Special Possessions and their Cultural Significance...

Each semester, the International Student Association (ISA) at Anderson University hosts the International Dinner, a night when students from around the world prepare dishes from back home and share them with people from the Anderson community and surrounding areas. Not only only is there food to be shared, skits, dances, songs, poems, and fashion shows add to the cultural experience. For the fashion show, students are encouraged to wear traditional dress that is a representation of their culture. As for the preparation of food/ dishes, students make trips to stores that they have identified to carry ethnic food items. In all these instances, there are cultural principles and emblematic functions (geographic & ethnic symbolism) that are present.

In our [the class] discussion of symbolic consumer behavior, we touched on the topic of special possessions and symbolic consumer behavior and looked at some of the characteristics. Special possessions are not necessarily sold at market value, have few or no substitutes, not always used for original purpose, evoke powerful emotions, and also may be frequently personified. In instances where students have prepared dishes, or adorned traditional dress, it has been a representation of their culture and holds special meaning for them as they fulfill the emblematic, role adoption, connectedness, and/ or expressive functions.

Because these students represent a particular target market, marketers will have a greater impact by understanding the role that culture plays in influencing consumer behavior.