CULTURAL REPERTOIRES AND THEIR USE BY NETWORK ACTORS: Case Reino & Aino phenomenon
LEPPÄLÄ, ELINA (2010)
LEPPÄLÄ, ELINA
2010
Yrityksen taloustiede, markkinointi - Marketing
Kauppa- ja hallintotieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Economics and Administration
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2010-04-27
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20517
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20517
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of the study was to investigate and analyze the phenomenon of Reino & Aino by identifying network actors and their strategies of action for using the cultural repertoires related to the phenomenon. The thesis combines the network and cultural perspectives to marketing and consumer research in order to gain a profound understanding of the phenomenon and its theoretical implications. The Reino & Aino phenomenon is considered inspiring as a subject for research, because despite the lack of traditional marketing procedures, the product has attained unforeseen popularity and enthusiasm. Both consumers and other marketplace actors, such as the media, several organizations and communities are involved in the marketing of the product through different strategies of action. These strategies are based on the use of cultural repertoires that are identified in this thesis.
The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on Evert Gummesson’s manytomany theory and the cultural paradigm of consumer research. Manytomany theory broadens the view of marketing by paying attention to the multiple participants that are involved in marketplace action. It gives insights for studying complex and contextdependent phenomena. The cultural or interpretive paradigm of consumer research studies sociocultural meanings related to products. It pays attention to consumers within their whole life context, as they acquire, consume and dispose of consumption objects. The postmodern turn pays special attention to the plurality, complexity and fragmentation taking place in society and marketing, aligned with a constructivist philosophy of science. The analytical approach adopted in this thesis, poststructuralism, is related to postmodernism and it is used to examine data as cultural text.
Rich and thick empirical case study research was used as a data generation method. The multiperspective dataset consisted of altogether 27 interviews, 20 hours of observations and other cultural material which were interpreted using the poststructuralist approach. The analysis relied on identifying and interpreting the network actors, cultural repertoires and strategies of action. Identified repertoires were locality and nationality, ethics and responsibility, empathy and caring, humor and fun, communities and subcultures, brands and fashion, uniqueness and individuality and heroes and myths. The results indicate that the rich cultural repertoires related with the Reino & Aino phenomenon help to understand the popularity of the product. The phenomenon has a mythical potential that results in dynamic strategies of action used by the network to market the product. The study yields customer insight and cultural knowledge that is increasingly needed in order to develop products and brands at the postmodern marketplace. The study also broadens the perspective of marketing to consider complex networks in addition to dyadic relationships.
Asiasanat: Consumer, culture, network, postmodern, poststructural
The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on Evert Gummesson’s manytomany theory and the cultural paradigm of consumer research. Manytomany theory broadens the view of marketing by paying attention to the multiple participants that are involved in marketplace action. It gives insights for studying complex and contextdependent phenomena. The cultural or interpretive paradigm of consumer research studies sociocultural meanings related to products. It pays attention to consumers within their whole life context, as they acquire, consume and dispose of consumption objects. The postmodern turn pays special attention to the plurality, complexity and fragmentation taking place in society and marketing, aligned with a constructivist philosophy of science. The analytical approach adopted in this thesis, poststructuralism, is related to postmodernism and it is used to examine data as cultural text.
Rich and thick empirical case study research was used as a data generation method. The multiperspective dataset consisted of altogether 27 interviews, 20 hours of observations and other cultural material which were interpreted using the poststructuralist approach. The analysis relied on identifying and interpreting the network actors, cultural repertoires and strategies of action. Identified repertoires were locality and nationality, ethics and responsibility, empathy and caring, humor and fun, communities and subcultures, brands and fashion, uniqueness and individuality and heroes and myths. The results indicate that the rich cultural repertoires related with the Reino & Aino phenomenon help to understand the popularity of the product. The phenomenon has a mythical potential that results in dynamic strategies of action used by the network to market the product. The study yields customer insight and cultural knowledge that is increasingly needed in order to develop products and brands at the postmodern marketplace. The study also broadens the perspective of marketing to consider complex networks in addition to dyadic relationships.
Asiasanat: Consumer, culture, network, postmodern, poststructural