Craig J. Thompson and Zeynep Arsel

ABSTRACT

This study introduces the concept of the hegemonic brandscape to analyze a particular nexus of marketplace dynamics. The cultural discourses that surround Starbucks and the servicescape structures that the so-called Starbucks revolution has established as the linchpins of a desirable coffee shop experience exert a systematic influence on the socio-cultural milieu of local coffee shops, regardless of whether these shops are positioned as countercultural havens or a third-place hangout for middle-class professionals. We identify two types of local coffee shop patron who use the anti-Starbucks discourse in different ways and who imbue qualitatively different kinds of personal, social, and moral significance to their coffee shop preferences. Local coffee shop culture also provides access to contextualized cultural capital that mitigates some expected class-based differences in consumers’ aesthetic tastes. We discuss the implications of this cultural conceptualization for prior research on consumer-brand relationships, brand image, and oppositional brand loyalty.

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