‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

Interpreting qualitative data

'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony', American Journal of Sociology, 83, pp. 340-63.

On Symbolic Interactionism

Globalization - Social Theory and Global Culture

During the recent years the concept or phenomenon of brands and the importance ascribed to them by the traditional marketing discourse seems to have spread to the every day discourse of ordinary consumers. Consumers are therefore thought to posses some kind understanding of how brands as a phenomenon work. This study sets out to investigate how consumers construct such a brand understanding, and what such brand understanding contains. Prior consumer literature mainly conceptualizes consumers’ understanding construction as a vertical top-down process, where consumers either learn about consumption phenomenon from traditional socialization agents, or when the consumers are subjected to and individually handle the ideological infrastructure of a consumer culture. In this study it is however argued that a substantial part of consumers’ brand understanding construction is horizontal and occurs in consumers’ peer-to-peer micro level interactions. By employing a “Netnographic” method to capture and analyze young Swedish consumers’ online micro level interactions, I have managed to identified three major types of micro interactions, consultative, disputative and normative, in which consumers’ brand understanding is thought to be formed. Their brand understanding contained both cynical reasoning and underlying paradoxes. By being cynical of the workings of brands the consumers creates a cynical distance that enables them to both assume a critical stance towards brands as a phenomenon, simultaneously as they may confess to fully participate in the brand consumption game. Consumer cynicism concerning the workings of brands may not emancipate consumers from the structures of the market, but displaying cynical reason may be important to receive recognition from peers and to gain status positions in ones social group. (Less)

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The Way Brands Work: Consumers' understanding of the creation and usage of brands

Scholarship on branding has made important contributions in terms of the value-creating function of branding. However, previous literature has overemphasized the creation of value for organizations...

The destructive side of branding: A heuristic model for analyzing the value of branding practice:

Based on an empirical analysis of a yearlong netnography of a Swedish online fashion community, and the explication of the concept of modern cynicism, this paper develops a novel perspective on consumer morality. The analysis suggests that modern cynicism informs consumers of the reasonableness in consciously stating one type of morality while acting out another, in order to handle the morally conflicting demands put on them by contemporary consumer culture. The contribution of the paper is mainly threefold: (i) it conceptualizes instances of consumer morality as a form of consumer cynicism; (ii) it advances our understanding of consumer morality by showing how instances of consumer morality are articulated through cynical discursive practices, steeped in an enlightened disbelief in: the market, the other consumer and the self; and (iii) it shows that consumer cynicism, as enlightened critique, does not necessarily constitute an effective form of resistance. It is concluded that we may observe yet another...

The cynicism of consumer morality

The slippery relationship between brand ethic and profit

Brand Theories offers a multifaceted understanding of brands and branding. The purpose of the book is to provide the reader with a more advanced knowledge, by treating brands and branding from three differrent perspectives: a brand management perspective, a consumer perspective, and a critical perspective.By allow readers to shift perspectives, the book offers the unique opportunity to analyze and understand brand phenomena/branding practices from several angles at the same time. It thereby encourages a more reflective and nuanced approach, compared to many traditional brand management text books. Brand Theories primarily targets Bachelor and master students in marketing, but would also be most interesting and useful to marketing and branding practitioners. (Less)

Jon Bertilsson

Papers

The Way Brands Work: Consumers' understanding of the creation and usage of brands

The destructive side of branding: A heuristic model for analyzing the value of branding practice:

The cynicism of consumer morality

The slippery relationship between brand ethic and profit

Brand Theories: Perspectives on Brands and Branding