Can You See Me Now? Toward a Theory of Sensory Flamboyance and Subtlety in Consumption

Tanuka Ghoshal () and Russell W. Belk ()
Additional contact information
Tanuka Ghoshal: Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York
Russell W. Belk: York University Distinguished Research Professor and the Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University

Customer Needs and Solutions, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, No 3, 21 pages

Abstract: Abstract This article proposes that taste distinctions with respect to sensory intensity – specifically, preferences for sensory flamboyance versus subtlety (e.g., bright versus dull colors) – may be structured sociologically, even more than by individual dispositions. Based on an ethnographic study of women in India, we propose an emergent theory to account for how members of different social classes develop and refine their sensory preferences. Low cultural capital consumers gravitate toward sensory flamboyance, while high cultural capital consumers gravitate toward the subtle. The flamboyance seen among lower class consumers may be grounded largely in an ethic of standing out in order to be “societally visible.” Meanwhile, the subtlety seen among upper classes may be grounded more in a learned proclivity toward more nuanced fitting in, now reinforced by habitus and deployed as a marker of elite status.

Keywords: Sensory flamboyance; Sensory consumption; Cultural capital; Taste distinctions; Social visibility; Segmentation strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40547-025-00154-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:custns:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s40547-025-00154-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40547

DOI: 10.1007/s40547-025-00154-9

Access Statistics for this article

Customer Needs and Solutions is currently edited by Min Ding

More articles in Customer Needs and Solutions from Springer, Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().