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Culture Brand Community: The Case of Tiziano Terzani’s Culture of Consumption
Andrea Moretti with Elena Bonel, Donata Collodi and Francesco Crisci
The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption Venice, 16th-17th April 2009
Agenda
Research objectives Methodology Theoretical foundations Results/Findings Discussion
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti 2 The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption
Research objectives (1) to present an ethnographic analysis of a subculture of
consumption focused on the enthusiastic and charismatic figure of Tiziano Terzani (TT and TTSC)
to address specific methodological implications in studying subculture of consumption and to refer to the phenomenon of brand community creation (TTBC)
to argue in favor of specific “cultural discourse” in consumer research for understanding: the “objects and consumptions patterns with which people (and
markets) define themselves in our culture” (Schouten and McAlexander 1995, 44);
and to remember that “the researcher and the researched move between a background of shared meaning and a finite foreground of experience within in” (Joy et al. in Belk 2006, 346)
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti 3 The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 4
Research objectives (2) This article is part of a pilot study, a detailed ethnography of Tiziano Terzani literary phenomenon, by which we wished to identify and describe different themes connected with Consumer Culture Theory tradition (Arnould, Thompson 2005): Sub culture of consumption; Sub culture and sources of meaning; Element of brand community sense-making Build and manage brand community and brand
meaning
Agenda
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Research objectives Methodology Theoretical foundations Results/Findings Discussion
Methodology (1): a consumer-oriented ethnography. Time line of research
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Time line 2007 2008 2009 Stage of ethnographic involvement
Jan May Oct Jan Mar May Oct Jan May Sep Non-participant observation Full-time ethnography Different research groups involved (*) Part-time observ.
Marker events
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (E) (F)
Researcher status
“outsiders”: “tourists” at events
“neophites”: “us” and “TT’s fans”
“evolving insiders”: inquiry during V/L festival
“insiders” in culture of consumption; “insiders/outsiders”
Research tasks
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Personal involvement
Occasional readers of TT’s books
Passionate about TT’s books;
Positive Self-Consciousness; Participants but not members
Partially involved with community
Par
tially
invo
lved
w
ith o
rgan
izat
ion
Fascination with V/L artistic projects
Self-Consciousness referrig to V/L project (organizational culture)
Marker events: A. Conceptualize project; first
inquiry about V/L organization and festival project;
B. First contact with TT’s culture of consumption
C. Tony Capuozzo and his interview (WHY TT in UDINE?)
D. Preliminary research phase E. Naturalistic and survey inquiries
during V/L Festival; F. Interpretative phases (in
progress)
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Methodology (2): time line of research (complete pilot study)
Research tasks: 1. Identify and describe V/L’s
organizational culture; 2. Examine stereotypes and
ideologies; intial interviews 3. “Revelatory incident” 4. Descriptive dimensions of TTSC
as “sacred consumption” phenomenon;
5. TT readers as “research object”; sources of meanings for TTBC members
6. Conceptualize intepretative dimensions of TTBC
(*) Research Groups. Universities of Udine and Trento: Naturalistic Inquiry; Universities of Udine and Padova: Survey Inquiry
Methodology (3): ethnographic procedures The cultural sites/contexts of this ethnography are two
artistic projects of vicino/lontano cultural organization (V/L): the vicino/lontano festival and the Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize
We combine data-collection methods to achieve representation consistent with informant experience: photographic essay of the last three editions (Holbrook 1995), internal and public documentations of “V/L” cultural
organization (Stern 1998), cultural events video of last two editions of “V/L” Festival, press review of last two editions, TT’s books, TT’s reportage (Sherry 1995, Kozinets 2001), TT’s fans community and online discussion forum, online book
reviews of TT’s readers (Belk 2006); © Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 8
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 9
cred
its: t
izia
note
rzan
i.com
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 10
Tizi
ano
Terz
ani’s
Boo
ks
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 11
Tizi
ano
Terz
ani B
iogr
aphy
Agenda
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Research objectives Methodology Theoretical foundations Results/Findings Discussion
Theoretical foundations (1)
A “subculture of consumption” is defined “as a distinctive subgroup of society that self-select on the basis of shared commitment to a particular product class, brand, or consumption activity” (Schouten, McAlexander 1995);
In this article the TTSC is informed by the: intertextual linkages of cultural objects (i.e., V/L
Festival as a cultural product) (McCracken 1988), texts (TT’s books and TT International Literary Prize
winners) (Hirschman, Holbrook 1993), and ideologies in consumers’ cultural meanings
systems (TT’s fans) (Kozinets 2001) © Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 13
Theoretical foundations (2) Descriptive dimensions: the domains of “sacred
consumption” (Belk et al. 1989) in TTSC. Places; Times; Tangible Things; Intangible Things;
Persons and Others Beings; Experiences
Interpretative dimensions: “movement of meanings” (McCracken 1988) in the TTSC as processes of sacred consumption (Belk et al. 1989). Sacralization processes: ritual; pilgrimage; quintessence;
gift-giving; collecting; inheritance; external sanction; Perpetuating Sacredness: separation of sacred from
profane; sustaining rituals; bequets; contamination © Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 14
Agenda
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Research objectives Methodology Theoretical foundations Results/Findings Discussion
Movement of meaning in the TTSC:
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Location of meaning Instrument of Meaning Transfer
SACRED CULTURAL PRODUCTS
INDIVIDUAL SACRED CONSUMPTION
CULTURALLY CONSTITUTED WORLD
Sacralization Processes
Perpetuating Sacredness
Ritual, Pilgrimage, Quintessence, Gift-Giving, Collecting, Inheritance, External Sanction
Separation of Sacred from Profane,
Sustaining Rituals, Bequets,
Contamination
Places Times Tangible Things
Intangible Things
Persons and Others Beings
Experiences
Culturally Constituted World
“Culture” constitutes our phenomenal world in two ways (McCracken 1988): culture is the “lens” through which all
phenomena are seen (“cultural categories” as the fundamental co-ordinates of meaning, referring to TT experience as journalist and writer );
culture is the “blueprint” of human activity (“cultural principles” consists “in the ideas or value according to which [TT] cultural phenomena are organized, evaluated, and constructed”).
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 17
Sacred Cultural Products (1) Cultural categories of TTSC as the constitutive dimensions of “sacred consumption”: Places. The St. Francis’ Church in Udine during V/L
Festival? But also: the Hanoi Station; the train for the Chinese border during Saigon freedom; Tiananmen Square; Amur River, the frontier from URSS and China; the huts in Himalaya or Orsigna; etc.
Times. Foundation myths and the history of a community. The sacred past is associated with nostalgia or with everyday life: cyclically or episodically during the day (the press conference announcing prizewinner), week (the sequence of artistic program during V/L Festival), month (the announce of a new edition of TT books) and year (the anniversary of TT death in Orsigna).
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Sacred Cultural Products (2) Cultural categories of TTSC as the constitutive dimensions of “sacred consumption”: Tangible and Intangible Things. The sacred should
connect “authentically” with TT narratives and the themes of cultural relations and conflicts in today globalized world through debates and talks in V/L Festival.
Persons and Others Beings. The lives of TT (as journalist and writer), “take on a sacred character through good deeds, self-abnegation, sacrifice, martyrdom, and piety”
Experiences. The prophetic charisma of the TT message, as correspondent from different tragical theaters of war, descends from magical power of experience
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Movement of meaning in the TTSC:
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Location of meaning Instrument of Meaning Transfer
SACRED CULTURAL PRODUCTS
INDIVIDUAL SACRED CONSUMPTION
CULTURALLY CONSTITUTED WORLD
Sacralization Processes
Perpetuating Sacredness
Ritual, Pilgrimage, Quintessence, Gift-Giving, Collecting, Inheritance, External Sanction
Separation of Sacred from Profane,
Sustaining Rituals, Bequets,
Contamination
Places Times Tangible Things
Intangible Things
Persons and Others Beings
Experiences
Individual Sacred Consumption (1) Sacralization processes. “The ways objects and people move between the sacred and profane realms”:
Rituals: Reading TT books; on-line community as a non-place Pilgrimage: the theme of “journey”; a TT book (or reportage)
as a venerable portolan during the liminal time of vacation Quintessence: the “sense of odyssey” or the “escape
journey” Gift-giving: TT book as “transcendent guide” Collecting: “quotation” is a serious matter for TT readers Inheritance: continuous readings in searching for a new
“hermeneutically correct” interpretation; narratives of “authentic” and “personal” stories;
External Sanction: discussion concerning “stigma” and “false stereotypes”
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 21
Individual Sacred Consumption (2) Perpetuating the sacredness. “Processes to prevent lost of sacred status, and the practices required to maintain sacredness”:
Separation of sacred from profane: the book, as profane object, become sacred by reason of a “ritual transfer of possession”;
Sustaining rituals: “utopianism” in TTSC is connected with “stigma” to remark the social sphere of TTSC in which “acceptance of differences is the norm form us!”.
Bequets: Why an award dedicated to TT? «What inspires us is the desire to acknowledge those who demonstrate a willingness to understand, the willingness to look at the world and at different cultures with the eyes of a curious child» (Angela, TT wife);
Contamination: the prizewinner book is “authentic” if it is perceived to be a reflection of his writer’s future confidence in leading everyday “journey” of TT readers.
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Agenda
Research objectives Methodology Theoretical foundations Results/Findings Discussion
Three locations of meaning in the case of TTSC (culturally constituted world, sacred cultural products and individual sacred consumption) was identified and described (McCracken 1988)
Two moments of meaning transfer connecting three locations are analyzed (Belk et al. 1989): the properties and manifestations of the sacred in cultural
products (places, times, tangible and intangible things, persons and other beings, experiences);
and the processes by which consumers sacralize and desacralize the dimensions of their experiences
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Discussion (1): locations of cultural meaning in TTSC
Concluding remarks The brand “is the principal repository of meaning in culture consumer, in both a residential and generative sense” (Sherry 2005) Describing “meaning transfer” between constitutive
dimensions in TTSC is only a step to understanding the brand meaning processes and relationships whitin a bearing brand community
The evolution of our research program: Describe and analyse brand meaning and the sources of
meanings co-generate between cultural organization and audience to move from “brand equity management” to “brand meanings management”
© Bonel, Collodi, Crisci, Moretti The Consumption of Culture. The Culture of Consumption 25
Thank you for the attention!
Andrea Moretti with Donata Collodi and Francesco Crisci Department of Economics University of Udine
and with Elena Bonel Department of Informatics and Business Management University of Trento
mailto:[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
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