Conflicting consumer cultures, shopping rituals, and the challenges of measuring consumer-based brand equity

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing social perspective in branding research, accompanied by more firms creating brands including environmental issues, no studies so far have investigated whether brand narratives referring to polarizing consumer cultures affect brand-related metrics. We explore the impact of shopping rituals rooted in either materialistic or material-resistant consumer culture on consumer-based brand equity. Our research shows that consumers do not assess brand equity based on the narratives associated to any of the cultures, which suggests that in the case of such contextual sensitive research, a more reflexive approach is needed to explore brands’ appeal gained from cultural meanings.