Consumer multiculturation: consequences of multi-cultural identification for brand knowledge

Abstract

Whilst there has been a sustained interest in ethnic migrants developing composite cultural identities in emerged multi-cultural contexts, considerations of identity transitions among mainstream consumers (i.e. the non-migrant, locally born majority in a given marketplace) have been so far limited to the local–global culture dichotomy. This paper argues that, in multi-cultural marketplaces, mainstream consumers are exposed to a diverse range of local, global and foreign cultural meanings and may deploy these meanings for identity construal in a more complex manner. The paper offers a conceptual framework of consumer multiculturation that (a) includes foreign cultures as other discrete influences in multi-cultural marketplaces; (b) constructs a more coherent conception of how, through interaction with foreign, global and local cultures, mainstream consumers' identities may diversify beyond local/global/glocal alternatives and (c) considers the impact of these transitions on consumers' perceptions, expectations of and behavioral responses to culture-based brand meanings.

Keywords:

• multi-cultural identities
• cultural diversity and consumption
• consumer brand knowledge

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Hans Baumgartner for their insightful comments on the framework. We also would like to thank the editor Jonathan Schroeder and three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful recommendations on the earlier versions of this paper.