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This paper contributes to the research on the symbiotic relationship between religion and the market by examining the nature and implications of the marketization of religion in a contemporary Christendom in which religion and the market are hegemonic. Based on our analysis of 3741 church advertisements in Ghana over a 6-year period, we conceptualize three symbiotic relationships that coexist between the market and religion—commensalism, mutualism, and competition. We argue that these symbiotic relationships mirror how religion hegemonizes popular imagination and members' consumption through marketization in contemporary Christendom. This study extends our understanding of the dialectical relationship between religion and the market by showing that religion can use marketization to perpetuate its hegemony within and beyond the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread use of social media applications mediated the formation of the phenomenon of conspicuousness on the basis of consumption. Historically, conspicuousness has developed through violence and sexuality in the focus of gender. Web technology and social media applications have included conspicuousness in consumption in the focus of identity, time, place, status and value. In this context, the aim of the study is to examine the current structure of conspicuous consumption that develops on social media by categorizing it through the historical method. Conceptually, gender-specific characteristics of the phenomenon of showing off were determined in the study. Violence and masculine consumption are examined in the focus of masculinity. In the focus of femininity, consumption is evaluated over fashion and conspicuousness. In the current social structure, the phenomenon of consumption emerging on the basis of conspicuousness has become widespread with the use of web technology and social media applications. However, the historical method has been adopted in the study because the relationship between consumption and conspicuousness has developed over the media tools that existed in the recent past. Although the development stages of consumption are reflected in the focus of gender, classifications have been made in relation to the development of media tools. Classifications are primarily explained by the consumption of identity over the body and item. Secondly, the consumption of belief through space is mentioned. Finally, the consumption of value on the basis of profession and reputation is discussed. The categorized arguments of conspicuous consumption in our study are generally referred to as the sacred consumption, as it takes place over the basic dynamics of individual and social life. Keywords: Con [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the processes contributing to the genesis of a brand community. This ethnographic study focuses on the Beamish brand community. The Beamish beer product is a niche brand only available consistently in the locality of Cork city, Ireland. Evidence from this study shows that a collective conversion experience is foundational to the emergence of this brand community. Following this initial conversion experience, the brand community attempts to maintain the transcendent experience through practices of sacralisation maintenance. Sacralisation is maintained through the playful rituals and virtual play the community members enact. The mutual willingness of the converted to participate in these various forms of playful rituals has been a key role in the reification of the Beamish brand community. Finally, suggestions are made as to how brand management should best approach the initial attempts at brand-community formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Consumer Culture Theory - (CCT) is a stream of studies that uses the interpretive perspective for answering questions about consumer phenomena that go beyond the utilitarian logic. The present work presents a reflection over the usage of CCT in contemporary times, having as a background an empirical study of consumption of yogurt, took into consideration the cultural and socially shared aspects which guides this phenomenon. As a research strategy were adopted an inductive interpretive perspective with qualitative approach, through fifteen in-depth interviews with householders which also were yogurt consumers. Lined up with anthropological studies about the meanings of the power of rituals in Brazil and the theories of symbolic and hedonistic consumption, the study unveiled that the purchase and consumption of yogurt went far beyond the rational and economic logic of utilitarianism, and reaffirmed that CCT studies can contribute to the development of marketing, not only academically, but also in the daily management of the marketing mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]