Performed by Daniella Dessa, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1374914/ produced by Sam Beer of Sam Beer Sound https://sambeersound.com/.

This short story was originally published in Marketing Theory https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470593119897774 and is written by Anastasia Thyroff https://www.clemson.edu/business/about/profiles/THYROFF

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Maria Lichrou discusses the ‘fall from grace’ narrative that emerges when the benefits of tourism come into conflict with the downsides of too much tourism. She notes that the term ‘overtourism’ is used to help make sense of this in the literature.

Later Maria also mentioned the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, although we agree that it was a good idea to avoid (mis)pronouncing it!

Anastasia mentions some rain must fall by Karl Ove Knausgaard, which she describes as lacking in plot, but highly descriptive of everyday life to the point that the natural excitement and interest of life emerges without the need for artificial story-lining. As she discusses, this contrasts with the typical template of the Hero’s Journey. 

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In this article the guests share opinions about different journals from the perspective of their own work. These opinions do not reflect the official views of the podcast. Indeed, the hosts have different views on some of the journals named. However, an editorial decision was taken to avoid censorship and retain the diversity of opinion. We would also like to highlight that there are a couple of instances of 'bad language'.

Kushagra mentions an editorial in the Journal of Service Research where Roland Rust calls for a broader understanding of service research, yet almost 20 years later this call has yet to be responded to.

Kushagra and Julien discuss their joint academic work on the topic of service work - read one example from the Journal of Business Research here.

They also discuss Julien's Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) article, contrasting the academic style of this highly-regarded outlet with the short story, but commenting also on how powerful this JCR article is. Kushagra also celebrates the work of Hill, Canniford, and Eckhardt in the Journal of Marketing.

Julian jokingly talks about "out-Foucault-ing Foucault". The work of Michel Foucault is hugely influential in social theory, including consumer research. He also mentions a British TV series called "The Prisoner". The guests and hosts also discuss TripAdvisor, but we imagine that you are already aware of this particular reference.

As part of the discussion of emotional management in service work, a particularly relevant book is Arlie Russell Hoschild's The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. But Kushagra also talks about the more recent variant - aesthetic labor.

Kushagra reflects on the globalised nature of service work, but with local variations to absorb or compensate for challenges and contradictions. This interplay of similarity and difference is explored in consumer research through concepts like the structure of common difference and glocalization.

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James talks about the work of Slavoj Zizek and particularly how it influenced his own work on the ideological fantasies of consumer culture. One paper that is discussed is Cronin and Cocker’s (2018) exploration of the ‘post-emotional’ fandom and its zombie-like consumption (or Zomsumption). Another that Jack mentions is Cronin and Fichett’s (2020) paper that explores fetishistic inversion, or how consumers can be convinced that the opposite of reality is true.

Throughout the themes of postmodernism are discussed. The influence of postmodernism on marketing theory and the possibility of a post-postmodern era is discussed in this paper by cova, Maclaran, and Bradshaw (2013).

One feature of postmodern writing is the reuse of old texts in new ways. One manifestation of this is nostalgia, with repeat consumption or ‘reconsumption’ analysed extensively by Cervellon and Brown (2018).

Jack and Alison discuss their short story alongside their more traditional book chapter about “Less Visible Forms of Fandom.”

The work of Dr Scott Jones is mentioned throughout, given that it touches on themes of fandom. Also mentioned is his collaboration with Professor Maria Piacentini and Professor James Conin what happens after a fandom ends or is interrupted – in the Journal of Business Research (2022) and Marketing Theory (2020).

Near the end, the panel discuss the work of Henry Jenkins and his notion of the Acafan, or academic-fan.

Finally, Jack mentions Mark Fischer’s term ‘puncept’, or pun-concept. 

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Katherine talked about sensorial and spatial differences. There is a large body of literature in marketing relating to the senses and space/place. For instance, Canniford, Riach, and Hill (2017) explore the smells of space and the spaces of smell. For a review, see Coffin and Chatzidakis (2021).

Katherine also mentioned Hemingway’s Iceberg theory.

Fran mentioned campus cats – we will let you search for your favourite!

Finola discussed the benefits and challenges of ethnographic work, especially the role of the ethical researcher. Fran discusses how difficult it can be to collect data in certain contexts, meaning that the short story provides a way to demonstrate stories from the field. Katherine follows with the responsibility of the researcher to tell stories from participants, reflecting on the typical template of the vignette in contrast to the short story format.

Many people have written about the difficulties of ethnography, the role of ethnographers of interpreters (as a limitation and a tool), but a recent piece discussing some such themes in detail is provided by Chloe Steadman (2023).

Finally, for those interested in animals and consumer culture, why not look at this special issue in the Journal of Business Research?

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Mike quotes “fiction is a lie that tells the truth”, variously attributed to Neil Gaiman, Albert Camus, and others.

He also mentioned his work with co-authors, Professor Janice Denegri-Knott and Dr Rebecca Mardon.

The work of Professor Nick Bostrom was mentioned, specifically in relation to epistemic deference and perverse instantiation.

Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism was also discussed as a way of understanding many of the overarching (market-related) processes in the story.

A recurring theme in this story and discussion was the notion of consumer choice, or lack thereof. Several papers have addressed this topic in relation to AI and technology, including Darmody and Zwick's "Manipulate to Empower", a paper on "Consumer Choicemaking and Choicelessness" by Dholakia et al., and Jack's "Asking Questions of AI" paper.

The panel also discussed where writerly ideas come from – this paper expands on the idea that the unconscious should be given authorial credit.

Mike referred to Victor Turner’s work on drama and how it weaves into culture. Markus Giesler’s paper on "Marketplace Drama" shows this in operation within consumer culture.

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Scott discusses his work with Dr James Cronin and Professor Maria Piacentini. The panel also discuss two previous academic articles on 'solo consumption'. First is Ratner and Hamilton's "Inhibited From Bowling Alone". The second is McCamley and Morland's "Lone not Lonely".

Nietzsche's book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, is also discussed as the traditional archetype of solitude, against which streaming is a quite different experience.

Finally, when discussing stories the panel agree that traditional articles do not always allow full stories to be told. Scott mention Stephen Brown's metaphor of characters being 'steamrolled' into flat accounts. Professor Brown's literary works provide a tonic to the traditional scientific style of marketing theories, and his new editorship of the Journal of Customer Behaviour is now an outlet for more creative pieces.

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Further Reading

For more on the nature/culture divide and how it is (re)constructed through consumer culture, see Canniford and Shankar’s (2013) paper and later (2016) book chapter.

There was a special plug for the Special Issue, “Presenting Marketing Differently”, by Dr. Tim Hill and Dr. Jack Coffin.

Lucie’s work was mentioned a several points.

The concept of “consumer sovereignty” was mentioned multiple times. There are many studies on this topic, but Mark Tadajewski provides a useful primer. Feminists have also reflected on the consumer-as-sovereign trope – for instance, Mark Tadajewski in collaboration with Pauline Maclaran, or Shona Bettany’s reflections.

Merve's edited volume “Once and Future Feminist” was mentioned, as was the Netflix Series “Master of None”.

The work of Barbara Stern was mentioned as a very significant contribution to the ‘literary’ tradition within marketing and consumer research, using literary criticism as a method to deconstruct consumer culture but also as a means to convey marketing ideas. Many papers could be cited, but her feminist literary criticism of advertising is one starting point. Stephen Brown’s paper “Bow to Stern” was also mentioned, providing an excellent analysis and application of Stern’s legacy.

Finally, the expert panel mentioned several texts toward the end of the discussion: “My Body in Weeks” by Heather Anderson; “Mothers as Markers of Death” by Claudia Dey; Mieko Kawakami’s “Breasts and Eggs” (Chichi to Ran in Japanese). 

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Here the author, Emeritus Professor John F. Sherry Jr., explores the motivations for, and lessons from, with short story with Professor Stephanie O'Donohoe.

Further Reading

John Sherry has published several poems. He has also written academic articles advocating for the benefits of poetry. He also mentioned Stephen Brown's new creative journal, JCB, and the special issue on "Presenting Marketing Differently", guest edited by Tim Hill and Jack Coffin. He mentioned Latour's We Have Never Been Modern and neo-animism, which Eric Arnould has recently written about. Finally, the work of Clifford Geertz was discussed, highlighting how reality can be written in many different styles.

Stephanie O'Donohoe has written about death in relation to caring parenthood, consumer storytelling, and end of life consumption. She also mentioned The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

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In this discussion the author, Dr Vivien Blanchet, talks to Dr Teea Palo, about the myth of Christmas and its relationship to marketing, markets, and consumer culture.

Further Reading

Teea’s research on Santa:

Palo, Teea, Katy Mason, and Philip Roseo (2018), “Performing a Myth to Make a Market: The construction of the ‘magical world’ of Santa,” Organization Studies, 41 (1), DOI: 10.1177/0170840618789192

Vivien mentioned Marcel Mauss, further reading below:

Arnould, Eric J. (2017) “Marcel Mauss: The Gift that Moves…” in Canonical Authors in Consumption Theory, Edited by Søren Askegaard and Benoît Heilbrunn, Routledge.

Arnould, Eric J. and Alexander S. Rose (2015), “Mutuality: Critique and Substitute for Belk’s “Sharing”,” Marketing Theory, 16 (1), DOI: 10.1177/1470593115572669

Vivien also mentioned Roland Barthes, further reading below:

Visconti, Luca M. (2017) “Ronald Barthes: The (Anti-)Structuralist,” in Canonical Authors in Consumption Theory, Edited by Søren Askegaard and Benoît Heilbrunn, Routledge.

And finally, Latour’s Paris Ville Invisible was noted as an example of visual research…

Latour, Bruno and Emilie Hermant (2006) Paris: Invisible City, English translator Liz Carey-Libbrect. 

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