The intermingling of meanings in marketing: semiology and phenomenology in consumer culture theory

Sarah C. Grace ()
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Sarah C. Grace: University of Arkansas, Sam M. Walton College of Business

AMS Review, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, No 6, 70-80

Abstract: Abstract This paper explores the construction of meaning in consumer culture through a synthesis of two scholarly streams within the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) body of knowledge: semiology and phenomenology. Semiology represents consumer culture as a web of meanings—studying cultural meanings as socially agreed-upon structures. By contrast, phenomenology represents the interpretation and personalization of cultural meanings by consumers—focusing on meanings that emerge from individual lived experience. Combining these two approaches results in a framework that excavates meanings at both the cultural level and the individual level, inviting them into a figure-ground relationship. This relationship between levels of analysis illuminates how meaning in consumer culture is constructed, and how cultural meanings come to constitute a sense of normalcy in modern societies. As all marketing activity is culturally situated, understanding meaning in consumer culture provides an alternative way to understand value in marketing.

Keywords: Consumer culture theory; Marketing meanings; Phenomenology; Semiology; Value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s13162-021-00192-1

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