The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers' (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization
Craig J. Thompson, Zeynep Arsel
Journal of Consumer Research · 2004 · Volume 31 · Issue 3
Abstract
Prior studies strongly suggest that the intersection of global brands and local cultures produces cultural heterogeneity. Little research has investigated the ways in which global brands structure these expressions of cultural heterogeneity and consumers' corresponding experiences of glocalization. To redress this gap, we develop the construct of the hegemonic brandscape. We use this theoretical lens to explicate the hegemonic influence that Starbucks exerts upon the sociocultural milieus of local coffee shops via its market-driving servicescape and a nexus of oppositional meanings (i.e., the anti-Starbucks discourse) that circulate in popular culture. This hegemonic brandscape supports two distinctive forms of local coffee shop experience through which consumers, respectively, forge aestheticized and politicized anticorporate identifications.
Keywords
Brand Loyalty, Cultural Theories and Analysis, Retailing and Store Image, Depth/Long Interviews, Ethnography
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