Are Our Tastes and Preferences Socially Determined?

Essay Question: Are our tastes and preferences socially determined?

Taste is defined as a personal “preference or fondness” for a particular article (Allan, 2013, pp. 181) – be it clothing, food or music. No matter how “innocent” taste is portrayed, it is seen as a subtle indicator of class (Allan, 2013, pp. 181). Bourdieu (1979/1984) posits that “taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier” (Allan, 2013, pp. 181). With the widespread globalization and the increase of technological advances, in the 21st century, it is difficult to find an individual whose tastes and preferences are not influenced by external factors. This paper discusses mainly about the retail industry and how consumer tastes and preferences can be determined by these external influences.

An individual’s taste and preference can be largely influenced by the social class that they inhabit due to the marketing strategies taken by retailers and companies to appeal to certain markets. The functional approach, termed by Gilbert and Kahl, focuses on an individual’s “occupational role, income level, living conditions and identification with a possibly disadvantaged ethnic or racial group”. (Quester, Hawkins & Pettigrew, 2010, pp. 500) In this approach, much consideration is given to “capitalist ownership and to occupational division of labour as the defining variables, and prestige, association and values and treated as derivatives.”. (Gilbert, Kahl & Kahl, 1982 pp. 354) There are three main classes in the functional approach – Upper, Middle and Marginal and lower. Within each class, there are two sub classes which further separates the social standing of individuals in the class.

Due to the unique responses and behaviours of each class, having prior knowledge of how individuals in each class react to marketing campaigns allow marketers and advertising firms to allocate their resources accurately.  An “exclusivity appeal” is commonly used to target the upper class with merchandise such as premium alcohol and luxury items (Quester, Hawkins & Pettigrew, 2010, pp. 502). Several brands who target upper class consumers would also collaborate with external organisations to further enhance their image such as Rolex being the official timekeeper of the Wimbledon (Rolex, 2008). In the middle class, there is usually a desire for individuals to improve their social standing (Quester, Hawkins & Pettigrew, 2010) and as such, marketers would usually capitalize on this desire by using an “upward pull strategy” to market “high-social-status goods and services” to appeal to these individuals (Quester, Hawkins & Pettigrew, 2010, pp. 502). Masstige is a common strategy used by luxury marketers to appeal to the masses such as creating a separate line to appeal to the middle class consumers. However, in the lower and working class, individuals tend to seek instant fulfilment (Saheli, 2015) and as such are more likely to prefer products and stores that allow payment methods such as monthly credit card instalments where they can enjoy the product immediately and worry about payments later. Similarly, due to the lower income level for the working class, individuals are more likely to shop in discount and value stores (Loudon and Della Bitta, 1993). Hence, it can be seen that certain products and stores are marketed primarily for a specific class and this creates the social pressure to shop at a certain store or own certain items within an individual’s social class.