Digital play and the actualisation of the consumer imagination

In this article, the authors consider emerging consumer practices in digital virtual spaces. Building on constructions of consumer behavior as both a sense-making activity and a resource for the construction of daydreams, as well as anthropological readings of performance, the authors speculate that many performances during digital play are products of consumer fantasy. The authors develop an interpretation of the relationship between the real and the virtual that is better equipped to understand the movement between consumer daydreams and those practices actualized in the material and now also in digital virtual reality. The authors argue that digital virtual performances present opportunities for liminoid transformations through inversions, speculations, and playfulness acted out in aesthetic dramas. To illustrate, the authors consider specific examples of the theatrical productions available to consumers in digital spaces, highlighting the consumer imagination that feeds them, the performances they produce, and the potential for transformation in consumer-players

The Lack of Systematic Decision-Making by Chinese Students Applying to UK MA Programmes

This study explores how Chinese students chose a university to study a taught Masters programme. It includes an examination of the criteria they use and the process they go through, focusing on the ‘information search’, and ‘evaluation of alternatives’ stages of decision-making. Qualitative individual interviews were undertaken with 10 Chinese students. Findings suggest that decision-making was not as rigorous as might be expected for such an apparently complex, high involvement ‘service’. Reasons for this include: a lack of perceived risk; the amount and complexity of information to be processed, (particularly in a foreign language), and the use of agents and league tables as reassurance for the decision. There is also evidence of satisficing and evidence to support image-based processing. Tentative recommendations are made which focus on the need to achieve the right match between potential students and the chosen programme and institution by trying to increase student engagement with the decision-making process

The Uncomfortable mix of seduction and inexperience in Vocational Students' decision making

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the process that undergraduates go through in selecting universities and courses in the context of an increasingly marketisated higher education (HE) where students may see themselves as consumers. Design/methodology/approach – The process students go through is examined with reference to the services marketing literature and using a qualitative, phenomenological approach with students encouraged to focus on their lived experiences. Findings – Notable was the reported inexperience of students who suggest an apparent focus on peripheral rather than core aspects of the HE service offering and therefore aim to quickly make “safe” choices. Also there is evidence of “satisficing” and of avoiding risks and choosing options which “feel right” rather than following a more systematic decision-making process which might be expected for such an important decision. Also noted was a tendency to defer the decision to others, including the institutions themselves, and their increasingly seductive marketing approaches. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on a vocational university with a focus on subjects for the new professions (marketing, journalism and media production). Further studies might consider how far the findings hold true for other types of subjects and institutions. Practical implications – The paper considers the implications of these findings for universities and their marketing activities, and invites them to both re-evaluate assumptions that an informed and considered process has taken place, and to further consider the ethics of current practices. Originality/value – The paper's focus on the stories provided by students provides new insights into the complexities and contradictions of decision making for HE and for services in general

"I was always looking at like Vogue..[I'd} be really good in the ad. world" Student Choice And Vocational Degrees

In the context of an increasing marketisation of Higher Education, where students may come to see themselves as consumers, this paper examines the process that undergraduates go through in selecting universities and courses and examines an apparent focus on peripheral rather than core aspects of the Higher Education service offering and of students making ‘safe’ choices. The experience students go through is examined with reference to the literature on decision-making for services and using a qualitative phenomenological approach with students encouraged to focus on their actual experiences. Other key findings are: evidence of satisficing and of avoiding risks and choosing options which ‘feel right’ rather than following a more systematic decision-making process which might be expected for such an important decision. We also note a tendency to defer the decision to others. We then briefly consider the implications of these findings for universities and their marketing, as they may assume that a more considered process has taken place

Engaging students and MOOC learners through social media

This paper reports upon an initiative to integrate the Digital Marketing MOOC we produced with FutureLearn into an introductory module for MSc Digital Marketing students at the University of Southampton. We are currently drawing upon the lessons learned from this experiment to integrate more of our MOOCs and their related face to face modules in creative ways. We begin by reviewing the role of social learning before presenting the feedback received from students of their MOOC participation experience. On the whole the feedback was very positive, although we initially received some unexpected criticism for asking fee-paying students to participate in a free online course. These results provided us with an interesting opportunity to discuss the changing nature of value and consumerism in higher educatio

Conceptualizing consumption in the imagination: Relationships and movements between imaginative forms and the marketplace

In this article we extend theory relating to the imagination and markets by reviewing explicit and implicit work in marketing, consumer research and sociology, drawing on a broader literature that provides a more comprehensive characterization of imagining. We map consumption in the imagination in order to better define the concept and to differentiate forms of imagining according to a number of characteristics that are identified in the literature. These are as follows: (1) temporal location, (2) range of emotions, (3) degree of elaboration, (4) level of abstraction (5) purpose, and (6) prompts. We also consider the role of consumption in terms of its level of presence and absence in the imagination. We then present a trajectory of consumption in the imagination that seeks to account for the relationships and movements between forms of imagining and the marketplace, noting the importance of the imagination in terms of implications for macro-level market structures and individual consumption practice

Redistributed consumer desire in digital virtual worlds of consumption.

The aim of this paper is to discuss and illustrate how the use of software available in digital virtual worlds of consumption, including wish lists, watch lists, and digital virtual goods (DVGs), interact with consumer desiring practices. We draw on a data set of three interpretative studies with technology users living in the South of England. Our study makes a unique contribution to our understanding of consumer desire and digital virtual consumption by bringing to the fore the often-neglected role of non-human agents in the practice of consumer desire. In particular, it shows (1) the assemblage of consumer desire in human–non-human hybrids (composed of consumers and online wish lists, online auction tools, and video-game resources; (2) the redistribution of competence and skills in human–software hybrids; (3) the r-distribution of affect and commitment in human–software hybrids; and (4) the refocusing of desire in human–software hybrids. Based on our findings, we conclude that, over time, the use of software in the construction and actualisation of desire reconfigures consumer desire practices into a goal-orientated task, where the focus is not daydreaming activity or material commodities per se but rather the software itself. Here, the software not only presents things to be desired, but also absorbs some of the skill and competence needed to conjure up desire. Ultimately, these configurations appear to create breaks in the experience of desire that weaken the hold previously binding consumers to objects of desire

Tracking changes in everyday experiences of disability and disability sport within the context of the 2012 London Paralympics

The 2012 Paralympics was the biggest ever, the most accessible and best attended in its 64-year history. The Paralympics and ideas of disability associated with the Games provide significant opportunity for reflection on how far societal opinions, attitudes and behaviour have changed regarding disability. In 2012 – the first ever “legacy games” – an explicit aim of the Paralympics was to “transform the perception of disabled people in society”, (Channel 4), and use sport to contribute to “a better world for all people with a disability” (IPC 2011). The 2012 Games therefore came with a social agenda: to challenge the current perceptions many people have about disability and disability sport. Within this report – commissioned by the UK’s Paralympic broadcaster, Channel 4 – we consider everyday experiences of disability and disability sport within the context of the London 2012 Paralympics and televised coverage of the Games. The analysis is based 140 in-depth interviews that took place in the UK over a period of eighteen months, during the lead up to, and immediately after, the Games: between January 2011 and September 2012. Embedded in the lifeworld of our participants, we ask whether the 2012 Paralympics was successful in changing perceptions of disability

YouTube beauty gurus and the emotional labour of tribal entrepreneurship

Tribal entrepreneurship valorises emotional bonds between consumers and entrepreneurs, yet this emotional dimension is little understood. Drawing from a netnographic study of YouTube Beauty Gurus as tribal entrepreneurs, and uniting the concept of emotional labour with theories of moral emotions, we demonstrate the importance of emotional labour to tribal entrepreneurship’s success. We observe novel forms of emotional labour performed by tribal entrepreneurs, relating to the expression of self-conscious and other-praising moral emotions, in addition to new technology-enabled forms of emotional censorship that silence the expression of other-condemning moral emotions in central tribal gathering spaces. Furthermore, we highlight the emotional labour performed by the broader tribe, as their compassion for the entrepreneur stimulates tribal defense via the suppression of other-condemning emotions. We extend theories of tribal entrepreneurship by theorising the role and importance of emotional labour. Our findings also extend broader theories of emotions and contribute to discussions of immaterial labour