Meaning of Brands for Consumers in their Social Interactions: Appeal of Symbolic Expressions of Cultural Identity

Abstract

Much has been discussed about how the consumer has become the core trigger for changes within contemporary society. In this regard, it is considered that identities are formed by consumer choices. The identities are not expressed by the products chosen, per se, but by what the products represent. Thus, we deduce that the purchase of brands is a mainstay of the construction of cultural identities. With this in mind, this study aimed to understand how consumers construct their identities by using brands as symbolic resources in their social interactions in everyday life. To this end, an ethnography of communication was conducted through participant observation of everyday interactions of people from different social groups. The results indicated eleven types of identity, divided into three categories: communal, social, and personal. In the end, we analyzed the possible contributions of the study for both academia and for brand management.