2018-2019 BBA Marketing Seminar

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Mobile Dating Apps and the Gamification of Entrepreneurialized Romance

Image AddedAnil Isisag, Doctoral Student, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Synopses

How does a domain of social life that was once deemed outside the realm of the marketplace become marketized? In this study, I address this question by focusing on the marketization of romantic-sexual relationships in the context of mobile dating apps. My historical analysis demonstrates that rather than a one-off transition, marketization of romance transpires in stages and mobile dating apps facilitate the transition from the earlier model of entrepreneurialized romance (as exemplified by online dating) to the contemporary model of gamified romance. Based on semi-structured interviews with 25 mobile dating app users, I examine the implications of this transition for app users' romantic-sexual relationships.

As a second project based on the same data set, I investigate the positioning wars in the mobile dating apps market by focusing on how Bumble and Hinge utilize Tinder's bad reputation in their own branding efforts. Capitalizing on Tinder's image as a platform that fosters a sexist hook-up culture, Bumble ("the feminist app") and Hinge ("the relationship app") carved out unique market positions by presenting their brand as a remedy to Tinder's shortcomings. By explicating the process through which they make use of defamatory messages about Tinder to create their own branding story, I offer a step-by-step framework that marketing professionals can utilize in similar markets where emotional branding prevails.

2018-2019 Marketing Seminar

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Consumer Claims to Space in the Politics of Consumer Identity

Image AddedMelanie Wallendorf, Professor, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Synopses

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Physical space is an integral element of social life that impacts a wide range of consumption experiences, including shopping, eating, and exercising. However, not every consumer has access to the same kinds or amounts of spaces. Just like with the resources of money and knowledge, access to the resource of space is socially structured, being unevenly available to different consumer categories. This substantial issue, consumer differential access to space, has been underexplored in consumer research; in this literature, the predominant approach to study space has been to focus on how social actors work to make specific sites more meaningful, through practices that are mostly detached from the influence of social structure. In response to this oversight, the present research employs a mixed-method ethnography to study a contemporary ethos of consumption that questions the differential access to space that women encounter with some of their self-expressive consumption activities as a result of pervasive power hierarchies. This research develops a geosocial framework that sheds light on how consumers act on space as a way of interrogating the cultural subordination of their consumer identities. This framework helps unravel the interlinkage between space and power relations in the realm of consumption.

2018 Marketing Camp

The Wisconsin School of Business’ Marketing Department hosts an annual Marketing Camp that invites guest speakers from all around the globe to present their research. The objective of the Camp is to network, share research, studies, and findings regarding the ever-changing marketing landscape. The marketing landscape is continuously evolving due to technological advancements and the multifaceted human population. We believe that in this day and age marketing research has never been more imperative. The focus of our marketing research is to help us gain key insights on marketing analytics and big data, consumer culture theory, and consumer behavior. A big part of this research involves bringing in new ideas from our fellow peers in the world of academia. As such, we have invited these four guest speakers below to share with us some of the research that they have been working on.

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