"Can you hand me the salt, please?" Motivational Conflicts - Heatlh v.s. Taste
(2014) BUSN39 20141Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- Thesis purpose: to develop theory that can explain the contradictions that we see in contemporary society in the choice of cooking salt. Salt consumption can cause severe health problems. Consumers in the middle and upper classes are health aware, but seem to have other motivations for their choice in cooking salt. As appears in the hype that we see around cooking salt and the increased specialisation of this mundane product.
Conceptual Framework: we explore this phenomenon from a Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) perspective through a review of the literature on identity (Bourdieu), taste (Bourdieu) and the body (Veblen and Foucault). We also explore consumer motivations from a marketing perspective.
Methodology: from a constructionist... (More) - Thesis purpose: to develop theory that can explain the contradictions that we see in contemporary society in the choice of cooking salt. Salt consumption can cause severe health problems. Consumers in the middle and upper classes are health aware, but seem to have other motivations for their choice in cooking salt. As appears in the hype that we see around cooking salt and the increased specialisation of this mundane product.
Conceptual Framework: we explore this phenomenon from a Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) perspective through a review of the literature on identity (Bourdieu), taste (Bourdieu) and the body (Veblen and Foucault). We also explore consumer motivations from a marketing perspective.
Methodology: from a constructionist ontological stance we used an inductive approach. We followed a qualitative research strategy conducting six in-depth interviews with consumers from the upper-middle class, in the age group 20 to 30, with different Western European
backgrounds.
Empirical analysis: we analyse our findings based up seven main categories; the habit of salt; culturally defined; we are all influenced; the symbol of unhealthy; good healthy, high status; quality salt on the table and a chameleon for others’ taste.
Conclusion: we add to literature that, given this participants group, taste plays an important role in consumer motivations in the choice of the mundane product cooking salt. Consumers have however different cultural meanings of taste within their choice and are mostly restricted in their choices due to health issues. We also suggest, based on one of our participants, that consumers can show materialistic or conspicuous forms of salt consumption. Due to the small sample size of six in-depth interviews, further research is necessary to make any generalisations. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4456912
- author
- Landers, Alexander LU and Hooijsma, Anneka LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN39 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Health, Taste, Motivations, Cooking Salt, Consumer Culture Theory
- language
- English
- id
- 4456912
- date added to LUP
- 2014-06-26 10:40:53
- date last changed
- 2014-06-26 10:40:53
@misc{4456912,
abstract = {{Thesis purpose: to develop theory that can explain the contradictions that we see in contemporary society in the choice of cooking salt. Salt consumption can cause severe health problems. Consumers in the middle and upper classes are health aware, but seem to have other motivations for their choice in cooking salt. As appears in the hype that we see around cooking salt and the increased specialisation of this mundane product.
Conceptual Framework: we explore this phenomenon from a Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) perspective through a review of the literature on identity (Bourdieu), taste (Bourdieu) and the body (Veblen and Foucault). We also explore consumer motivations from a marketing perspective.
Methodology: from a constructionist ontological stance we used an inductive approach. We followed a qualitative research strategy conducting six in-depth interviews with consumers from the upper-middle class, in the age group 20 to 30, with different Western European
backgrounds.
Empirical analysis: we analyse our findings based up seven main categories; the habit of salt; culturally defined; we are all influenced; the symbol of unhealthy; good healthy, high status; quality salt on the table and a chameleon for others’ taste.
Conclusion: we add to literature that, given this participants group, taste plays an important role in consumer motivations in the choice of the mundane product cooking salt. Consumers have however different cultural meanings of taste within their choice and are mostly restricted in their choices due to health issues. We also suggest, based on one of our participants, that consumers can show materialistic or conspicuous forms of salt consumption. Due to the small sample size of six in-depth interviews, further research is necessary to make any generalisations.}},
author = {{Landers, Alexander and Hooijsma, Anneka}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"Can you hand me the salt, please?" Motivational Conflicts - Heatlh v.s. Taste}},
year = {{2014}},
}