符号消费理论视角下的星巴克消费符号之语言学研究

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background
The background of the research will be introduced from the popularity ofStarbucks in China and the adverse influence caused by the symbolic value of goods.
According to its official website, Starbucks was founded in 1971 in Seattle,Washington, USA. In January 1999, the first store in mainland China was opened atthe International Trade Center in Beijing. Although it has a late start compared withother western beverage brands, Starbucks has become one of the fastest growing andmost well-known coffee brands in China in less than 20 years, and its market share inthe Chinese beverage market is estimated to increase further in the near future. At thesame time, China has now become the fastest growing and the largest overseasmarket for Starbucks. At present, Starbucks has opened more than 3,400 stores inmore than 140 cities in China, with over 45,000 employees. By the end of fiscal year2022, Starbucks will cover a total of 230 cities in China. In this way, takingStarbucks as the research case is typical and representative.
It goes without saying that people’s consumption behavior has undergonetremendous changes from ancient times until today. In the past, people bought goodsbecause of their use value and exchange value. However, in today’s world, the reasonwhy people purchase items lies in the symbolic value of products. As a matter of fact,we have already entered the consumer society. The consumer culture attempts tocreate such illusion that consumers are equal in front of commodities. For instance,the tailor’s daughter and the landlord’s daughter can be dressed in the same Chanelsuit. Likewise, miners and mine owners can read the same newspaper every morning.However, the gap between the rich and the poor always exits, and the ownership ofthe same consumption symbol does not mean the disappearance of classes. Therefore,choosing consumption symbols as the research direction of this thesis is realistic andmeaningful.
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1.2 Research Objectives and Significance
There are two purposes of this paper. One is to investigate whether Starbucksconsumption symbols have unfavorably affected consumers’ psychological feelingand social life through the methods of questionnaire and interview. Another is toanalyse how Starbucks has coded its goods to promote sales by the use of thearbitrary relationship between the signifier and the signified of signs, making itscommodities cultural symbols.
The significance of the thesis can also be classified into two aspects, that is,theoretical and practical importance.
Firstly, the domestic researches on consumption symbols mainly focus on thetheoretical analysis with few combinations with practical cases in real life. Whereasin contrast, this article combines symbolic consumption theory with Starbucks withaims to explain how Starbucks uses consumption symbols to boost sales. In addition,the domestic and overseas articles on Starbucks are mainly written from theperspective of economics and psychology while this thesis investigates Starbucksconsumers from the angle of culture. At the same time, the paper also applies abstracttheory to practical reality and gives a vivid presentation of theories in front ofreaders.
Secondly, the practical significance of this thesis is to enable consumers to drawa clear line between false images and reality. It is universally accepted that peoplepurchase consumption symbols instead of goods nowadays and consumers are morelikely to be confused by the illusion that everyone is equal in front of consumptionsymbols. In this case, buyers are expected to realize that developing practical skillsinstead of purchasing marker goods is more likely to lead a better life.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 A Brief Review of Studies on Consumption Symbols
In China, most of experts who specialize in symbols combine consumptionsymbols with mass media or inpidual identity. Some scholars tend to analyseconsumption symbols by the use of a specific brand or a cultural phenomenon. Bycontrast, foreign scholars explore the use of consumption symbols in more fieldssuch as postmodernism and tourism. This is due to the fact that the research onconsumption symbols has a late start in China.
2.1.1 Studies on Consumption Symbols in China
Articles concerning consumption symbols written by experts in China can begenerally grouped into three main categories: mass media promoting consumptionsymbols, consumption symbols constructing identity and a specific case beingadopted to analyse consumption symbols.
Some cultural experts prefer to illustrate their ideas of consumption symbolsfrom the perspective of mass media.
Zhang (2008) states the function of consumption symbols and advertisements.He points out that in the consumer society, the role of consumption symbols is tocreate cultural meanings and illusive images, thus taking consumers over control.And advertising, as a desire maker, could create a pseudo-event by showing theabsence of reality. What people consume in today’s world is not the use value ofitems, but a kind of image of being consumed. In addition to this, another typicalscholar Dai (2004) focuses on Baudrillard’s analysis of media. He points out that thesocial media of the contemporary society have already become a soft method tomanipulate the public. They successfully create a hyperreality society because all theinformation presented by television and advertisements is carefully selected fromreal events that have ever happened in everyday life. The author also argues that it isprecisely because of the monopoly of the media discourse that people end up livingin an unresponsive society and the only way to resist this society is to be silent.
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2.2 A Brief Review of Studies on Starbucks
There are scholars who explore Starbucks from the perspective of psychology.Lin (2012) points out two main reasons why Starbucks has become one of the mostpopular western coffee brands in China. One explanation might be that this coffeecompany successfully integrates its design of stores into local environment, andanother cause may be that this western brand provides its shoppers with necessarypsychological space. The psychological space can also be understood as “the thirdspace” beyond workplace and home. That is to say, consumers are encouraged tothink of Starbucks immediately except for their home and office. As a matter of fact,Starbucks is no longer a coffee brand but a land of spiritual sustenance andconsolation for most customers.
On top of this, another popular belief is that Starbucks tends to constructconsumers’ identity through foreignness and aims to build the cultural connectionbetween foreignness and top quality. And this view is supported by many scholarswho focus on consumption symbols. Maguire and Hu (2013) interview 20 regularcustomers at Starbucks in China and investigate these participants’ subjective feelingand consuming experience of this foreign brand. They come to the conclusion thatStarbucks, as an international coffee brand, constructs Chinese consumer identityfrom four aspects, covering foreignness, local context, international quality andglobal bridge. After analyzing the data collected from the interview, these twoscholars find that words like western, American, famous, global are frequentlyrepeated by most respondents. As a matter of fact, consumers regard Starbuckscoffee as a symbol of social status because of Chinese traditional culture context:traditional collectivist values of guanxi - social relations or networks that entailobligations, and mianzi - social status or “face” (Podoshen, Li & Zhang, 2011).
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Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework.............................. 13
3.1 Basic Concepts..........................................13
3.1.1 Sign...................................13
3.1.2 Consumption Symbols................................ 14
Chapter 4 Research Design...............................24
4.1 Research Questions........................................24
4.2 Subjects......................................24
4.3 Dimensions................................... 24
Chapter 5 Analysis of Starbucks’ Consumption Symbols.........................................28
5.1 Coding of Commodities at Starbucks............................. 28
5.1.1 Customized Coffee...................................28
5.1.2 Unfaithful Solicitude....................................29

Chapter 6 Implications in Cultivating a Reasonable View ofConsumption

6.1 Avoidance of Building Identity on Consumption Symbols
According to the survey mentioned earlier, consumption symbols of Starbuckshave negative impacts on the consumer identity. In this way, some implications areobtained from the result of questionnaires. The identity built on consumptionsymbols are fragile and vulnerable to mass media. Hence, it is necessary to avoidshaping identity on symbols.
6.1.1 Critical Attitude towards the Pursuit of Differences
In accordance with the theory of symbolic consumption, commodities aretransformed into consumption symbols and inpiduals form their identity in theprocess of purchasing goods. In other words, when people buy goods, they areconsuming symbols and defining themselves in this process. Citizens buycommodities not because they do need these items most of the time but because whatthey buy determines what they are. People are what they consume and they usuallydistinguish between themselves and others based on the items they consume.
Baudrillard (1998) believes that different choices of consumption symbols makeit possible for inpiduals to identify themselves in symbolic consumption. Thedistinction between symbols allows the differentiation between consumers to bemade. The differentiation of consumption symbols among people is one of the mainpurposes of consuming behavior. Symbolic distinction is a kind of marginaldifference that stems from the pursuit of personalization. This pursuit reflects twocharacteristics of identity in the consumer society. Consumers want to harnessmaterial possessions to distinguish themselves from others and thus shape theiridentity. At the same time, consumers are firmly convinced that consumptionsymbols mirror their own personality. For example, enormous people take advantageof perse hairstyles to demonstrate their own personality.
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Chapter 7 Conclusion

7.1 Major Findings

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