Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism: How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand‐Mediated Moral Conflict

Consumer researchers have tended to equate consumer moralism with normative condemnations of mainstream consumer culture. Consequently, little research has investigated the multifaceted forms of identity work that consumers can undertake through more diverse ideological forms of consumer moralism. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of consumer research 2010-04, Vol.36 (6), p.1016-1032
Main Authors: Luedicke, Marius K., Thompson, Craig J., Giesler, Markus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brands
Communities
Consumer behavior
Consumer research
Consumerism
Consumers
Consumption
Cultural identity
Hybrid cars
Identity
Ideology
Morality
Morality plays
Mythology
Protagonists
Studies
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Summary:Consumer researchers have tended to equate consumer moralism with normative condemnations of mainstream consumer culture. Consequently, little research has investigated the multifaceted forms of identity work that consumers can undertake through more diverse ideological forms of consumer moralism. To redress this theoretical gap, we analyze the adversarial consumer narratives through which a brand‐mediated moral conflict is enacted. We show that consumers’ moralistic identity work is culturally framed by the myth of the moral protagonist and further illuminate how consumers use this mythic structure to transform their ideological beliefs into dramatic narratives of identity. Our resulting theoretical framework explicates identity‐value–enhancing relationships among mythic structure, ideological meanings, and marketplace resources that have not been recognized by prior studies of consumer identity work.
ISSN:0093-5301
1537-5277
DOI:10.1086/644761