Evolution of brand consciousness, Retail change and intergenerational factors - Interviews

This data collection consists of (1) 84 individual interview transcripts in Word 9 which have 129 corresponding voice recordings in MP3 format; (2) 5 co-operative inquiry interviews (2 respondents doing a self-interview) in word 9 with 6 corresponding voice files in MP3; (3) 62 short field notes in Word 9; (4) 9 shopping diaries that relate to the co-operative inquiry in Word 9; and (5) 227 photos of participant’s pantry cupboards and selected brands as JPEG format.

The sample consists of 20 family sets of 3 generations of women (grandmothers, mothers and their daughters). For some participants there was only one interview, for others there were 2 or more. In total there are 58 participants.

<p>The evolution of brand consciousness is our focus. Consumption and brand symbolism have become an important part of society and to understand the development of consumer culture we need to know when and indeed how brands moved from functional markers of quality and performance to become the important symbolic, emotional and social resources that are reported by consumers today. There are shopper respondents with clear recollections of early consumer society and this data set was complied to capture their history(ies) before they are lost. There is also little knowledge of intergenerational influences on brand choice, and the complexity of the interaction of family relationships with brand consciousness is a further study objective.
Our research seeks to ground an understanding of the development of brand consciousness in the lived experience of women by using oral history techniques that are new to the study of consumer culture. Based on 20 three-generational family sets in our data we have complied 58 consumer life narratives and 5 co-operative inquiries to explore the explosion of brand choice and how knowledge of brands was developed and passed down through generations. We show how the change to self-service retail formats was a pivotal influence on the early development of brand consciousness. For the first time women were responsible for making their own consumption choices. Increased choice and responsibility was often experienced (at least initially) as challenging or confusing. Our study identifies empowerment as a complex or paradoxical process. We show the development of brand consciousness is associated with a movement from the community. Mass consumer culture is found to be far from mature in the 1960s. By tracing and comparing the dynamics of brand consciousness and brand choice we are also beginning to show how positive-creative-inclusive, negative-confusing-excluding as well as ambivalent experiences unite and divide generations.
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