garde,
to that of religion, of bohemia, of the civil rights movement, of the left
itself. We ride in subway cars whose every surface promotes an allergy remedy
or the offerings of a TV network. We hear of "masterbrands" and
"megabrands" (Frank, 2001).
And the claims attached to brands grow constantly: no longer simple
guarantees of quality, brands are now thought to have a more high-minded aspect
(Frank, 2001). The brand was everything, the very foundation of economic life.
The brand was all that would survive, zealously protected and polished by a
core of managerial workers, while the physical operations of the corporation
were "outsourced" to those lands where people work for next to
nothing (Frank, 2001).
integrated branding is that it is a model for building the most important asset
any company has--its relationship with its customers
1999). If you understand that your best
customer is the one you already have, then creating a rational system for
deepening customer relationships is the logical next step
1999).
integrated brand allows your organization to develop more saleable products
over the long term by keeping it focused on your strengths as an organization.
This focus opens it to new possibilities by broadening the corporate aperture
from looking at what you are producing right now to looking at the bigger
picture. Seeing the big picture is an essential prerequisite to company
longevity. Strategy based solely on current product or service uniqueness
ultimately results in decreasing market share, lower margins, missed
opportunities, and price wars (Lepla, 1999).
they are and how to use that knowledge consistently to create better results.
As with all worthwhile change, the process takes some investment in time and
elbow grease up front, but results in a huge payoff
1999).
and variability of products represented by the brand but also of the strength
of association between the brand and the products it represents
1996). The strength of association is
reflected in the retrievability from memory of product associations. This, in
turn, influences the evaluation of fit of brand extensions. Two types of brands
were studied: those with a strong association to a single product (and weaker
associations with other products) and those with strong associations to
multiple products. Results from an experiment showed that for brands with a
single product association, brand knowledge and context interact to influence
evaluations of fit for extensions to products weakly associated with the brand.
For brands strongly associated with more than 1 product, context influences
evaluations of the fit of brand extensions (Dawar, 1996).
brand-extension researchers are now focusing on acquiring a deeper understanding
of how cognitive representations of brands influence the evaluations of the fit
of extensions with the original brand (Dawar, 1996).
perceptions of brand-extension fit depend not only on similarity of
product-based aspects, such as features or attributes, but also on the
consistency of the extension product with an abstract mental representation,
such as the brand-name concept.
effective use of media as an advertisement tool. Cultural diversity and the
penchant for global fashion are increasingly reinforced in the media.
Preferences for clothes, accessories and other fashion items rest on how a
product is shown and perceived by the consumers around the world. Thus, fashion
advertisements are not only focused on a specific market but rather on the
global market by universalizing their product and thus their brands. The
potential influence of globally shared television images, the informational
power of the Internet, or how displays of popular culture artifacts or consumer
goods proffer modes of articulation for sharing surface identities based on
styles (Ferguson, 1992).
Being, first of all, a
pragmatic market instrument, ads have an important side effect: they reproduce
dominant ideologies, social structure, power relations and a global cultural.
The products consume by individuals are wide spread markers of their social
status, and they can be analysed as second-order signs, in Barthes's terms, or
to put it another way, as myths of consumer society: goods are imagined as
magic latchkeys, letting one to come into the dream world (Ross, 2000).
Fairytale narrative in a 30-second advertisement. Role of advertisements in
socialization and construction of identity; representations of males and
females and construction of their subject positions in advertisements (Ross,
2000).
substantial communication efforts to build on existing product associations
(Dawar, 1996). For brands with a single strong product association, and for
extensions close to that product, communication could cue either the strongly
or the weakly associated product. However, if the extension is close to the
weakly associated product, context cues should primarily focus on it,
especially if the target consumers are knowledgeable about the brand.
Activating the strongly associated product would be a mistake in this
communications should cue the product close to the extension product in order
to maximize consumer perceptions of fit (Dawar, 1996).
refers to the distance of extensions from the brand concept. The strength of
brand-product association was used to refer to the relation between the brand
and its associations with existing products. However, empirically in
psychological research, the two constructs are often treated similarly in that
both distance and strength of association are measured using response latency.
We believe these two constructs are independent and can be tapped using
different measures. In this study we used response latency measures to
determine strength of association and a card-sorting task to determine
proximity-distance. Future research could provide additional insight into the
orthogonality of these constructs by crossing levels of the two constructs.
print ads is enhanced by relations between the element to be remembered and
other ad elements (Millard and Schmitt, 1993)
unaided recall measures than on brand-name recognition or brand-name matching
measures. As argued before, this result suggests that interrelations among ad
components are especially valuable for retrieval processes (Millard and
Schmitt, 1993). It could be argued, however, that related ad elements provide
redundant information which allows for guessing; that is, if an individual is
exposed to the same information three times, then he or she has to remember
less information than when three different items of information are presented.
We believe, however, that it is not clear how an individual could find
information to be redundant without noticing the relation between the two
concepts that supposedly constitute redundancy.
practiced in remembering brand names and brand characteristics and therefore
may have a strategic advantage in learning them
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
into how consumers respond affectively and make behavioral commitments to items
within a set of alternatives such as brands of toothpaste or makes of
automobile. However, consumer researchers have rarely gone beyond the selection
or preference stage
concerning the duration of consumption largely unexplored and, in particular,
has neglected the possible role of emotions in determining the length of time
that consumers devote to consumption experiences (Gardner and Holbrook, 1993)
of advertisement on radio and television proposes an approach to investigating
these questions and illustrates its application to the context of examining the
connection between emotional responses and listening receptivity to music. In
an individually administered listening task, 58 subjects listened to these
musical selections in different random orders for as long as they wanted before
rating their feelings on the Affect Grid. Listening time was measured
unobtrusively when rewinding the tapes between sessions with subjects. As
hypothesized, the results show that log (tempo) strongly affects arousal, that
listening time follows a nonmonotonic relation which peaks at intermediate
levels of arousal, and that these peaks shift from left to right as pleasure
increases.
lies in the memorial associations consumers have for products sold with that
brand brand-building efforts that seek to develop greater brand awareness and
foster favorable brand attitudes among consumers. A brand that is strongly
associated with a particular product category will often enjoy substantial
success in that category because it can effectively isolate itself from
competing brands (Williams, 1992).
consumer's cognitive structure for a brand in a given product category affects
the possible transfer of associations to other product categories. One key
factor in evaluating such possible brand extensions is dominance, which
can be defined as the strength of the directional association between the
parent category and the branded product (Farquhar, 1996)
relatedness of the brand's parent category and the target category of the
proposed extension. The 1st experiment measured dominance and relatedness via
response latencies to recognize brand extensions. The 2nd experiment
demonstrated that consumers' affect for strongly category-dominant brands (a)
transfers better to an extension when the proposed extension is closely rather
than distantly related to the parent category and (b) transfers better than a
weakly category-dominant brand's affect. Together, the research demonstrated
that consumers' response times to disconfirm the existence of product-brand
pairs is related to their transfer of affect from the brand to the proposed
product category. This disconfirmation method could be used as an unobtrusive
measure for determining brand boundaries. The attractiveness of potential brand
extensions may thus be determined without consumers making any judgments about
a proposed extension other than answering whether or not it exists
1996).
H2 about consumers' ability to learn new associations. Subjects were better
able to recall the proposed extension for strongly category-dominant versus
weaker brands, and for closely versus distantly related target categories. The
main effect of category dominance on recall may have been greater if we had
chosen brands with greater separation in the parent categories. The rather
distant target categories selected probably contributed to the strong main
effect for intercategory relatedness. On
the other hand, the affect transfer patterns across categories do not mirror
the recall data for learning new associations. Dominance and relatedness
interact only for affect transfer. Although there are strong main effects for
both dominance and relatedness, the affect associated with a strongly
category-dominant brand transfers to an extended product best when the target
category is closely related to the parent category. Thus, attitude differences
are not due simply to subjects liking only what they could recall; rather, the
brand transfers its associated affect across categories. Nevertheless, there is
a limit to how far the brand can be stretched--the target category must be
closely related to the parent category (Farquhar, 1996).
learning and liking of proposed brand extensions are influenced by two factors:
the dominance of the brand in its parent category and the relatedness
of the parent category to the target category of the proposed extension.
Learning new associations for brand extensions is easier for (a) brands that
are strongly (vs. weakly) category dominant and for (b) target categories that
are closely (vs. distantly) related to the brand's parent category. It also
demonstrated that the affect associated with strongly category-dominant brands
transfers to an extension primarily when the target category is closely related
to the parent category. Finally, controlling for category dominance, consumers'
response latency to disconfirm the existence of a hypothetical extension is
inversely related to the affect transferred to the extension (Farquhar, 1996).
category-to-brand association is both a blessing and a curse. Strongly
category-dominant brands have widespread customer recognition and often enjoy
substantial market share. But this strength in the parent category may also
limit the brand's direct extendibility to other product categories. A strong
category-to-brand association appears to restrict a brand's ability to transfer
affect across categories, underscoring the need for caution in extension
decisions for brands that might appear to be natural platforms for building
equity.
Psychology of Global Fashion Culture
psychology of the consumers has been the main culprit in the establishments of
global brands. Radford (1993) first revealed the hazards of psychological
perspectives of fashion when they are detached from any recognition of the
complex particularities of social and historical patterns. But secondly I hope
to show how this psychoanalytic approach, far from maintaining any position of
scientific objectivity, in fact reflects disguised misogynistic and hornophobic
currents of thought, prevalent within a given social ideology. Fashion has
throughout history been exposed to a constant didactic of disapproval. Indeed
the emergence of fashion as a topic for comment in the first place seems to
have arisen from the desire to censure it. Whether the complaint is against
excessive show of wealth or against sexual immodesty, whether the appeal
emanates from the values of Christianity or Humanism, the sins of pride and
lust (note the church Latin for lust is 'luxuria") are accusations which
are inextricably woven into the history of fashion. So it is perhaps not so
surprising, then, that psychology should be drawn into collusion with the
puritanical and patriarchal aims of post-Second World War American ideology, in
supplying a more modern basis for constraining self-expression in terms of
fashion and personal appearance, by marginalizing fashion as potentially
deviant and dangerous (Radford, 1993).
REFERENCES
Dawar, Niraj, Extensions of Broad Brands: The Role of
Retrieval in Evaluations of Fit,
Dawar, Niraj, Extensions of Broad Brands: The Role of
Retrieval in Evaluations of Fit,
Farquhar, Peter, Impact of Dominance and Relatedness on
Brand Extensions,
Erlbaum Associates, 1996
Myths, markets and identities.
Sage.
Figueroa, Hector, In the Name of Fashion: Exploitation in
the Garment Industry, North American Congress
on
Frank, Thomas, The big lie. The Guardian, July 9, 2001. Available
at
Morris, An Approach to Investigating the Emotional Determinants of
Consume What They Consume for as Long as They Consume
It?,
Erlbaum Associates, 1993
Harrison, Lawrence, and Huntington, Samuel, Culture Matters:
How Values Shape Human Progress, Basic
Books, 2000
Klamer, Arjo, The Value of Culture: On the Relationship
between Economics and Arts,
Lepla, Joseph, Integrated Branding: Becoming
Brand-Driven through Companywide Action, Quorum Books,
1999
Maynard, Margaret, The Wishful Feeling About Curves':
Fashion, Femininity, and the 'New Look' in
Press, 1995
Millard, Robert and Schmitt, Nader, Memory for Print Ads:
Understanding Relations Among Brand Name,
Copy, and Picture,
Erlbaum Associates, 1993
Radford, Robert, Women's Bitterest Enemy': The Uses of
the Psychology of Fashion,
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Cassandra, Seeing Ourselves: An Analysis of Ideology and Fantasy in Popular
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