Ideologi, ekonomi och konsumtion - en kritisk studie av IKEA:s marknadskommunikation

Sammanfattning: Parts of the postmodern consumer research argue that researchers must change their perspective from a modernist to a postmodern point of view when studying consumers and consumption. This postmodern perspective is described by Firat and Venkatesh (1995) through five conditions of postmodern consumption. These conditions describe a fragmented individual who wants to consume on his or hers own premises, while at the same time trying to distance him or herself from the market. Postmodern consumer scholars argue that this, among other things, has led to a point were marketing communicators or researchers in the field no longer can analyze or understand consumer behavior primarily based on ideological or economic conditions. This development demands a new understanding of consumption for marketing communicators, whose task in several ways is to perceive and apprehend the consumer and it’s behavior. The purpose of this master thesis is to ideologically study the postmodern consumer conditions through a critical discourse analysis of IKEA:s marketing communication. The study takes stand in the debate between the postmodern and critical research perspectives concerning the possibility to gain adequate information about consumer behavior based on ideological or economic aspects. The aim is to create a larger theoretical understanding for the postmodern as well as the critical research, and the relevance of the different perspectives for marketing communicator’s praxis. The study concludes a complex relation between marketing communicator and consumer. For marketing communicators, a deeper understanding of one’s cultural contexts ideological and economic conditions can contribute to insights in the everyday life behavior of a consumer and their ability to affect the market and it’s marketing communication.