Brands in young consumers' Instagram contents: Elements of brand identity enable their use to promote group belonging

Abstract

The desire to belong to a group is a characteristic of the human social condition. This quality influences an individual's choice and consumption of brands and products. The belonging-oriented consumption model explains the process that individuals follow when they consume to promote their affiliation to a group. One construct of the model is the Belonging Conduits, which are the resources in the marketplace used to display goods to others as a vehicle to signal group affiliation. How young people use the conduits in their content on Instagram, and what characteristics of the brands do they value in this activity, is unknown. This study aims to examine how young consumers use conduits when producing their content for the social network Instagram. A deductive qualitative study and thematic analysis technique was conducted using data obtained from interviews with young people of both genders. The results suggest that shared meanings referring to brands and products, and their physical and visual components that facilitate their recognition and inclusion in Instagram content, are preferred for instrumentalization as conduits.