The Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods
The Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods
 Consumer goods have a
significance that goes beyond their
utilitarian and commercial value
 They carry and communicate
cultural meaning
 Cultural meaning is located in 3
places
1. The culturally constituted world
2. The consumer good
3. The individual consumer
How is meaning created, and how does it move between
these three things?
Grant McCracken: Culture and Consumption: Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the
Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods. J. of Cons. Res., Vol. 13, No. 1. (Jun., 1986), pp. 71-84.
The Culturally Constituted World
The world of everyday experience
The phenomenal world presents itself to
the senses but shaped and constituted by
the assumptions of our culture
Culture is the lens through which we
perceive the world
It also tells us how we are supposed to
behave. -- is the blueprint for human action
Culture constitutes the world by
supplying it with meaning
Meaning can be characterized by
two concepts: cultural categories
and cultural principles
Cultural Categories
Basic distinctions (categories) a
culture uses to divide up the world
time (days, decades, leisure
time, work time etc.)
Space (sacred and profane,
public and private)
Nature (flora, fauna, land,
supernatural)
Society (class, status, gender
age, occupation etc.)
These categories help us
organize the world
Cultural Categories
Are subject to change
They are also subject to
manipulative efforts by various
parties.
Social groups can seek to
change their place in the cultural
system
In other words the categories do
not go uncontested
Marketers seek to encourage a
new category of person (e.g.
tweens) in order to create a new
market segment
The Substantiation of Cultural Categories
Cultural categories are invisible
We can see a plate of chicken
curry but we can’t see it as ethnic
Indian cuisine
We can see a church but we can’t
see it as a sacred place of worship
Cultural categories are
substantiated by human practice –
by going to an Indian restaurant, or
praying at church
We play out categorical distinctions
so that the world we create is
consistent with the world we imagine
The Substantiation of Cultural Categories
One of the most important ways cultural categories are
substantiated is through a culture’s material objects
The cultural meaning that has organized a world is
made visible, through goods.
Objects are created according to
a culture’s categorical blueprint
Objects render categories of this
blueprint material and substantial
Objects are vital and tangible
record of cultural meaning that is
otherwise intangible
The Substantiation of Cultural Categories in Goods
 Goods make culture material - allowing us
to discriminate visually among culturally
specified categories by encoding them in the
form of a set of material distinctions
Much of the meaning of goods can be
traced to the categories into which a culture
segments the world.
 e.g. categories of the person can be divided
into parcels of age, sex., class and
occupation.
These can be represented in a set of material distinctions by
means of goods
Clothing “systems” for instance show a correspondence to
cultural categories of the person
Demographic (age and gender) information is carried in goods
cultural principles
Cultural meaning also consists of
cultural principles
With principles, meaning resides in
the ideas or values that determine
how cultural phenomena are
organized, evaluated and construed
cultural principles are the organizing ideas by which things
are categorized
Cultural categories are the result of this segmentation into
discrete parcels
For example, burgers, fries, tacos etc. can be considered as
in the category of “fast food”
The organizing principle is “speed” or “timeliness”
Both cultural principles and cultural categories are
substantiated by material culture in general and in consumer
goods in particular
Consumer Goods express both simultaneously
When goods show a distinction between two cultural
categories they do so by encoding something of the principle
according to which the two categories are distinguished
 e.g., clothing that distinguishes
between men and women (the
category) also encodes something
of the nature of the differences
supposed to exist between men
and women (the principle)
Clothing communicates both the
supposed “delicacy” or femininity
of women and the “strength” or
masculinity of men
 Meaning first resides in the
culturally constituted world
 To become resident in
consumer goods it must be
transferred to them
 One way this is done is
through advertising
 Ads bring the consumer
good and the culturally
constituted world together
within the framework of the
ad
 The advertiser sees an
essential similarity between
them – a symbolic similarity
 When symbolic equivalence
is successfully established
the viewer attributes to the
consumer good certain
properties that he or she
knows to exist in the
culturally constituted world
 These properties thus
come to reside in the
unknown properties of the
consumer good and the
transfer of meaning from
world to good is
accomplished
What is the meaning of the
cowboy?
And Marlboro cigarettes?
How is the Transfer Achieved
Step 1: identify the
properties that are
sought for the good (e.g.
fun, sexy, helpful etc.)
Step 2: decide where in
the culturally constituted
world the properties for
the ad reside
 fantasy or natural
setting
 exterior or interior
 Urban or rural
 cultivated or
untamed
 Time of day, year
If there are people in the
ad what is their
•Sex
•Age
•Class
•occupation
•clothing
•body postures
•Emotional states
May be done at
conscious as well as
unconscious levels
These are pieces of he
culturally constituted
world that can be evoked
What meaning should we
attach to Bacardi rum?
Step 3: determine how the culturally
constituted world is to be portrayed in
the advertisement
 This involves reviewing all of the
objects that substantiate the selected
meaning and then deciding which of
these objects will be used to evoke this
meaning in the ad
 What are the culturally meaningful
objects in this ad.
 What is the meaning of the ad
 What have the designers of this ad
assumed about the culturally
constituted world – especially about
the roles of men and women.
1958 issue of Lady's Home Journal
What have the designers
of this ad assumed about
the culturally constituted
world – especially about
the roles of men and
women.
How would this ad
change our
understanding of our
concept of the male
gender?
Through advertising, old
meanings of cultural
categories are continually
changed and new ones
taken on
The idea is to see an
equivalence between the
world and the good
World and good must be
seen to go together
When we see the
sameness after many
repetitions the process of
transfer has taken place
Meaning has shifted from
the culturally constituted
world to the consumer
good
The good now stands for
a cultural meaning which it
didn’t have previously.
It is chiefly the visual
aspect that joins the world
and object
 Text provides instructions
on how the visual part of
the advertisement is to be
read
Words makes explicit what
is already implicit in the
image
What’s the meaning of
Clairol Herbal Essences and
how is it achieved?
All of this must
successfully be decoded by
the viewer
What cultural
categories and
principles are used
in this ad.
Why do many
non-Westerners fail
to see the humour
in this ad?
Because they don’t
see the culturally
constructed
meaning.
Fashion (in the broad
sense) is another means
by which goods are
invested with meaningful
properties
Works in three ways to
transfer meaning
First way is seen in
magazines and
newspapers and the
process is similar to
advertising
similarity is sought
After all it is often hard to
separate advertising from
articles about clothing etc.
The fashion
system takes new
styles of clothing,
home furnishings
etc. and
associates them
with established
cultural categories
and principles
moving meaning
from culturally
constituted world
to consumer goods
 Second way is through
invention of new cultural
meanings
 Done by opinion leaders who
help refine existing cultural
meanings, encouraging the
reform of cultural categories and
principles
Wentworth Miller (Michael
Scofield - Prison Break)
“No longer the sole domain
of prep-school boys, the Vneck sweater is having a
comeback.” GQ Magazine
Often people of higher social
status are sources of meaning
for those of lower social status
The innovation of meaning may
be promoted by their imitation
e.g. sugar and tea
Movie and popular music stars, are a
group of influential opinion leaders
who are highly regarded for their
status, their beauty and (sometimes)
their talent
Recently, Beyonce unveiled
her new perfume - True Star
Gold, True Star Gold is “is
more for nighttime, for a
woman when she wants to
be sexy and more confident.
It's sort of like me onstage -hair blowing, lots of
attitude.''- it's a sexy,
confident fragrance."
(URB1.com)
These opinion
leaders invent and
pass along new
meanings to
prevailing cultural
categories and
cultural principles
“Lil' Flip has effected [sic] the dress of urban
culture across America. One of the main causes
of the streets going wild with burberry design-like
car paint jobs, interiors, and matching clothing,
he has truly set off many trend explosions in the
past two summers.” (URB1.com, 1995)
Third way fashion system
transforms meaning is
through radical reform of
cultural meanings
The groups
responsible for the
radical reform of
cultural meaning
Until recently in Western culture, only
usually exist on the
margins of society e.g. sailors, criminals and prostitutes got tattoos.
hippies, punks, or gays The Romans considered decorative
tattooing barbaric, and used tattoos to mark
Such groups invent a slaves and criminals.
much more radical,
innovative kind of
cultural meaning
What do tattoos
mean today?
The negative connotations are still evident
in the Latin word for tattoo: stigma.
Today, the tattoo is undergoing a
renaissance reflecting a change in attitudes
towards the body: seen as a canvas.
These groups redefine cultural categories often by violating
existing cultural categories.
Same sex marriages
– redefine marriage
The redefined
cultural categories
have now entered the
cultural mainstream
Agents of Change Designers and Commentators
Product designers, clothes designers, architects, interior
designers, technological and automobile designers, etc.
Instead, the consumer good leaves the designers hands
and enters any context the consumer chooses
Product designers, through the
physical properties of the design
itself, try to convince consumers that
a specific object possesses a certain
cultural meaning
ultimately is the consumer who
supply the meaning transfer from the
world to object
 What is the meaning of this chair
Fashion journalists,
commentators, academics
and other social
observers are also agents
of meaning transfer
They review aesthetic
social and cultural
innovations as they
appear and then classify
them as either important
or trivial
Once they decide what is
important they begin a
dissemination process to
make their decision
known
Locations of Cultural Meaning: Consumer Goods
Cultural meaning is located in all high-involvement
product categories e.g. clothing transportation, food,
housing exteriors and interiors,
all serve as media for the expression of the cultural
meaning that constitutes our world
Instruments of Meaning Transfer: Good to Consumer
How does meaning, now resident in consumer goods move from
the consumer good to the life of the consumer Answer:ritual
Ritual is a kind of social action that
manipulates cultural meanings for purposes
of collective and individual communication
and categorization
Ritual affirms, evokes, assigns and revises
the conventional symbols and meanings of
the cultural order
Eg. rite of passage moves one person from
one cultural category to another
Gives ups symbols of one state eg. child for
those of another e.g. adult
Initiation scars
There are four types of ritual that are used to
transfer cultural meaning from goods to
individuals
1. Exchange
2. Possession rituals
3. Grooming
4. divestment rituals
Exchange
Eg. Christmas and birthdays
Often a gift is chosen because it
possesses the meaningful
properties the gift giver wishes to
see transferred to the receiver
e.g. if a woman gets a particular
kind of dress as a gift she is also
receiving a particular concept of
herself as a woman ( e.g.
Ashburton’s gifts)
The dress contains this concept
and the giver invites the her to
define herself in its terms
The gifts to children often contain
symbolic properties that the parent
would have the child absorb
So, when we give a gift, we are giving not only the object itself,
but also something symbolic
Consumers as gift givers are agents of
meaning transfer
Consumers selectively distribute goods
with specific properties to individuals who
may or may not have chosen them
otherwise
When we give a gift to a person we are
saying that that person is a particular sort
of person.
When we receive a gift, we are also
receiving that symbolic representation of
ourselves
 In one sense then, who we are, is very
much influenced by the gifts we have
received (and have accepted)
If you were to Receive a “see-thru”
print dress, which were all the rage
in Japan a few years ago, what is
the giver saying about you
What is the meaning of the dress
To you
To the gift giver
To young Japanese girls?
Why didn’t they catch on in North
America?
Possession Rituals
Consumers spend a lot of time cleaning, disposing, comparing,
reflecting, showing off and even photographing their possessions
 Housewarming is often a chance to display possessions,
 These events have an overt function but they also have a more
subtle function i.e. to assert ownership
Showing to the community their
possessions and along with them
the meanings.
 Possession rituals allow the
consumer to take possession of the
meaning of the consumer good.
Goods can mark time, space
occasion, status, gender, age,
occupation etc. e.g. Tea ceremony
What sort of a person lives here?
Grooming Rituals
 Eg. making preparations for going out in public.
We want to look our best, sometimes, say on an evening
out or to attend some function, We put makeup on, fix our
hair or dress to make an impression.
We want to be seen
as a certain kind of
person when there
will be public
scrutiny
When we go out grooming
rituals often give us a
feeling of being, glamorous,
exalted, self-confident,
These meaningful
properties exist in our best
consumer goods
In grooming rituals the
meaning moves from
consumer goods to the
consumer
We all go through
private grooming
rituals
The shower is seen
as a sacred, cleansing
ritual.
In these rituals
women reaffirm the
value placed by their
culture on personal
beauty.
Divestment Rituals
Often we come to view goods in personal terms, associating
goods with their own personal meanings and values
When we buy a second a second hand car or an older house
a ritual is used to erase the meaning associated with the
previous owner
the cleaning and redecorating of a
newly purchased home for e.g. may be
seen as an effort to remove the
meaning created by its previous owner
 The new owner is now able to free
up the meaning properties of the
possessions claiming them for him or
herself.
Second type is when planning on giving something away or selling
it.
Garage sales are culturally acceptable way of getting rid of objects
Many of the objects are full of memories
goods must be cleansed of meaning before they are handed on
The consumer will attempt to erase the meaning that has been
invested in the good by association with it
We rationalize that the things no
longer represent who we were –
We can get rid of the ugly lamp
that we once thought was
beautiful.
Or we may feel strange about
someone else wearing your clothes
McDonald’s /Hong Kong
(1) Standardization: food, interior design,
layout etc.
(2) Initially presented itself as uncompromising
American food
- no Chinese name at first
- transliteration later
- no Chinese food
(3) Standard of cleanliness: clean washrooms
in restaurants
(4) Customer discipline: line up for food
(5) Idea of a regular meal: (a) exotic to ordinary;
(b) snacks versus meals [customers:
middle-class, like exotic American culture 
all ages, all social classes, look for a simple
meal]
Local?
(1) Resistance of McDonald’s? Involve in community
activities – hard to attack
(2) Local choice of food: fish burger and plain
hamburgers rather than Big Mac as favorite, other
local favorites e.g. shogan burger, chicken wings …
(3) Consumer discipline: service w/ a smile, busing own
tables, hovering, napkin wars
(4) Fast food restaurant? US: customers stay no more
than 20 minutes on average; HK: study room for high
school students, gathering place for senior people
McDonald’s /China
• McDonald’s opened its first store in Beijing in 1992
• McDonald’s enjoyed tremendous success
• Chinese attempts to imitate McDonald’s, but failed
Who go to McDonald’s and why?
(1) Young professionals: a mark of “middle-class” status (in
1992), feeling of connection to the world …
(2) “Single” women: morally suspect in traditional
restaurants. Greater equality in McDonald’s : order own
food, no fear of being dominated in conversations
(3) Young couples: clean, soft music, romantic, a place for
courtship
(4) Parents with young children: children’s choice of
restaurants