Melanie Wallendorf

The University of Arizona | UA · Marketing and Sociology

Consumers can pursue a wide range of market-mediated identities in contemporary culture. However, some consumer identities are more valued than others, creating a form of cultural inequality. The present research considers consumers' deliberate efforts to assert greater cultural value for their identities, a phenomenon termed a "politicized consume...

Since industrialization, both beauty and refinement have been highlighted in many consumer markets, including home decoration, clothes, and fine foods and beverages. Consumers whose habitus resonates with core elements in these markets often formulate the goal of developing aesthetic expertise in them; they learn complex systems of taste evaluation...

Interactive Map: http://mapazdashboard.arizona.edu/article/food-accessibility-southern-arizona-mapping-growth-trajectory-and-market-base-tucson-farmers Farmers’ markets have grown recently in both size and number across the United States and in the Tucson Urban Area (TUA). Farmers’ markets are sites where fresh, local produce is sold direct to con...

An examination of the literature on marketing information acquisition and knowledge transfer raises the issue of what motivates consumers to participate in these processes. A model is presented that incorporates possible motives, such as novelty seeking, desires for social mobility, reciprocity, and proselytization. This model indicates why consume...

Empirical research and various behavioral theories support the proposition that some people seek variety in the stimulation they receive. Sources of stimulation may include products, advertisements, mass media and so forth. This paper discusses some of the major implications of variety seeking for advertisers. It is believed that variety seeking by...

Consumer research on gifting has primarily focused on the interpersonal meanings and behavior patterns associated with dyadic gifts that are specifically given from one individual to another and in which the central goal is interpersonal relationship maintenance. Yet we find another type of gifting when community members in one social position give...

In a society where “time is money,” why would individuals consistently channel substantial amounts of time and labor energy to work-like activities in their leisure time? By investigating contexts of homebrewing and knitting, this research calls attention to the repositioning of manual labor as a symbolic marker of social privilege.

This study addresses two questions: (1) when youths are exposed to advertisements for cigarettes, do they primarily see advertisements for brands or products, and (2) is there a relationship between youths' understandings of cigarette advertisements and their susceptibility to smoking? A sample of 271 participants ranging in age from 7 to 12 viewed...

The consumer satisfaction literature has not, for the mos part, integrated individual values into the product evaluation process. Yet a comprehensive understanding of consumer satisfaction can best be attained by including both consumer and product factors. To demonstrate the usefulness of including individual values, this research focuses on one c...

Body care rituals as expressions of cultural heritage passed intergenerationally through childhood socialization were expected to show variation across income matched groups from two ethnic origins (Anglos and Mexican-Americans). The contents of 1595 collections of household refuse were coded to determine level of usage of products used in body car...

We explore young children's attitudes toward, beliefs about, and life-style associations with cigarette smoking using direct and indirect measures. Second (n = 100) and fifth grade (n = 141) elementary school students (i.e. 7-8 and 10-11-year-olds) were excused from class and individually interviewed. Participants selected pictures in response to t...

This study of African-American consumers living in a large racially segregated midwestern city adds to extant theory on ideology in consumer behavior by considering the role of normative political ideology in provisioning. The specific roles of traditional black liberal and black nationalist political ideologies are discussed. We conclude that norm...

Literacy is a continuous, multidimensional indicator of proficiency in using written language. This essay reviews several recent books on literacy, and suggests some profound theoretical issues about consumer behavior inspired by a sociocultural perspective on literacy. In particular, ties between literacy and six diverse research programs on consu...

As a reaction to crime and gang violence, public schools in U.S. inner-city areas are increasingly implementing dress codes. Dress codes restrict students use of clothing as an element of contemporary expressive consumption. The authors discuss three emic rationales for implementing dress codes: prevention of gang-related violence, prevention of cl...

The authors show how ethnography can provide multiple strategically important perspectives on behaviors of interest to marketing researchers. They first discuss the goals and four essential characteristics of ethnographic interpretation. Then they review the particular contributions to interpretation of several kinds of ethnographic observation and...

The authors show how ethnography can provide multiple strategically important perspectives on behaviors of interest to marketing researchers. They first discuss the goals and four essential characteristics of ethnographic interpretation. Then they review the particular contributions to interpretation of several kinds of ethnographic observation and...

On the basis of a review of introspective methods in other social science disciplines, we identify five categories of introspection: (1) researcher introspection, (2) guided introspection, (3) interactive introspection, (4) syncretic combinations, and (5) reflexivity within research. We draw from this literature a set of six methodological issues r...

Thanksgiving Day is a collective ritual that celebrates material abundance enacted through feasting. Thanksgiving Day both marks and proves to participants their ability to meet basic needs abundantly through consumption. So certain is material plenty for most U.S. citizens that this annual celebration is taken for granted by participants. Not just...

Contemporary money retains sacred meanings, as suggested in expressions such as ‘the almighty dollar’ and ‘the filthy lucre’. Drawing on ethnographic data, the authors find that the interpretation of money as either sacred or profane depends on its sources and uses and that traversing the boundaries between the sacred and the profane is possible on...

Two processes at work in contemporary society are the secularization of religion and the sacralization of the secular. Consumer behavior shapes and reflects these processes. For many, consumption has become a vehicle for experiencing the sacred. This article explores the ritual substratum of consumption and describes properties and manifestations o...

We explore the meaning and histories of favorite objects in two cultures using surveys and photographs. Favorite object attachment is differentiated from the possessiveness component of materialism and from attachment to other people. Meanings of favorite objects derive more from personal memories in the U.S. and from social status in Niger than fr...

Naturalistic inquiry as an ethnographic approach is explained and utilized for exploring emergent themes in buyer and seller behavior at a swap meet. Components of the method used include purposive sampling, triangulation across researchers, emergent theme analysis, autodriving, memoing, member checks, and auditing. Four emergent dialectical substa...

By one estimate, one out of every three Americans collects something (O'Brien 1981). Collecting is a common, intensely involving form of consumption. Yet it has been the subject of almost no prior work in the field of consumer research. This paper defines collecting and presents some initial findings from qualitative research on collectors. Proposi...

Five explanations of group differences in food consumption (national identity, ethnicity, region, income, and minority status) are tested. Data on consumption of 38 food items come from household refuse analysis for 11 social groups. Differences are best explained by regional proximity, followed by minority status. Income was least powerful, althou...

Consumer problems with products and services may occur in identifiable patterns. By studying the patterns of consumer dissatisfaction across 22 services, a service set approach to satisfaction/dissatisfaction is developed. Through the use of principal components analysis, target analysis, and multiple regression analysis, two hypotheses are tested...

The cultural assimilation of Mexican-Americans in the Southwest is assessed by comparing their food consumption patterns with those of income-matched Anglos living in the same region and those of income-matched Mexicans living in Mexico City. Rather than relying on self-report data as indicators of consumption patterns, data concerning the contents...

Free-response and card-sort techniques are criticized as to their application to investigating cognitive content. Two studies are presented which examine the validity and reliability of these two techniques when they are used concurrently with college students.

Examines the use of social role theory in the study of marketing, addresses the question of whether buyer-seller is a role relationship, and discusses consumption as a function inherent in many roles. (Author)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1979. Bibliographies follow each chapter. Photocopy of typescript.