Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Second edition - Pr School

Segmenting fashion consumers 83
if we are careful and caring in the elaboration of the constructionist alternative,
we shall also find ways of reconstituting the modernist tradition so as to
retain some of its virtues while removing its threatening potentials. We move
then from prevailing despair to more positive possibilities – from deconstruction
to reconstruction.’
The social construction of identity
Social constructionists might argue that the social world is an interpretive network
of human beings brought together through time, place, utility and form.
Identification of particular segments is therefore fraught with problems that
emanate from the four dimensions discussed in the last sentence. Meaning is
derived and interpreted through culture (Geertz, 1983, p.4) and knowledge
merges through and into localized culture as meanings are assigned (Gubrium,
1989). Groups, formal organizations and everyday life conditions encountered
help people make sense of their worlds (Douglas, 1986). It is apparent in this
position that individuals have their own identities as individuals, as part of
a family group, as part of formal organizations they engage in and as part of
a region, nation and world community (Jenkins, 1996). They interpret their own
identities in these different contexts whereas traditional segmentation strategies
entail that others impose identities externally through an assessment of characteristics,
class, nationality, status and memberships amongst other things.
An interesting view of decision-making applicable in a segmentation context
is supported by Weick’s (1995) sense-making notion. Weick challenges the
perception that environments are objective entities and subjective differences
are only drawn because human information processes differ between individuals
making interpretations. It is through interactions between object and
subject that environments are shaped. For example, retail spaces and places
are shaped through consumer interactions and mediations. Retailers invest
heavily in property portfolios and store designs to encourage individuals to
engage in an exchange process of cash for a bundle of goods and services. In
terms of identity retail brands populate particular spaces to encourage footfall
through their carefully designed spaces. Consumers making choices between
brands are encouraged through their mediation within these socially constructed
spaces that convey meaning through brand recognition. Essentially
retailers make a statement through space and place that says: we know who
we are; do you identify with us strongly enough to make a choice and a decision
to buy? Consumers make choices between brands through identity processes.
These interactions between subject and object are important shapers of
the socio-economic process of consumption.
The inevitable challenge for practitioners may then be to accept that using
more and more data inevitably leads to more and more segment possibilities.
This is a situation which could compound the already reported difficulties to
be encountered when competing in complex, fragmented and dynamic markets.
Table 4.2 provides a useful summary of critical points of difference and