IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i2p349-d132144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“I Wouldn’t Be Friends with Someone If They Were Liking Too Much Rubbish”: A Qualitative Study of Alcohol Brands, Youth Identity and Social Media

Author

Listed:
  • Richard I. Purves

    (Institute for Social Marketing and UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Scotland FK94LA, UK)

  • Martine Stead

    (Institute for Social Marketing and UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Scotland FK94LA, UK)

  • Douglas Eadie

    (Institute for Social Marketing and UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Scotland FK94LA, UK)

Abstract

The consumption of alcohol by young people remains a major public health concern at both the national and international level. Levels of drinking among 15-yearolds in the United Kingdom (UK) remain significantly higher than the European average. This study explored how alcohol brands are used by young people to develop their desired identities and how these acts of consumption extend to young people’s profiles on social media. It also deepens understanding of how alcohol brands are connected to young peoples’ concerns about image and peer group dynamics. This involved qualitative focus groups with young people aged 14–17 in Central Scotland. Certain alcohol brands were approved and viewed as socially acceptable by young people, while others were rejected. Children as young as 14 were selecting products to portray a drinking identity that was appropriately aligned to their gender and sexuality. Participants displayed a desire to associate themselves with the mature drinking culture personified by some brands, whilst simultaneously distancing themselves from immature drinking practices associated with others. Publicly associating with alcohol brands on social media carried with it potential risks to peer group acceptance. Understanding how young people perceive alcohol brands, the importance of social media in communicating that identity to their peers and the role that alcohol brands play in adolescent identity formation is an important first step to reforming alcohol marketing regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard I. Purves & Martine Stead & Douglas Eadie, 2018. "“I Wouldn’t Be Friends with Someone If They Were Liking Too Much Rubbish”: A Qualitative Study of Alcohol Brands, Youth Identity and Social Media," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:349-:d:132144
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/349/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/349/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Belk, Russell W, 1988. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 139-168, September.
    2. Mosher, J.F., 2012. "Joe camel in a bottle: Diageo, the Smirnoff brand, and the transformation of the youth alcohol market," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(1), pages 56-63.
    3. David B. Wooten, 2006. "From Labeling Possessions to Possessing Labels: Ridicule and Socialization among Adolescents," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(2), pages 188-198, July.
    4. Megan A. Moreno & Jon D’Angelo & Jennifer Whitehill, 2016. "Social Media and Alcohol: Summary of Research, Intervention Ideas and Future Study Directions," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 50-59.
    5. Holt, Douglas B, 2002. "Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(1), pages 70-90, June.
    6. Lan Nguyen Chaplin & Deborah Roedder John, 2005. "The Development of Self-Brand Connections in Children and Adolescents," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 119-129, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joon-Yong Yang & Aeree Sohn, 2022. "The Association of Gender Role Attitudes and Risky Drinking: Changes in the Relationship between Masculinity and Drinking in Korean Young Men," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-12, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stead, Martine & McDermott, Laura & MacKintosh, Anne Marie & Adamson, Ashley, 2011. "Why healthy eating is bad for young people's health: Identity, belonging and food," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(7), pages 1131-1139, April.
    2. Hollenbeck, Candice R. & Kaikati, Andrew M., 2012. "Consumers' use of brands to reflect their actual and ideal selves on Facebook," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 395-405.
    3. Cagri Yalkin & Richard Rosenbaum-Elliott, 2014. "Talking Fashion in Female Friendship Groups: Negotiating the Necessary Marketplace Skills and Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 301-331, June.
    4. Hunt, Shelby D., 2019. "The ethics of branding, customer-brand relationships, brand-equity strategy, and branding as a societal institution," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 408-416.
    5. Lucy Gill-Simmen & Deborah J. MacInnis & Andreas B. Eisingerich & C. Whan Park, 2018. "Brand-self connections and brand prominence as drivers of employee brand attachment," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 8(3), pages 128-146, December.
    6. Nguyen, Hieu P. & Chen, Steven & Mukherjee, Sayantani, 2014. "Reverse stigma in the Freegan community," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1877-1884.
    7. Anwar Sadat Shimul & Ian Phau & Michael Lwin, 2019. "Conceptualising luxury brand attachment: scale development and validation," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(6), pages 675-690, November.
    8. Reed, Americus & Forehand, Mark R. & Puntoni, Stefano & Warlop, Luk, 2012. "Identity-based consumer behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 310-321.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3624 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Detlev Zwick & Janice Denegri-Knott & Jonathan Schroeder, 2007. "The Social Pedagogy of Wall Street: Stock Trading as Political Activism?," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 177-199, September.
    11. Vikas Arya & Hemraj Verma & Deepa Sethi & Rajat Agarwal, 2019. "Brand Authenticity and Brand Attachment: How Online Communities Built on Social Networking Vehicles Moderate the Consumers’ Brand Attachment," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 8(2), pages 87-103, July.
    12. Healy, Jason C. & McDonagh, Pierre, 2013. "Consumer roles in brand culture and value co-creation in virtual communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1528-1540.
    13. Lee, Michael S.W. & Motion, Judith & Conroy, Denise, 2009. "Anti-consumption and brand avoidance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 169-180, February.
    14. Hogg, Margaret K. & Banister, Emma N. & Stephenson, Christopher A., 2009. "Mapping symbolic (anti-) consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 148-159, February.
    15. Roger B Mason, 2013. "The ‘Chav’ Subculture: Branded Clothing as an Extension of the Self," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 5(3), pages 173-184.
    16. Weaver, S. Todd & Moschis, George P. & Davis, Teresa, 2011. "Antecedents of materialism and compulsive buying: A life course study in Australia," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 247-256.
    17. Strizhakova, Yuliya & Coulter, Robin A. & Price, Linda L., 2008. "The meanings of branded products: A cross-national scale development and meaning assessment," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 82-93.
    18. Schembri, Sharon, 2009. "Reframing brand experience: The experiential meaning of Harley-Davidson," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 1299-1310, December.
    19. Russell Belk, 2011. "Benign envy," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 1(3), pages 117-134, December.
    20. Hollenbeck, Candice R. & Patrick, Vanessa M., 2016. "Mastering survivorship: How brands facilitate the transformation to heroic survivor," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 73-82.
    21. Muhammad Waqas & Zalfa Laili Hamzah & Noor Akma Mohd Salleh, 2022. "Branded content experience in social media settings: a consumer culture theory perspective," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(2), pages 225-240, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:349-:d:132144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.