Understanding Consumer Sensory Preferences: An Ethnographic Investigation of Sensory Flamboyance and Subtlety in India

Marketers use a variety of sensory appeals to communicate about their brands to consumers (Krishna 2012), but these may not be equally efficacious across consumers. We investigate whether basic preferences for sensory flamboyance versus subtlety are structured sociologically and by early childhood experiences, rather than by individual dispositions (Peck and Childers 2008). The opening quote depicts an Indian driver, in a low status occupation, from a lower caste and economic background, who favors “louder,” more visually prominent product designs, such as flashier, gaudier clothing, compared to his employer who is higher in social status, caste and cultural capital (Holt 1998; Bourdieu 1984). The relationship between status, power and conspicuous consumption of branded products has been studied (Veblen 1899; Belk, Bahn and Meyer 2001; Rucker and Galinsky 2008; Sivanthan and Pettit 2010; Han, Dreze and Nunes 2010), but what structures basic preferences for high versus low sensory intensity in consumption, including the use of bright colors, loud music, and strong tastes and fragrances? Bourdieu’s (1984) framework suggests that status boundaries may be reproduced or potentially breached simply through the expressions of tastes. Varying levels of cultural capital (i.e. distinctive tastes, skills and knowledge) are manifested in unique styles of taste and consumption among members of different classes. This framework has been shown to provide insights into taste distinctions among high versus low cultural capital consumers in the United States (Holt 1998), and Turkey (Ustuner and Holt 2010). India’s deep rooted class and caste hierarchies suggest that consumption would reflect the assumed social hierarchies. Indeed, economic chasms create stark differences in habitus across classes, and the poor seem trapped in a virtual quagmire of disempowerment (Belk and Ghoshal 2017). Lower cultural capital is associated with lower economic as well as lower symbolic capital (power and status; Bhattacharyya and Belk 2017), a critical point of difference from previously studied contexts. Could sensory flamboyance (versus subtlety) in tastes be a critical currency of cultural capital in this context, and what might be the underlying reasons?