Pauline Maclaran

• PhD
• Professor at Royal Holloway University of London

Shiny scarlet snakeskin thigh-length boots with heels so high they rival the Eiffel Tower… sashaying across the stage… hot stuff… two and a half feet of tubular sex.… But the moment the fragile heel snaps, artist and audience stumble back down to earth, the bubble burst, and rudely reminded this is just a man in women’s shoes! In this commentary I...

Shiny scarlet snakeskin thigh-length boots with heels so high they rival the Eiffel Tower … sashaying across the stage … hot stuff … two and a half feet of tubular sex. … But the moment the fragile heel snaps, artist and audience stumble back down to earth, the bubble burst, and rudely reminded this is just a man in women’s shoes! In this commenta...

In this commentary article, Dr Folúké Bádéjọ́, Professor Pauline Maclaran, Professor Andreas Chatzidakis and Professor Simone Pettigrew offer their reflections on some of the key issues and challenges facing marketing for social good. The contributors reflect on a range of ontological, epistemological, and empirical interests, and disciplinary know...

This commentary reflects on 20+ years as marketing academics committed to a feminist, critical approach to the marketing curriculum. Feminist pedagogy focuses on critiquing the wider, macro-structural realities that impact on gender inequality. A key aim is to empower students to consider how society might be differently structured. We also advocat...

This short commentary introduces some key threads of feminist critique to the economy and market-centrism that foreground processes of care, intimacy and interdependency that are currently largely invisible and undervalued. In so doing, we propose that there are some common themes underpinning more radically progressive feminist understandings of t...

If ever a literary genre were made for consumer research, that literary genre is allegory. The word comes from the Ancient Greek allegoreo, meaning to speak of the other in the marketplace. Building on the pioneering research of Barbara B. Stern, this article considers the character and characteristics of allegorical storytelling. It does so by mea...

Consumer research has focused on the various resources and tactics that help movements achieve a range of institutional and marketplace changes. Yet, little attention has been paid to the persistence of movement solidarity, in particular its regeneration, despite a range of threats to it. Our research unpacks mechanisms that help consumer movement...

Monarchies are facing public demands for modernization and adapting to changing societal, political, and media environments. This book proposes new directions in the research of contemporary European monarchies and offers innovative perspectives on trans/national royal public interactions and (semi-)fictional representations of monarchs. Its case s...

This paper extends the macromarketing debates on gender by considering how gender ideology acts as a macro-level constraint to developing sustainable initiatives. While the macromarketing literature has long considered the significance of social enterprise and nonprofits, gender has not been theorized within these studies. In redressing this gap we...

The term “postmodern consumption” encapsulates the notion of individuals communicating symbolic meanings through their possessions and experiences, meanings often concerned with identity, status, or relationships. Capitalism drives postmodern consumption, offering consumers a myriad of ways to manipulate signs and symbols encoded into goods and ser...

Consumer ethics research has greatly enhanced our knowledge of the social and environmental consequences and considerations of consumption choices. We argue, however, that gender theory introduces important aspects of ethical enquiry currently overlooked. To build our argument, we undertake a critical literature review that assesses current gender...

This article explores how marketing influences ideologies of femininity. Tracing the evolution of femme fatale images in Vogue magazine in 1890s America, we develop a typology around four archetypal forms of the femme fatale that prevailed during this period. In doing so we respond to calls for more critical historical analyses on femininity. While...

Purpose This paper aims to use embodied theory to analyze consumer experience in a retail brandscape, Hollister Co. By taking a holistic, embodied approach, this study reveals how individual consumers interact with such retail environments in corporeal, instinctive and sensual ways. Design/methodology/approach The primary source of data was 97 sub...

In Spring 2015, we produced a collaborative videography about Skoros, an anti-consumerist collective in Athens, Greece. We and the members of the collective jointly negotiated the end product, by discussing the script and editorial decisions about the content. The filming of the project, artistic direction, music supervision and graphics design wer...

Much has been written about myth and the marketplace. Consumer research has added immeasurably to academics' appreciation of the myths that inhere in fabulous flagship stores and experiential retailing more generally. Studies of consumer mythopoeia, however, have tended to muffle the martial side of retailing, the heroic struggles that some custome...

This second edition of Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour has been completely revised and updated to keep pace with the latest developments, exploring fresh new themes in brand cultures, postmodernism, gender, ethics and globalisation. Topics new to this edition include: * the moralised brandscape; * the politics of consumption...

Marketing concerns the exchange processes around transactions in a marketplace and has three main constituents: business, consumers, and society. The concept of marketing has changed significantly over its 100+ year history, moving from a legacy in economic theory to include sociocultural perspectives that acknowledge the social construction of mar...

The term “royalty” connotes people who either occupy the role of monarchs in society, or who are related to these figures by blood or marriage. Although many royal houses around the world occupy a symbolic/ceremonial rather than a political role, royalty and the “human brands” royal families contain remain important sources of aspirational and cons...

Welcoming Roger Layton's call for marketing to be recognised as a social science, this commentary suggests marketers will need to build a stronger body of marketing theory in order to achieve this goal. Both inter-disciplinary and intra-disciplinary insights will play a significant role, as well as challenging the managerial emphasis of our discipl...

This research explores how marketplace dynamics affect religious authority in the context of Neopagan religion. Drawing on an interpretivist study of Wiccan practitioners in Italy, we reveal that engagement with the market may cause considerable, ongoing tensions, based on the inherent contradictions that are perceived to exist between spirituality...

This chapter documents the romance between Prince William and Catherine Middleton, their wedding, and the birth of their son, Prince George. Setting royal weddings in their historical context, it reviews the extravagance, fashion, and opulence (and occasional reining-in and resistance) associated with these events, as well as how they contribute to...

This chapter examines the factors that bolster the commercial uniqueness and appeal of the royal brand, many of which are supported by discourses that feed or tap into the growth of consumer culture. First, it discusses five key internal characteristics (those emanating from some aspect of the British crown): longevity, stability, the British Commo...

This chapter traces the pervasiveness of the royal family as a cultural and global phenomenon, looking at its past and present embeddedness in the popular imagination. With the increasing democratization of the monarchy, royal consumers can make a vast array of choices in the marketplace, and the types of engagement range from the mainstream to the...

This chapter focuses on how the RFBC consistently intersects with the marketplace in ways both in and out of royal control. From visiting traditional manufacturers and merchants who bear royal warrants to snapping up endless varieties of commemoratives in souvenir shops, people can experience the intersection of marketing and the monarchy in myriad...

This chapter reviews the ways film, television, and theater have portrayed and popularized the royal family. It traces representations of royalty for popular consumption from the Chronicle-History plays of the 1580s and Shakespeare’s plays to present-day movies such as The King’s Speech. Emotional authenticity and relationship development are key i...

This chapter illustrates the importance of the royal family to Margaret Tyler, a dedicated collector of all things royal, whose home in London contains more than ten thousand pieces of royal family memorabilia. As a collector, business owner, and media expert, Margaret performs a variety of social roles that help shape other consumers’ experiences...

This chapter describes how the public commoditized and consumed the now-iconic Diana, Princess of Wales, who came to dominate the global discourse surrounding the British monarchy during her lifetime. It considers her many representations and interpretations and traces her evolution from fresh-faced bride through victim to media-savvy humanitarian....

This chapter discusses the history and management of royal touristic practices covering a range of topics, from grand tours and spa towns to George IV’s gaudy pavilion in Brighton, that have links to royal tourism. It also delves into the strategic activities of historic royal palaces, a charity responsible for the day-to-day operations of six “uno...

This chapter offers a case study of Windsor, England. Located just twenty-three miles from London, it is home to the venerable Windsor Castle and is the queen’s favorite weekend getaway. During both the peak summer tourist months and the off-season, the authors explore how consumers experience this historic locale, which has been the site of many k...

The final chapter offers the authors’ reflections on the future trajectory of the RFBC and the issues it will face as it tries to maintain its appeal in Britain and the world. In particularly, it draws attention to the increasingly blurred boundaries between royalty and celebrity while also highlighting royalty’s distinguishing features. To maintai...

This book attempts to answer the question, why, in contemporary global society, are monarchies still so compelling to millions of people around the globe? It does so by focusing on the worldwide fascination with the British royal family, a monarchy that has existed for more than one thousand years and that has retained its economic and cultural sig...

Three waves of feminism each reveal a very different relationship with marketing. This commentary considers these relationships in the light of what is now frequently being hailed as the fourth wave, a resurgence of feminism that is driven by younger women who harness the power of the Internet and social media to challenge gender inequity. The comm...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the meaning of food consumption practices in maintaining intergenerational relationships between young university students and their parents. Design/methodology/approach – Student food consumption has been mainly studied through quantitative methods, treating students as a homogenous group, more...

How can a heritage organization responsible for managing and delivering historic sites draw upon elements of popular culture to create compelling, contemporary experiences for tourists from around the world? In this chapter, we offer a case study of the "Enchanted Palace" exhibit. Designed to enable London’s Kensington Palace to remain open during...

Although today’s public markets echo ancient market forms, they incorporate many original aspects which merit scrutiny because: 1) they are connected to a dominant neo-liberal market functioning and structures; and 2) they illuminate important tensions that question how sustainability is practicable at a macro level. Taking an ecological perspectiv...

Feminism and popular culture: investigating the postfeminist mystique, by Rebecca Munford and Melanie Waters, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2014. With its iconic image of Wonder Women striding across its cover, this provocative book packs a punch aimed at postfeminism and its manifestations in popular culture. By providing an in-dep...

Traditionally, Iranian women's use of dress and make-up has been an arena – sometimes a battleground – for identity negotiation. The present study questions the current over-emphasis on identity and the prevalent tendency to look for identity meanings in the use of hejab (veiling) and cosmetics. The results of fifteen interpretive in-depth intervie...

Visual representations of violent women provoke a range of gender issues in contemporary consumer culture. The present study offers a critical visual analysis of violent women. Specifically, we examine the French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) ad Fashion versus Style, the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill, and one of the Sisley ads. We discuss how...

Ritualisation of consumptionscapes to transform oneself Many scholars have studied how rites participate to build experiences, but they were mainly interested by hedonistic experiences. The authors investigate a peculiar space of consumption, the restaurant “Dans le noir”, where diners eat in total blackness, served by blind waiters. They show that...

Purpose This editorial aims to review the contents of the special issue, situating it within appropriate historical context. Design/methodology/approach A close reading of the contents of the special issue is provided. Findings This special issue reveals the important contributions of a number of previously forgotten female pioneers in marketing,...