Consumers’ identities and compartmentalisation tendencies in alcohol consumption

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study explored how consumers justify their alcohol consumption by compartmentalising or integrating their various drinking identities (i.e. description of one’s drinking behaviours and extent to which these are part of person’s overall identity). Thirty-one participants were interviewed twice. The findings revealed that identities are continuously altered/created according to context and social interactions. Consumers’ movement between social fields generated different perceptions of what constitutes ‘healthy’ drinking, leading to displays of different identities. After interviewees compared their alcohol consumption perceptions with results from an online 14-day alcohol tracker, some consumers reported a ‘newly perceived’ drinking identity and displayed integration tendencies. Others denied their consumption results and continued to exhibit compartmentalised identities, justified by various social selves, roles and responsibilities. Social marketing and policy recommendations are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol consumption
• compartmentalisation
• drinking identity
• integration
• online alcohol tracker

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this paper, the terms ‘identity’ and ‘self-identity’ are used interchangeably.

2. Throughout the paper, the terms ‘individuals’ and ‘consumers’ will be used interchangeably.

3. One unit equals 10 ml or 8 g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour. (cf. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/alcohol/Pages/alcohol-units.aspx; accessed 23^rd October 2015)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diana Gregory-Smith

Diana Gregory-Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. Her research interests lie in the area of consumer psychology (applied to ethical and environmental consumption), social/health marketing and tourism. Diana has published both subject-specific and interdisciplinary journals such as Journal of Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Communications, Journal of Business Ethics, Tourism Management and Annals of Tourism Research.

Danae Manika

Danae Manika (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. Danae’s research interests lie in the area of behaviour change and communications, often with a focus on health and environmental issues. Danae’s research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Health Communication, amongst others.