Introduction - Lund University Publications
An ‘Instagrammable’ LifeUnderstanding the Motives for Consumption through Instagram StoriesBy:Loubna Katalin AbdallahNajwa AyoucheMaster’s in International Marketing and Brand ManagementAbstractTitle:An ‘Instagrammable’ Life: Understanding the Motives for Consumption through Instagram StoriesDate of the Seminar:05/06/2019Course: BUSN39 Degree Project in Global MarketingAuthors:Loubna Katalin Abdallah and Najwa AyoucheSupervisor:Ph.D. Jens HultmanKeywords:Consumption, Postmodernity, Motives, Instagram stories, Social MediaThesis purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to explore the motivations of young people for manifesting their consumption behavior through Instagram stories. Additionally, the purpose includes gaining an understanding of the way consumption behavior is portrayed.Methodology:This study utilizes a qualitative research method based on a relativist and social constructionist philosophical standpoint. In order to uncover underlying motives for consumption through Instagram stories and to understand how this behaviour is manifested, semi-structured interviews were conducted, coupled with photo elicitation.Theoretical perspective:The theoretical lens adopted to understand the motives for consumption through Instagram is that of postmodernism, consumer culture theory, self-concept theory, and practice theory. Empirical data:Ten semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a mix of male and female participants from various backgrounds. The participants recruited were all heavy users and posters of Instagram stories. Analysis was conducted based on an abductive perspective relying on a conventional content analysis approach.Conclusion:The analysis of the empirical material revealed two main dimensions which act as motives for showcasing consumption through Instagram stories, consisting of personal and social. The personal motives for consuming through Instagram stories relates to users constructing their self-identities, often in association with brands, and communicating their interests. The need for social engagement in addition to information sharing and receiving, form the social motives for consumption through stories. The empirical findings also revealed that stories offer a convenient and entertaining means to portray daily consumption, which encompasses a wide array of themes. Furthermore, important empirical findings regarding the customer journey and the evolution of a multidimensional consumption have been uncovered.AcknowledgmentsFirst and foremost, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our supervisor Jens Hultman for his great efforts in guiding us throughout this thesis journey. His tireless support and motivation, especially during the dark times, have been invaluable. Also, we are very grateful for the study participants for agreeing to share their time and ‘Instagrammable’ stories with us. We would also like to thank this program for providing us with a rich understanding of international marketing and brand management. Also, words are not sufficient to thank our families and friends for putting up with our drama during this period. We could not have done it without them. This process would not have been possible without ICA’s chocolate muffins. I would like to thank my thesis partner Najwa Ayouche “Ches yor drems” - Loubna Katalin AbdallahI would like to thank my thesis partner Loubna Katalin Abdallah, who has become an Instagram guru, thanks to me - Najwa Ayouche 29/05/2019Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1Introduction PAGEREF _Toc11662990 \h 11.1Background PAGEREF _Toc11662991 \h 11.2Problematization PAGEREF _Toc11662992 \h 31.3Research Purpose PAGEREF _Toc11662993 \h 42Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc11662994 \h 52.1Postmodernism PAGEREF _Toc11662995 \h 52.2Consumption in the Postmodern Era PAGEREF _Toc11662996 \h 62.3The postmodern consumer practices PAGEREF _Toc11662997 \h 112.3.1Co-creation PAGEREF _Toc11662998 \h 112.3.2User-generated Content (UGC) PAGEREF _Toc11662999 \h 122.4Consumption in a Digital Sphere PAGEREF _Toc11663000 \h 153Methodology PAGEREF _Toc11663001 \h 183.1Research Philosophy PAGEREF _Toc11663002 \h 183.2Research Design PAGEREF _Toc11663003 \h 193.3Method PAGEREF _Toc11663004 \h 203.4Case Description PAGEREF _Toc11663005 \h 213.5Data Collection PAGEREF _Toc11663006 \h 213.6Ethical Considerations PAGEREF _Toc11663008 \h 223.7Data Analysis Method PAGEREF _Toc11663009 \h 233.8Quality of the Research PAGEREF _Toc11663010 \h 244Analysis PAGEREF _Toc11663011 \h 274.1Consumption through Instagram Stories PAGEREF _Toc11663012 \h 274.1.1Illustration of Consumption in Instagram Stories PAGEREF _Toc11663013 \h 274.1.2Stories Creation PAGEREF _Toc11663014 \h 294.1.3The Popularity of Stories PAGEREF _Toc11663015 \h 304.1.4Reality or Fiction PAGEREF _Toc11663016 \h 324.1.5Change in Consumption PAGEREF _Toc11663017 \h 344.2Motives behind Consuming through Instagram Stories PAGEREF _Toc11663018 \h 374.2.1Personal Dimension PAGEREF _Toc11663019 \h 374.2.2Social Dimension PAGEREF _Toc11663022 \h 465Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc11663023 \h 535.1Main Findings PAGEREF _Toc11663024 \h 535.2Managerial Implications PAGEREF _Toc11663025 \h 565.3Theoretical Implications PAGEREF _Toc11663026 \h 585.4Limitations and Future Research PAGEREF _Toc11663027 \h 59References PAGEREF _Toc11663028 \h 60Appendices PAGEREF _Toc11663029 \h 75Appendix A PAGEREF _Toc11663030 \h 75Appendix B PAGEREF _Toc11663031 \h 85List of Tables TOC \b BB \* MERGEFORMAT Table 1 Overview of participant details PAGEREF _Toc9965972 \h 22List of Figures TOC \b C1 \* MERGEFORMAT Figure 4.1 Instagram stories posted by participants PAGEREF _Toc9964837 \h 39 TOC \b C2 \* MERGEFORMAT Figure 4.2 Instagram stories posted by participants PAGEREF _Toc9964838 \h 41 TOC \b C3 \* MERGEFORMAT Figure 4.3 Instagram stories posted by participants PAGEREF _Toc9964852 \h 43 TOC \b C4 \* MERGEFORMAT Figure 4.4 Instagram stories posted by participants PAGEREF _Toc9964907 \h 51IntroductionThe present chapter aims to illustrate the context that supports the focus of the research. An initial background is presented regarding consumption and the emergence of Instagram stories as part of the digital revolution. Furthermore, a problematization is presented in order to induce the relevance and implications of exploring consumption through Instagram stories. The research purpose grasps the objectives of the researchers and presents the research questions to be explored. BackgroundBefore leaving the bed, she checks her Instagram feed to see what her friends are posting on their Instagram stories. She gets up to prepare her usual oatmeal bowl with colorful fruits and snaps a picture of her daily breakfast, sharing it with her friends. On the way to work, she picks up her latte from her usual hipster coffee shop and adds it to her story since her mornings cannot start without a cup of coffee. At work, she makes sure to show how overwhelmed she is with her new project by posting a picture of her laptop and work ambiance, and she might throw in a motivational quote to start a productive workday. After work, she manages to squeeze in an hour of gym, adding a story where she asks people’s opinions of her new workout outfit. Another regular day of consumption comes to an end. Slater (1997, p.15) argues that “in modernity all the world is consumable experience” meaning that consumption is truly embedded in people’s everyday lives making it impossible to partake in the social environment or any social activity without engaging in a form of consumption. Many researchers argue that even resistance to consume is, in fact, a method of consumption or creation of value (Fischer, 2001; Holt, 2002). It is important to identify that consumption is not limited to the mere act of purchase. Warde (2005, p.137) considers consumption to include “appropriation and appreciation, whether for utilitarian, expressive or contemplative purposes, of goods, services, performances, information or ambience”. Other authors describe consumption as including activities of fun and enjoyment (Halkier, Katz-Gerro & Martens, 2011; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982), whereby consumption of goods and services is not limited to its utilitarian functions but includes an experiential component consisting of symbolic meanings (Levy, 1959, 1980) with more subjective characteristics like “cheerfulness, sociability, elegance” (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982, p.134). Hence, it can be assumed that consumption depicts activities performed by people that are meaningful and full of value (Firat & Dholakia, 2006), does not necessarily include purchase, and where the consumer has some degree of choice (Warde, 2005). More than 60 years ago, Lebow (1955) expressed that the existing overly productive economies require that consumption becomes people’s way of life, through seeking spiritual and ego satisfactions by buying and using goods. What Slater (1977, p.8) defines as “a culture of consumption” seems to be permeating today’s society, referring to a sort of cultural reproduction established in the west through modernity. Thus, consumption can be depicted as a “thoroughly cultural phenomenon” McCracken (1990, p.xi), comprising of social and cultural aspects that suggest a structure for members of a society (Slater, 1997; Arnould & Thompson, 2005).It has become undeniable that we are currently living in a postmodern era. This paradigm shift from modernity to postmodernity has given rise to a new kind of consumer (Firat & Dholakia, 1998). Conditions of hyperreality, which is often manifested in consumption behavior and marketing messages, prevail in postmodernism (Firat, Dholakia & Venkatesh, 1995). Furthermore, there has been a shift from production as the occupant of the privileged status in society, to consumption taking center stage in aiding individuals in creating their self-images (Firat, Dholakia & Venkatesh, 1995). Postmodernism is regarded as the beginning of fragmentation, complexity, resistance, and the decentering of the subject (Venkatesh, 1989). Individuals thus aim to communicate their identities (Van Raaij, 1993) and social realities (Fuat Firat, Dholakia & Venkatesh, 1995) through their consumption choices. Under this context, consumer culture theory (CCT) allows for considering the more symbolic and experiential facets of consumption as individuals move through the sequence of acquisition, consumption, and arrangement (Arnould & Thompson, 2005; McCracken, 1986).The way in which people communicate, search for, and share information has undoubtedly undergone significant changes with the advent of the Internet. The Internet has evolved into a recursive and routinely relied on tool for interaction among people (Moon, Kim & Armstrong, 2014). The emergence of Web 2.0 has fueled an exciting new effort in people to create user generated content (UGC). UGC denotes content with some creative feature that is publicly shared online and created by nonprofessionals (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007). While stories and narratives have long occupied a central role for humanity and social life through the transference of cultural codes (Seyfi & Soydas, 2017), innovative forms of media, such as the ‘Story’ feature on Instagram, are constantly being created to provide consumers with novel means to tell their stories, experiences, and showcase their consumption. ProblematizationIn the past, consumers were restrained to revealing themselves to the world through physical expressions or symbols; however, the technological developments and rise of the Internet have given consumers the opportunity to present themselves in computer mediated environments (CMEs) and using digital features (Schau & Gilly, 2003). In fact, consumption patterns have evolved with the changes that the digital marketplace have witnessed (Webster, 2010). The changes that the world witnessed due to the rise of technology affected consumption and consumer behavior, thus requiring further investigation. Technology created a new way of living since social media allow the postmodern user to interact through an easy click, sort, retrieve, post, advise, purchase, comment, create, or collaborate (Webster, 2010). Along these lines, the introduction of real-time social media known as “story” became a big part of individuals’ lives. Moreover, what individuals choose to share in their Instagram stories, can be regarded as a form of narratives. Wertsch (1998, p.29) describes narratives as “cultural tools” which influence us and “become part of the repertoire of means we use in our everyday lives, our ‘telling lives’”. Such narratives act as useful means for the formation of identities, both collective and that of the self (Wertsch, 1998).Human behavior, and more specifically consumer behavior, can be regarded as the complex result of continuous interaction of people with their environments or surrounding world, and so cannot be condensed into a simplified and finite model (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Arnould and Thompson (2005) consider that understanding consumption is imperative as it acts as a “window” to fully comprehend our lives and the world. The authors add that exploring consumption behavior can benefit marketers, as well as other managerial decision makers, while at the same time offering the opportunity to become more aware of significant aspects of our cultures (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). Holt (2002, p.80), adds to that notion, referring to consumer culture as “the ideological infrastructure that undergirds what and how people consume”, which creates guidelines for all marketing and branding decisions to be taken. Thus, the phenomenon of consumption requires continuous research as it provides a valuable means to gather consumer insight. As consumers become increasingly in control of their media experiences, deciphering the factors that motivate their media consumption becomes additionally important (McQuail, 2000). Constant efforts are invested in understanding the changes that occurred in consumption with the rise of social media; however, there is little research about stories as an essential part of the life of consumers. Therefore, it is crucial to explore the implication of Instagram stories on consumption. Research PurposeConsumption remains the focus of study for researchers in order to grasp a deep understanding of consumers. Furthermore, the changes that the market and consumers witnessed due to how technology has incrusted itself in the daily lives of individuals has reshaped their behaviors and attitudes. The numerous consumption theories developed by researchers present important bases to aid in understanding the phenomenon, but it is necessary to utilize them with respect to the digital focus of Instagram stories. In fact, the purpose of this study aims to contribute to current consumer culture theory through exploring the underlying motives of consumers to share their daily consumption experiences through their Instagram accounts in the form of stories. Specifically, the research question that will guide this thesis is: -What motivates consumers to manifest their consumption through UGC on Instagram stories?This study also aims to comprehend the following as a subset of the main research question:-How is this consumption behavior manifested?Literature ReviewThe following chapter provides an understanding of the theoretical background and academic focus of the paper. Existing contributions and theories are elaborated in order to grasp the bases and reasoning behind the research questions. The chapter walks the reader through an understanding of consumption by introducing postmodernism and the changes that have occurred due to the rise of technology. In addition, it covers the theories and approaches that serve to understand consumption as a phenomenon. Then, the illustration of the behaviors of the postmodern consumer are explored, which finally opens the door to exploring consumption in the current digital sphere. PostmodernismPostmodernism emerges in consumer culture to illustrate the fundamental changes that consumption patterns have witnessed over the years. Postmodernity, as carried by its name “post” and “modernity”, whereby Geertz (1973) conceptualizes modernity in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century where there was a clear distinction between production and consumption, under the shadows of rationality and market economy. Postmodernity is often misunderstood in terms of considering it a negation to modernity, which results in an “ill-defined” terminology (Featherstone, 2007). In fact, postmodernity highlights the lack of cultural inclusion in consumption with respect to the rational and market economy emphasis during the modernity area. Therefore, postmodernity does not represent a negation, but an extension and maturity of modernity (Jencks, 1987). Different cultural, social, and technological changes paved the way to the emergence of new patterns of experiential and self-creation consumption (Van Raaij, 1993). Postmodernism came to life due to a series of social and technological factors that created a new way of living defined as “The postmodern era is the period of information, office workers, differentiated structures, globalism, and fragmented culture” (Van Raaij, 1993, p.542). Individualization and fragmentation are essential social elements behind this movement, along with technological changes based on hyperreality, value realization, and complexity (Van Raaij, 1993). Ihab Hassan (1980) conveys postmodernism into ‘discontinuity, indeterminacy, immanence’. As a matter of fact, the postmodern consumer looks for new differentiated experiences and does not want to commit to grand projects; he is willing to market oneself throughout the numerous situations he or she comes across in order to create the most enjoyable and exciting experience (Fuat Firat, Dholakia & Venkatesh, 1995). The modern society emphasizes how consumers have driven needs rather than need to be driven like in the past. Postmodernity emerged the concept of “customizing” where the consumer decides to utilize, craft, and consume the market offerings through a customized experience (Van Raaij, 1993). Under the customizing umbrella, consumers aim to (re)present a marketable image of themselves through interacting with the market’s objects in a manner that purposefully allows them to position themselves (Van Raaij, 1993). The consumer produces his or her self-image as a marketer of who they are or aspire to show to the world. Individuals communicate who they are through their consumptive choices such as hobbies, sports, or brands. In the current area, the image constitutes the motives behind why consumers purchase or use a product because the product is represented through the image. The value is no longer attributed to the property of the product, but to the image’s property (Van Raaij,1993). Furthermore, the postmodern consumer is conceptualized as a communication subject that no longer passively inherits a constructed social reality without his or her contribution, but rather actively communicates their preferred social reality to live (Fuat Firat, Dholakia, & Venkatesh, 1995). The new literature trends focus on “active” consumers and how individuals shape their consumption and remove the fine line that used to exist between producers and consumers (Gottdiener, 2000).Consumption in the Postmodern EraConsumption has been a focus of study for many researchers that tackled the phenomenon through different perspectives, especially in the postmodern era. The historical roots of consumer culture theory emerge from the broadened focus of consumer researchers to explore consumption in the context of experiential, cultural, and social dimensions that used to be overlooked in the past (Belk ,1987a, 1987b; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Throughout history, consumption has been established as a constructed mode of sociocultural practices that unfold the different bases and ideological elements of dynamic marketplaces (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). In fact, consumer culture represents a social arrangement that establishes linkages between meaningful aspects of life and the material and symbolic resources, additionally between shared culture and social resources (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). Consuming market-made products and the desire to induce symbolic meanings is a core element of the consumer culture; however, this is highly dependent on the manifestation of free personal choice and customized consumption as part of the everyday life private sphere (Holt, 2002). It is important to understand that “consumer culture” as a term captures an interdependent system of produced goods consumed in different and overlapping meanings and identities; serving to create a collective sense of orientation to the experiences and lives of consumers (Kozinets, 2001). Consumer culture theory highlights the heterogeneous variation of meanings and the diverse cultural groupings established, in contrast to viewing culture as a homogenous arrangement of common shared meanings, unified values, and ways of living (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). Consumer culture theory explores how the lives of consumers revolve around a series of realities and how they utilize consumption to create real-life experiences in linkage to elements such as aesthetics and invocative desires, in a manner that is different from what is standardized and quotidian (Belk & Costa, 1998; Deighton & Grayson, 1995; Firat & Venkatesh, 1995; Holt, 2002; Holt & Thompson, 2004; Joy & Sherry, 2003; Kozinets, 2001, 2002; Martin, 2004; Schau & Gilly, 2003; Schouten & McAlexander, 1995). More importantly, Geertz (1983) frames culture in consumer culture theory as “the very fabric of experience, meaning, and action” (Arnould & Thompson, 2005, p.869). Furthermore, consumer culture theory explores the sociocultural and experiential dimensions of consumption, which are not fully attainable through database modeling, surveys, or experiments (Sherry, 1991). It highlights elements such as rituals, symbolism of products, the involvement of consumer stories to create brand meanings, and the meanings that create personal and shared consumer identities (Sherry, 1991). Consumer culture theory redefined and reframed core elements of the marketing sphere such as brand loyalty (Fournier, 1998, McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2000), consumer lifestyles (Holt, 1997; Thompson, 1996), retail experiences (Kozinets, Sherry, Storm, Duhachek, Nuttavuthisit & DeBerry-Spence, 2004; Penaloza, 2001; Penaloza & Gilly, 1999; Sherry, 1998), processing of advertising information (Escalas & Stern, 2003; McQuarrie & Mick, 1999; Scott, 1994; Stern, 1996), and customer satisfaction (Arnould & Price, 1993; Fournier & Mick, 1999).Along these lines, practice theory has gained much attention and has been utilized by several researchers in order to understand the phenomenon of consumption. Bourdieu (1977, 1990), one of the former researchers of practice theory, suggests that consumption practices are structured and have structuring elements at the same time. Bourdieu assumes that people rely on past experiences which create a structure for behavior that subsequently exert power over consumption choices. He refers to this as “habitus” further clarified as “embodied history” (Bourdieu, 1990, p.56) which predisposes people’s actions in certain ways. According to him, consumption is not only structured by habitus, which is formed through one’s upbringing and due to their position in social class, but consumption practices also play a role in structuring or reproducing social class. This perspective results in a dialectic and dynamic relation between social structure and human agency, when describing consumption practices. (Bourdieu, 1990) Building on Bourdieu’s efforts in describing consumption practice, Holt (1995) describes the different activities that take place during consumption. In his article, Holt (1995) builds on existing literature and classifies consumption into four approaches based on metaphors for consumption as “experience, integration, classification, and play”, while describing his observational study of spectators of a baseball team. Thus, this study exemplifies consumption as an activity forming of different types of practices. More recent practice thinking assumed that “consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice.” (Warde, 2005, p.137). Warde (2005, p.137) conceptualizes this by giving an example of how cars and fuel are used up when commuting, to suggest that consumption emerges within practice instead of constituting a practice on its own, or what he refers to as “appropriation occurs within practice”. He proceeds by viewing consumption as driven by, or existing for the sake of, practices, meaning that practices are the generators of individuals’ wants (Warde, 2005). This can be illustrated in a study conducted by Watson and Shove (2008), which examined the consumption relationship between products like nails, screws, and other tools, and DIY and home improvement projects and practices. Thus, the basic assumption of practice theory is that material and immaterial things only become meaningful through practice, and so lack meaning when innate (Emirbayer, 1997; Osterlund & Carlile, 2005). Warde (2005) adds that individuals participate in social practices in diverse ways depending on their past experiences, learning and knowledge, available resources, among other things. Consumers’ consumption patterns and behaviors express significant intrinsic elements that constitute who they are. There seems to be an agreement among scholars about Rosenberg’s (1979, p.7) definition of self-concept as “the totality of the individual's thoughts and feelings with reference to himself as an object”. In fact, Rosenberg (1979) describes that one’s self-concept holds three dimensions: the “extant self”, which is one’s self-perception, the “desired self”, or how a person would like to perceive of themselves, and the “social or presenting self”, referring to the person we aspire to be perceived as in the eyes of other people. There is a constant tension between how a person identifies themselves and how one seeks to affiliate themselves with others (Kleine, Kleine & Allen, 1995). Such affiliative relationships allow individuals to position themselves in social contexts and project their identity (Schau & Gilly, 2003). The role of self-concept is not to be underestimated when it comes to understanding consumption. Self-concept is highly interrelated with consumption as consumers seek to form and publicly communicate their self-concepts by conveying and associating with their possessions (Schau & Gilly, 2003; Thompson & Hirschman, 1995). In the current digital age computer-mediated environments (CMEs) have created new grounds for expression. Users who engage in UGC can share several identities created by texts or images that they decide to post (Nguyen & Alexander, 1996), regardless if these identities are consistent with each other and/or their real lives, or not (Turkle, 1995). In their study, Schau and Gilly (2003, p.385), explore how consumers create their identities by using “signs, symbols, material objects, and places” in digital spheres, more specifically personal websites. Among the findings, the authors revealed that the motives behind consumers creating personal sites was the need for self-presentation of their created selves (Schau & Gilly, 2003; Goffman, 1959). This supports the evidence of postmodernist multiple and situational selves (Anderson, 1997) as creators of such personal sites represent a medium to communicate several selves which might not be entirely possible in real life (Schau & Gilly, 2003). Also, consumers make use of brands to show others who they are, and alternatively who they are not, which is similar to how consumers behave in real life. Not to mention, given that the audience on these personal web spaces is wider, the website creator is more meticulous on what they decide to present, which is heightened by the opportunity of getting a reaction from observers (Schau & Gilly, 2003). Consumption comes in place to reflect the self of consumers in different aspects. In his book ‘Mind, Self and Society’, the pragmatist, and social psychologist George Herbert Mead (1934), calls for the acknowledgement that one’s ‘self’ is in constant interaction with and adaptation to the changing social world. The development of the ‘self’ is the result of continuous participation in society, and contact with other human beings (Mead, 1934). He asserts that the ‘self’ is made up of the subjective ‘I’, not created by outside effect, and the objective ‘me’, which is how one perceives that others see them. The ‘I’ and the ‘me’ are in constant negotiation prior to behavior. Building on the foundations laid by Mead in the early 1900s, Herbert Blumer coined the term symbolic interactionism and established it as a research approach (Blumer, 1966). Three main assumptions form the base of social interactionism. First, individuals act towards things depending on the meanings they assign to them. These ‘things’ can include objects, other individuals, institutions, and other situations which an individual might meet in their social environments on a daily basis. The second premise states that meanings are given to things as a result of social interactions with others in society, and these meanings are from one’s own perspective. Thirdly, these assigned meanings are not permanent, but rather subject to modifications as one continuously interprets the things they encounter. (Blumer, 1966). In addition, Blumer (1966) also argues that as society plays out due to daily interactions, these communications are guided by symbols, body language, physical symbols, and language.Similar to Blumer, and Mead, Giddens (1991), describes the reflexive project of the self in the creation of one’s identity which takes place through a persistent negotiation between “who I am” and “who I want to be”, and this is based on one’s understanding of their social surroundings. Along the same line, Cooley (1956) identifies the concept of ‘looking glass’ to identify how human beings perceive themselves through the eyes of others, which might lead to changes in behavior. From this perspective, the individual and society at large can be considered as “opposite sides of the same coin”, whereby the self is created based on how one believes others perceive of them, initially formed from experiences with one’s family (Denzin, 2016, p.4). Consumption remains a focus of study from different perspectives, but it is inevitable to highlight how the digital world has affected this phenomenon. The postmodern consumer practices Co-creation The emergence of the “active” consumer in the postmodernist era paved the way for co-creation as a fundamental element of today’s consumption. However, co-creation is an intrinsic element of all types of capitalist and non-capitalist economies (Cova, Dalli & Zwick, 2011). Ritzer (2009) emphasises how co-creation is not historically specific to the 21st century capitalism, but rather join production and consumption as the two sides of the same coin. The changes in the market created a customer that no longer wants to be just a passive receiver of the firm's inputs, but rather wants to be a co-creator of value (Payne, Storbacka, Frow & Knox, 2009; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). As a matter of fact, co-creation has evolved dramatically in the recent years. It has been evoked and associated with numerous topics and departments, such as the creation and design of new goods and services (Füller & Matzler, 2007; Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft, & Singh, 2010; Mahr, Lievens & Blazevic, 2014; Matthing, Sanden & Edvardsson, 2004; Nambisan, 2009; Sanders & Stappers, 2008; Sawhney, Verona & Prandelli, 2005), co-production (Bendapudi & Leone, 2003; Etgar, 2008; Ramirez, 1999), innovation resulting from users (Bogers, Afuah & Bastian, 2010; Von Hippel, 2005), the need for customized products (Franke & Piller, 2004; Syam & Pazgal, 2013), roles and participation of consumers, communities, and crowds (Cova & Dalli, 2009; Ind, Fuller & Trevail, 2012; Kozinets, Hemetsberger & Schau, 2008). Under such implications, marketing processes are part of the “consumer-as-creator revolution” (Nadeau, 2007, p.105). Moreover, interactional creation and contribution through the different interactive platforms represent the enactment of co-creation in a digitalized setting (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2018). Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) highlight the fact that interaction represents the core of value creation as co-creation; however, consumers utilize network interactions to co-construct their contextualized value outcome. Co-creation reshaped the understanding and implications of some fundamental theories of marketing such as branding, product innovation, and customer engagement. The social transformations that occurred over the recent decade made co-creation practices the core and center of a company’s economic value creation (Ritzer, 2009; Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010). These transformations are represented through the emergence of the Web 2.0 and Internet, and more particularly what is known as user-generated content. Co-creation is becoming a broader focus of consumers due to the decrease of firms’ control over marketing processes in parallel to the significant rise of web related technologies (Ritzer, 2009; Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010). In fact, consumers are constantly gaining control over marketing processes while it is slipping away from the hands of companies. Social media support co-creation through offering a favorable setting for the emergence of elements such as community engagement and social networking, which results in strengthening the triangle relationship of consumer-brand-other consumers (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2000). Nevertheless, such interdependence between production and consumption resulted in arguing that the constructed social roles of “employee” and “customer” are deriving from their utility (Cardador & Pratt, 2006). More active and contributing consumers can connote with working consumers or customers (Cova & Dalli, 2009; Humphreys & Grayson, 2008; Rieder & Vob, 2010; Zwick, Bonsu & Darmody, 2008). Initially, co-creation is tackled under the umbrella of “customer relationship” through promoting mutually beneficial relationships between a firm and customers, which serve to cover consumer exploitation techniques (Zwick, Bonsu & Darmody, 2008).User-generated Content (UGC)With the explosion of Web 2.0 being the foundation of making the Internet increasingly interactive, UGC, comprising of adding friends, sharing photos, uploading videos, reading blogs and reviews, “liking” images, and other decisions to create content online, can be considered as “the fuel” of social media sites (Obar & Wildman, 2015, p.746). Obar and Wildman (2015, p.746) describe UGC as the “lifeblood of social media” which is progressively connecting people together. According to De Certeau (1980), people in modern societies build their lives and identities from customizing mass-produced objects created by designers, producers, and marketers. Furthermore, in his book titled “Consuming Life”, Bauman (2007) draws the conclusion that contemporary consumer cultures can be thought of as part of a ‘confessional society’ whereby people dread being socially excluded and so feel forced to share their private lives with the public. Thus, ordinary consumers can now communicate with and reach the mass public with the advent of Web 2.0. User-generated content refers to “media content created or produced by the general public rather than by paid professionals and primarily distributed on the internet” (Daughtery, Eastin & Bright; 2008, p.16). Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p.61) provide a similar, more condensed definition “various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users”. A frequently cited definition originates from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2007, which created a more thorough understanding of the spectrum of UGC by identifying three main requirements. The first consideration requires the content to be published on a website that is accessible to the public, or any social networking site involving a specified number of individuals. Second, the material posted must contain a minimal amount of creative added value by the user. Third, user-generated content is to be created “outside of professional routines and practices”, meaning by non-professional individuals, who often do not receive monetary compensation. (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007, p.11) The pervasiveness of UGC in our current days has been attributed to several drivers classified as technological, social, economic, and institutional or legal. Improvements in broadband availability, technological devices and software for creating and sharing content, and the development of platforms like websites and social media, can be considered as technological drivers contributing to the growth of UGC (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007; Manovich, 2009). Such technological advancements have facilitated the creation and dissemination of content among users (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright, 2008; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Smith, Fischer & Yongjian, 2012). As information and communication technology improves, Internet users, led by younger age groups, increasingly desire to express their opinions publicly, and communicate with others (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007). To serve their needs, interactive media is sought and is becoming more popular than traditional media (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright, 2008) where social networking sites encourage online content sharing (Smith, Fischer & Yongjian, 2012). Moreover, heightened interest in monetizing UGC by companies, and lower costs for Internet and available tools for content creation have been economic drivers of UGC creation (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007; Manovich, 2009). Not to mention, more lenient licensing and copyright laws has provided easier routes to access others’ posted photos, videos, or texts, while offering the possibility to build on or add to these available content (Vickery & Wunsch-Vincent, 2007).Literature discusses the advent of brand-related UGC extensively as consumers increasingly decide to feature brands in their created content online. Booth and Matic (2011, p.184) claim that due to the power of Internet and technological advancement “corporate management is witnessing a new form of activism from an influential constituency rarely heard from in the past—ordinary consumers”. The authors add that “The ownership of the brand and its reputation has always belonged to the consumer”, who, by disseminating their stories about brands publicly through social networks, become brand ambassadors and storytellers (Booth & Matic, 2011, p.185). In fact, a great portion of UGC created on a variety of media sources is brand-related and affects brand perceptions (Smith, Fischer & Yongjian, 2012). The power of consumers to influence and shape products and brands is growing (Jevons & Gabbott, 2000; Riegner, 2007; Mu?iz & Schau, 2007; Cova & Dalli, 2009), as branded UGC on social media is increasingly perceived as a reliable and trustworthy source of information (Chu & Kim, 2011). Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit (2011, p.16) classify consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs) into three levels of involvement, “consuming, contributing, and creating”, while highlighting an increasing level of engagement with brands. Consuming activities refer to a minimum level of engagement, such as viewing or listening to brand-related pictures or videos, not to mention reading product reviews or comment threads about brands or products. Contributing and creating activities are more participatory. While contributing activities involve communicating with other users via social media or forums, creating brand-related content signifies the highest type of online brand-related involvement whereby people actively produce and share content about brands by uploading videos, articles, or pictures featuring brands, and writing product reviews or blogs. (Mutinga et al., 2011) The information exchange between customers about a certain product or brand, termed word of mouth (WOM) (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955), has been attributed to greatly affecting decision making (Engel, Blackwell & Kegerreis, 1969; Gilly, Graham, Wolfinbarger & Yale, 1998). Consumers perceive WOM to be more truthful than the persuasive communication generated by marketers (Feick & Price, 1987), and thus rely on such sources for information search prior to purchase. Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has connected consumers on a larger scale than traditional WOM, expanding from one’s direct contacts to the vast world of Internet (Cheung, Luo, Sia & Chen, 2009). The previous definition of eWOM of “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company”, available through the Internet (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh & Gremler, 2004, p.39), has been expanded to include both verbal and visual content such as pictures and videos generated by consumers (Lee & Tussyadiah, 2010). Electronic word of mouth highly interrelated to brand-related UGC, and can function as a way in which consumers can share their consumption experiences with others (Stauss, 2000). Consumption in a Digital SphereThe rise of social media and the creation of a world driven by the Web 2.0 impacted numerous aspects of the market. Consumption defines the consumer’s behavior as “consumption choices and experiences tend to determine one’s taste, values, lifestyle, skills, and ability for future behavior.” (Van Raaij, 1993, p.559). In fact, consumption patterns have evolved with the changes that the digital marketplace have witnessed (Webster, 2010). As defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p.61), social media represent “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content”. Nowadays, social media has incrusted itself in the daily lives of users and revolutionized marketing processes on various levels (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011). Traditional media shape passive consumers and users who are accommodated to receive information externally (Lee & Ma, 2012). However, social media created users that actively participate in the content creation and shape their own consumption behaviors (Szabo & Huberman, 2010). In comparison to traditional media, the digital environment creates a more comprehensive level of interactivity. Social media allow users to interact through an easy click, sort, retrieve, post, advise, purchase, comment, create, or collaborate (Webster, 2010). Furthermore, social media allocated to consumers new innovative ways to share information between users (Lipsman, Mudd, Rich & Bruich, 2012). In fact, users stay informed about each other by following what their community is up to through examining their purchase behaviors, lifestyles, and delineate the words of others (Webster, 2010). Social media strive to “empower individuals to create, share and seek content, as well as to communicate and collaborate with each other” (Lee & Ma, 2012, p.332). The new digital environment widely reshaped consumption and the interaction processes in the market. Consumers are deeply involved in sharing their daily lives and consumption through images and videos shared in posts and stories, which are brought to the public attention (Webster, 2010). The experiments conducted by Vohs, Wang, Gino, and Norton (2013), concluded that rituals enhance consumption, in other words, heightened the anticipated and actual experienced enjoyment received from consumption. In fact, Webster (2010), refers to “contagions” or “viral marketing” to describe the widespread of stories and images in social networks that are powered by digital technologies. There are numerous examples of social media platforms that are social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, creativity work sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr, and business networking sites such as LinkedIn (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). However, the success, popularity, and usage relevance of each one of those platforms have been inflicted over the years through the users. Mangold and Faulds (2009) argue how consumer behavior has been significantly impacted by social media starting from the research and information acquisition phase to the manifestation of post-purchase behaviors of the consumer's journey. Furthermore, the modern consumer plays a major role in developing the consumer-brand relationship because they are no longer solely at the receiving end of the brand messages. Nowadays, brands are investing their efforts to engage customers in an active manner in order to form co-creative experiences (Smith, Stavros & Westberg, 2017).When trying to understand consumption in a digital sphere, and how individuals portray their consumption choices through social media, it becomes inevitable to discuss how internet users generate value around certain brands on social media platforms. Arvidson and Caliandro (2015) aim to establish brand publics as the summation of numerous impressions made about a brand by analyzing Twitter data about the Louis Vuitton brand. The authors establish that brand publics differ from brand communities as they are maintained by experiences that consumers have with the brand on social media mediation devices, they entail communication driven by a desire to share experiences with others or having a collective impact, and the brand meaning consists of users’ assigned meanings based on their use of the brand in the daily lives (Arvidson & Caliandro, 2015). In the contemporary consumer culture, relationships between users of a certain brand through social media are changing and can no longer be limited to brand communities, but rather take the form of brand publics (Arvidson & Caliandro, 2015). Nowadays, a large population of the world is constantly connected and active on social media for various purposes. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that by 2019 the number of global social media users will reach approximately 2.77 billion (Statista, 2019). As of January 2019, the number of active accounts on Instagram reached 1 billion (Statista, 2019), and had 500 million daily active “Stories” users (Statista, 2019). The platform Instagram, launched in 2010 (Siegler, 2010), is a comparatively new social media platform, which has been found relevant for marketing practices in different fields (Phua, Jin & Kim, 2017). This networking platform has been found to attract the most consumer-brand engagement with regards to showing affection, following fashion, and demonstrating sociability (Phua, Jin & Kim, 2017; Hur & Ha, 2015). Along the lines of social media sharing, stories became a significant part of the daily routine of many users that can nowadays choose to share on Snapchat stories, Facebook stories, Whatsapp stories, and Instagram stories. “My story” are the new diary of users that use it to tell their story and share their lives with their community as Lambert (2013) emphasizes this in his book “Digital Storytelling - Capturing lives, creating communities”, These stories are available for 24 hours and allow a certain feeling of scarcity and the need to visualize them before they are gone. Instagram became an important player in the consumption patterns of the modern and connected consumer. MethodologyIn order to reach the objective of the study and be able to answer the research question, the following chapter will establish the methodological decisions taken. First a discussion of the research philosophy will explain the ontological and epistemological stance adopted by the authors. This is followed by a presentation of the chosen research strategy as well as a detailed discussion of the method of data collection, case description, and the data analysis approach. Lastly, the ethical considerations of conducting the study are highlighted along with analyzing the quality of the research. Research PhilosophyThe main aim of our research is to create an interpretative investigation into the outcomes and motives of consumers manifesting their consumption through Instagram stories, thus intending to contribute to current consumer culture theory. As this study is concerned with the uncovering the how-s and why-s of users’ behaviors of creating UGC portraying their consumption, it is safe to assume that it falls under social sciences. The authors believe that in answering our research question, an exploration of consumers’ perspectives will not result in a single truth, and no single opinion of a respondent will have precedence over the other. Thus, our research is rooted in a relativist ontological perspective, where different consumers might have different opinions (Easterby-Smith, Jackson & Thorpe, 2018) with regard to their consumption display through UGC. Consumers occupy the unit of analysis of this study, more specifically the ways in which they make sense of their daily consumption. Consequently, and stemming from the adoption of a relativist point of view, the adopted epistemological position with regards to this subject is that of social constructionism. The ideology of social constructionism assumes that reality is not externally imposed but rather created by individuals upon their interactions with others through language (Easterby-Smith, Jackson & Thorpe, 2018). Such a viewpoint adopts that behavior arises from the way people interpret their experiences (Easterby-Smith, Jackson & Thorpe, 2018). In accordance, our study hopes to explore and appreciate the different experiences that individuals have while sharing Instagram stories, which could explain behavior. Instead of assigning value to measurable and quantifiable facts, this approach places the importance on discovering the ways in which individuals feel, think, and interact with each other, and the meanings that people enact on their experiences (Easterby-Smith, Jackson & Thorpe, 2018). Our research relies heavily on existing literature concerning consumption, while at the same time it does not have the purpose of replicating previous findings, but rather aims to uncover underlying motives and manifestations of consumption as UGC on Instagram stories. For this reason, a purely inductive or deductive approach would not be suitable. Easterby-Smith, Jackson and Thorpe (2018) identify an intermediate position in deciding whether theory or data comes first in the research process. According to this view, there should be a constant oscillating and interactive relationship between theory or existing knowledge, and the gathered data. Thus, we have chosen to rely on an abductive method, as an approach moving between induction and deduction (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2016), which allows for the generation of new knowledge (Andreewsky & Bourcier, 2000). The epistemological narrative forms how the researcher attends to the opinions of the individuals being studied, their responses, and the methods of analysis (Mauthner & Doucet, 1998, 2003). Establishing philosophical foundations that guide our research is crucial in order to clearly identify the appropriate research design to be adopted (Easterby-Smith, Jackson & Thorpe, 2018). Thus, our research design, including what is to be studied, how evidence is to be gathered, and the way to draw interpretations to attempt to answer our research question, will be grounded in the above described research philosophy.Research DesignThe research aims to uncover the motives behind why consumers manifest their consumption through user generated content on Instagram stories, which requires in-depth understanding and description. The presented research is based on a relativistic and constructivist approach. A relativist approach focuses on how entities are existent in an ever-changing manner. In addition, the constructivist approach serves to emphasize how the relevance of knowledge depends on each individual (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2006; Chan & Elliott, 2004). As “the essence of reliability for qualitative research lies with consistency” (Leung, 2015, p.326), the development of this thesis has been constructed in alignment with the epistemological and ontological stance towards the field of study. The level of appropriateness of the research design is defined as validity. In fact, the reliability of the results is based on developing an adequate research design based on choosing the appropriate method, design of questions, and the analysis of the empirical material (Leung, 2015). Therefore, the research design aims to deliver correspondent answers to the exploratory study of the topic studied. MethodThe presented thesis is based on a qualitative research, which is constructed based on its exploratory goals to understand the different aspects of social life, along with a data analysis method that is based on words instead of numbers (McKusker & Gunaydin, 2015). In order to obtain accurate and relevant data, photo elicitation from the participants were obtained in order to uncover the different layers to be discovered and create an interactive exchange when conducting the interviews (see Appendix A). Each participant provided a set of archived stories that they posted on their Instagram feed. The option to retrieve previous stories from the archives option in Instagram serves the need of the research in a great manner. The pictorial content gathered serve to create an important basis for exchange and analysis during the discussions carried in the interviews. In fact, face-to-face semi-structured interviews have been chosen for the qualitative method adopted. In fact, semi-structured interviews represent an objective and unbiased method of research, while providing a real life and intimate exchange that creates a natural flow of discussion with an emphasis on interpreting the non-verbal language and cues. (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015). Moreover, the interviewer has the flexibility of altering the questions and proceedings of the interview depending the responses gathered, which serves to uncover the elements that serve the research purpose (Jones, 1985). To illustrate this matter, a sample of the interview guide can be found in Appendix B. The interviewer plays an important role by acting as an adequate communication facilitator due to the interactions that occur through the discussion (Sullivan, 1954).A lack of intersubjectivity might occur during interviews because researchers asking the same questions with the same contestant might not achieve the same outcomes, which is mainly due to the influence the interviewer might have during the exchange (Jones, 1985; Kvale, 1994). Therefore, it is tolerated and predicted that the outcomes of the research might not lead to generalization (Kvale, 1994; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015); however, it uncovers in-depth insights on how consumption is portrayed in the Instagram stories shared by the social media users. Moreover, in comparison to focus groups, qualitative in-depth interviews allow the researchers to grasp a good understanding of the topic at hand, which would be hard to achieve through a different angle (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015). Case Description The theoretical framework developed by the researchers has been created to set a good foundation to understand the different implications of the topic at hand. Consumption has always been a matter of interest in the aim to understand consumers and their behavior patterns. In addition, the changes that the world witnessed with the emergence of postmodernism and social media have reshaped the way consumers behave. The research aims to uncover why and how consumers portray their consumption through Instagram stories. Nowadays, social media has incrusted itself in the daily lives of users and revolutionized marketing processes (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011). The way social media imposed itself in the life of people all over the world has gained high interest during the recent years, but little research has been attributed to stories, which makes it an interesting field to discover. Leung (2009) highlights the need to focus the research towards understanding social media, which indicates a need for a specific user generated content. Therefore, the researchers grasped the significant pictorial content shared on Instagram. In fact, the choice of Instagram stories relies on how they have gained a big part of the life of individuals because everyone became so eager to share instant moments on a daily basis. Instagram gained significant popularity over the years even when it was just during the time where only posts were present. By 2018, Instagram gained over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide (Statista, 2019). However, the introduction of stories changed the way individuals use Instagram and what they share with others. Therefore, it is crucial to uncover the different aspects of how Instagram stories became part of the daily consumption patterns of individuals. Data CollectionThe target population for this research is formed of young and educated individuals, both men and women, who belong to the millennial cohort. It was important to find respondents who were somewhat heavily engaged in posting Instagram stories, defined by us as users who post at least 10 stories per week, as these individuals seem more prone to display their everyday lives through stories. This requirement was screened through our observation of individuals’ frequency of posts and verified by the interview questions. The final sample consisted of 10 interviews, with the average time for an interview being 31.05 minutes. In actuality, the study consisted of participants ranging from 23 to 32 years old, who were recruited based on convenience sampling, meaning from the immediate or referred network of the authors. Considering that our objective is to discover how users manifest their consumption with a focus on the story feature on Instagram, we decided not to implement nationality requirements for our study, as the use of Instagram stories is universal. A summary of the respondents’ profile and the duration of each interview can be found in Table 1. Table 1 Overview of participant detailsEthical Considerations In any form of research, it becomes imperative to take into account ethical considerations that have to be carried throughout the research in order to guarantee the interests of those involved in the discussion, as well as the objectivity of the research process (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015). The main ethical concerns in research discussed by Bryman and Bell (2015) include deception of participants, failing to ensure that no harm would be caused to them or their dignity, lack of informed consent, and lack of ensuring privacy and confidentiality of the participating individuals. In hopes of tackling such issues, suitable measures were taken throughout the interviewing process.Prior to conducting the interviews, a thorough explanation was provided to the participants informing them about the main subject area of our study by expressing our interest in exploring their Instagram activity through the ‘Stories’ feature. The participating individuals were also asked to allow us to take a look at their previously posted Instagram stories, and to choose four which they would have to answer questions about during photo elicitation. This was important to ensure that no false information was provided to the individuals, and that they fully understood the interview process. They were also aware that their participation in our study was completely voluntary and they could decide to terminate the interview at any point without their discussions being used in our research. Furthermore, a verbal consent was recorded at the beginning of each interview, confirming the fact that participants were aware of being recorded and give us permission to use their answers in our analysis. The participants also willingly accepted to send us the four stories chosen for elicitation during the interview and approved their usage in our reporting of empirical results. In order to create a comfortable and safe environment where individuals can freely share their opinions, the interviews were conducted in quiet locations and at times that were accommodating to the participants’ needs. The participants of the study were also informed that their identities would remain completely confidential and pseudonyms (P1-10) would replace their names throughout the research. Not to mention, when using the content used for photo elicitation in the empirical findings section, all measures would be taken to hide the names and faces of any individuals in the content. While designing the discussion guide, careful attention was given to avoid using leading or loaded questions which might adversely influence the opinions and responses of the participants (Gill, Stewart, Treasure & Chadwick, 2008). To ensure authenticity of the participants’ answers, leading questions were also avoided while probing for additional insight during the discussion. Data Analysis MethodIt is essential to highlight the fact that the analysis of qualitative data carries creative and intuitive traits, which can be quite challenging in describing the proceedings of the analysis (Patton, 2005). In order to analyze the interviews conducted, a content analysis approach has been adopted in order to develop systematic conclusions that are uncovered from the empirical findings. A conventional content analysis has been adopted in order to analyze the interviews since this type of design is judged to be adequate when prior theory and research is limited (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The categories used result from the flow of the data instead of using predetermined categories (Kondracki & Wellman, 2002). For the proceedings of the interviews, the usage of open-ended questions aims to uncover the different elements to be explored about the topic. The researcher transcribed all the interviews before proceeding to the analysis. Moreover, the focus of the analysis tends to rely heavily on the comments and responses obtained rather than pre-existing theoretical background (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Tesch (1990) introduces the first step of the data analysis as if it is reading a novel because the researchers start with reading all the empirical material many times to grasp a good understanding of the data. Furthermore, the empirical material is decrypted word by word to be able to come up with the codes (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Morgan, 1993; Morse & Field, 1995) through detecting the words that apprehends the main concepts. Consequently, an initial analysis starts to take place by developing the labels for codes that reflect the key elements to be discovered. The initial coding scheme results from the text by highlighting the words that reflect the key elements. The codes are developed and sorted based on the different linkages that exist. Meaning clusters emerge as a result of organising the different group codes obtained previously (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996; Patton, 2002). Based on the relationship between the subcategories obtained, the definitions of each one is developed. It is also important to highlight the role that the theoretical background plays in developing the analysis. The interviews that were conducted have been screened and analyzed thoroughly by following the coding structure described by identifying the different key elements to be discovered and explored. A main advantage of the conventional content analysis is to obtain direct information from the participants while not heavily imposing theoretical perspectives (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). On the other hand, it can be challenged if the researchers fail to identify one of the key factors. The focus is to develop a data analysis that grasps all the key concepts by developing appropriate themes that answer the research questions. It was essential to use an adequate data analysis method for analyzing the motives of people to illustrate their consumption through Instagram stories and how this consumption behavior is manifested. Quality of the ResearchIn order to define the quality of a study, a series of different concepts and foundations are adopted. In addition, it is important to have them aligned with the epistemology and ontology defined in the research process. As a matter of fact, quantitative research relies on the concepts of validity, reliability, and generalizability (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015; Bryman & Bell, 2007); however, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability are usually used in qualitative research (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Since the objectives of the thesis are served based on a qualitative perspective, it is crucial to evaluate the authenticity and trustworthiness of the research.Qualitative research is characterized by the variance in the interpretations and perspectives in understanding certain outcomes; however, credibility is determined when the findings presented are accepted by others (Bryman, Becker & Sempik, 2008). According to Bryman and Bell (2007), it represents an essential pillar of defining the trustworthiness of the research. Credibility is assured by making sure to adopt an adequate research design and process, which can be attained by the usage of triangulation (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Bryman, Becker, & Sempik, 2008; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015). In fact, the usage of semi-structured interviews supported by observation created an appropriate setting of exchange to serve triangulation. Furthermore, transferability is essential in determining if the findings can be projected in different settings and scenarios. Qualitative findings are perceived as “hold in some other context, or even in the same context at some other time, is an empirical issue” (Guba & Lincoln, 1989, p.316). Transferability is also referred to as generalization of the results (Bryman & Bell, 2007). The researchers conducted several interviews while keeping a good balance between genders and covering different ages that serve the need of the research, which accentuates the transferability of findings. In fact, “One cannot overemphasize the importance of closely examining the quality of data before embarking on their analysis” (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015), which has been carefully carried by using a content analysis approach.Furthermore, dependability plays an important role in defining the trustworthiness of the research. Dependability refers to the ‘auditing’ of the whole process, where the researchers keep records of the different phases of the development of the paper (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Bryman & Bell, 2007). It affirms to what extent the theoretical inferences are well supported and justified (Bryman & Bell, 2007). The researchers made sure to keep well-structured records of all the different steps through a well-established systematic manner to avoid any issues with dependability. The confirmability serves to ensure that even if complete subjectivity in qualitative research in impossible, it is important the researchers act in good faith with no personal goals of influence on the research (Bryman & Bell, 2007). Throughout the development of the thesis, the researchers made sure to leave any personal interests aside and act in an ethical manner constantly. By making sure to convey to all these elements, the thesis at hand carries a significant degree of authenticity and trustworthiness.AnalysisIn the aim to understand consumption in the current digital world, the main research objectives of the thesis at hand aims to explore how and why consumption is manifested through Instagram stories. The following chapter serves to analyze the responses obtained from the participants and present them into different themes under exploring consumption through Instagram stories and identifying its personal and social motives. Consumption through Instagram Stories Illustration of Consumption in Instagram StoriesThe in-depth interviews made it evident how extensively participants showcased their consumption behavior through Instagram stories. The participants asserted that by posting stories on Instagram, they were showing pieces of their lives which often entail ordinary “daily life” events, but also commonly include moments that are extraordinary, and which break away from the everyday routine. As consumption is deeply rooted in everyone’s daily lives, and where “all the world is consumable experience” (Slater, 1977, p.15), stories not only seem to offer interviewees a tool to express their consumption behaviors and activities, but also included a form of articulation of their moods, feelings, and emotions.Social media has become interwoven with the daily lives of individuals (Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden, 2011), encouraging consumers to find it rather facilitated to share with the public their lives and consumption through images and videos (Webster, 2010). As they attempt to translate what is happening during their day, the participants agreed that their stories consisted heavily about posting content of food which they themselves cooked, or otherwise ordered at a new or often fancy restaurant. Many also chose to portray their hobbies and interests such as playing or following sports like basketball, and tennis, in addition to reading and spending time with friends and family members. It was not uncommon for them to have Instagram stories about their work environments, and professions. In addition, pictures of nature, or simply the environment which they encounter on a daily basis in their cities, as well as animals were also frequently featured in stories. It is also noteworthy to mention that a few of the participants, admitted that they found pleasure in posting stories which included pieces of their clothing and fashion taste. As practice theory suggests, such material and immaterial things gain meaning through practice (Emirbayer, 1997; Osterlund & Carlile, 2005), more specifically the routine practice of displaying consumption through Instagram stories.Participant 1: “(daily life) It includes some stuff that I cook, or let’s say if I open a bottle of beer and have a glass of beer in the sun, stuff like that. Also, if I go for a walk in the park and I see a rabbit, or a hamster, or a nice bird.”Participant 5: “For example, I post a lot of things about animals, so we have four cats in our office, and they are like my daily entertainment.”Participant 3: “I post my friends and family members, so if my sister does something that I am proud of, I post it. If my mom and dad look happy together, I’m proud of the moment, I post it.”Participant 3: “Sometimes I post about my job because it’s a part of my life, I spend 6 to 7 hours a day there, so I post my colleagues, what I’m doing, the atmosphere, the environment.”Furthermore, other than portraying their daily lives through stories, all the participants mentioned creating Instagram stories of their unusual experiences which not necessarily constitute their everyday lives but is still part of their consumption behavior. Such photos and videos showcased the participants’ consumption activities while traveling to different countries, and interacting with other cultures, or simply different areas within the country they live in. Events such as birthdays, holiday parties like Christmas, and even office lunches had a share in what participants were posting stories about. Not to mention, stories regularly involved concerts, festivals, and any other activities which they decided were interesting as it did not constitute something they would usually do on a day to day basis.Participant 5: “I just wanted to show people what’s going on in different parts of the Philippines, and different dances, and different cultures, different art, different music, yet so beautiful.”Participant 7: “I go to a lot of concerts and festivals and stuff, so I’m one of those annoying people that posts long videos of the bands playing.”Participant 1: “Mostly about daily life, because as I said I try to post daily, however you know, mainly when I travel and I see something that interests me or something that is beautiful, because you know when you are a tourist you go and see them, beautiful things and interesting things, so I post those.”Stories CreationAll the participants described adding features such as filters, text, gifs, location, voting polls, music, and hashtags to their content prior to posting it as their story. Blumer (1966) claims that communications in society based on daily interactions are manifested through aspects such as symbols and language. Editing pictures and videos this way was considered as necessary to provide a complete and accurate background story for the viewers, or in order for the participants’ followers to be more informed. Also, such features were said to aid in making the story more visually or aesthetically appealing or add a humor and entertaining aspect.Participant 2: “Sometimes just a picture is not enough, sometimes I need to transfer the mood, or the state of mind I’m in, so it’s very good to add something to it just so people can relate to whatever is happening around me, so they can feel the same thing.”Participant 5: “They (features) are like so explanatory, they just explain your mindset in a very animated and funny way, I think they are funny.”Participant 3: “Sometimes the picture itself isn’t that interesting so by adding colors or filters or just like these gifs, they make it more appealing to my followers on Instagram, so for example black and white… a picture could look very dull and adding a color to it makes it look more vibrant, and the same applies if the picture is not that waw or interesting, you can put a black and white filter and it will look appealing.”Participant 4: “Sometimes I think the filter makes the story look better, like at that moment you were capturing some kind of funny moments and then you just put the funny music in it and it gives more of this kind of feeling when people look at the video.”Participant 9: “I have to be honest that I do spend quite some time looking for the right filter, design, text or GIF. They have to look appealing.”Participant 10: “Stories are about showing the great side of your life and showing off what you are doing, so editing and making them look nice is part of it.”The Popularity of Stories Instagram stories have become a means for people to tell their personal narratives or life stories. Such narratives act as cultural building blocks for individuals’ everyday lives (Wertsch, 1998). For the participants interviewed, posting their daily consumption through Instagram stories, while at the same time peeking into the day to day consumption of others, has become a highly ritualistically embedded behavior, which brings great pleasure. Rituals, as such, have been proven to provide consumers with greater enjoyment (Vohs, Wang, Gino & Norton, 2013).Participant 4: “I feel like what I post has become my routine already. When I see something new, when I see something interesting, when I visit new places, I am used to posting. It’s not because I got influenced by my friends.”The conversations with the interviewees have verified the importance and suitability of studying and understanding consumption through the function of Instagram stories. In comparison to stories, regular posts were seen as more rigid, and less honest means to reflect on people’s lives. This is because, according to the participants, regular posts had to be perfect pictures or videos that represent major life events and can only be made up of a limited number of posts. Participant 3: “For me the post should be something that is important or really nice or a moment that you don’t want to forget like a graduation, or a day at the beach, but one that you really enjoyed.”Stories, on the other hand, do not need to be perfect, and so are perceived by the participants as more of a sincere representation and even continuation of daily life. Stories were described as offering a quick, less staged, and more spontaneous tool to show one’s daily demeanor. Stories also allow users to show more since it is socially acceptable to post several stories, as opposed to regular posts. Thus, they create a more convenient form of sharing activities, as well as a more honest depiction where individuals can act a bit sillier. As Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, participants felt that this function allowed users to manifest moments of behavior and feelings. Stories were compared to a form of ephemeral arts, while many stressed that it offered a sort of exclusive look into individuals’ lives, especially since people are sometimes too busy to check stories and so might miss out on watching some. As Lambert (2013) described it, stories create an impression of scarcity prompting users to engage with stories before they disappear.Participant 1: “…but with the stories, it’s more dynamic, it’s more spontaneous I feel, you get to feel the moment with them somehow, it gives you a feeling of the moment.”Participant 2: “Instagram stories are a reflection of people. What I like about them is that they last just 24 hours, so they show you the daily aspects, daily feelings, daily states of mind of people whatever they feel, even whatever they are feeling like posting. So when they post something they are in the mood for that thing, maybe the next day they won’t be, so you get to follow people if they post regularly, you get to know how they are feeling every day, .... It’s a manifestation of human behavior usually.”Participant 3: “So I think the purpose is to showcase something that you enjoyed, or that you liked, or that you find interesting, but you want it to go away, not stay for the rest of your life.”Participant 8: “Instagram has been telling me that I can put stories in the highlights, but I do not want to because I want them to be there for 24 hours only.”Participant 5: “They are not permanent, to me they are like ephemeral art, it’s not there the whole time, which means it’s not constant, it changes, for example art with ice, art with leaves, you know all of this fades with the wind, it’s just there for the time it is.”Participant 6: “When people post a regular post, it’s something that they want to stay there forever, so the post is most of the time edited, it’s carefully chosen.”Participant 6: “With stories, you just take it as you go along your activities, so let’s say I’m cooking and I want to show this part of the preparation process, I just take a story and leave it out there. Sometimes there is too much zoom on the picture, it doesn’t show what’s happening, but I just keep it, it’s fine.”Participant 7: “Because on Instagram it’s so much about the filter, and the right photo, and posting at a certain time, I feel like it is more staged, whereas Instagram stories is very in the moment, very active, it’s like seeing what people actually like or what people actually do, especially when you see people who post when they are drunk and then they delete it because they realize like oops maybe I was too honest.”Although stories were described as more spontaneous, more flexible, and more accepting of imperfections, the participants still held stories to a high standard. It seemed imperative that they contain a value or message, otherwise someone’s stories could be deemed as meaningless.Participant 2: “If there is no sort of message or reflection about their stories, I wouldn’t like to see it because they wouldn’t mean anything to me.”Participant 3: “Sometimes the post becomes so, I don’t want to say a bad term, but stupid maybe, like they don’t have any meaning, they are meaningless.”Reality or FictionThe emergence of social media in the daily lives of individuals and how it became an essential part in the way they live and consume reflect a series of personal elements in regards of what they decide to share and express. In fact, Instagram stories portray the daily life of the users and uncover different elements on who they are and what they are doing. The contemporary consumer cultures created a confessional society that make individuals feel forced to share their private lives in a public manner in order to not feel socially excluded (Bauman, 2007). The way people create, edit, consume, and share stories reflect a series of important elements that define why and how their consumption is manifested through such channels. It is important to highlight how human beings as social individuals have always been striving to create a certain status, image, and identity in the environment where they live in order to feel special and differentiated. It became essential for consumers to share their daily lives and consumption patterns through the images and videos they post in order to communicate it to the public (Webster, 2010).According to Bourdieu (1990), consumption practices play a role in reproducing individuals’ social class. People often portray themselves to others in the most positive manner and aim to show that they are conducting a successful life. The definition of this success and identity varies from one person to another depending on their personality and personal standards; however, the core elements remain the same. The consumption patterns also fall within these lines in the way that people choose to use certain products and services in a manner that would give them the personal affirmation that they have attained a series of achievements that define them to be ‘successful’. However, since Instagram stories represent just a screenshot that can maneuvered by the individuals, it does not always reflect the true reality. Users who engage in user generated content can share several identities created by texts or images that they decide to post (Nguyen & Alexander, 1996), regardless if these identities are consistent with each other and/or their real lives, or not (Turkle, 1995). The interviews conducted and the previous reflections in the analysis uncover how users dedicate time and effort to snap the right image or video and spend a considerable amount of time editing them to create the perfect story. This leads to asking to what extent are these stories a true representation of their lives and their consumption patterns. Throughout the proceeding of the interviews, participants highlighted their own perception on whether Instagram stories reflect the reality or just a partial or fictional life of the users. In fact, some individuals accentuated the fact that what they share in their stories reflects who they are, what they consume, and how they live their lives as mentioned: participant 1:" I’m not posting fake stuff, I’m posting from my life, I use the phone that is in my pocket, I don’t use a professional camera, I take out the phone, and take a video, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good. It’s my life."Participant 4: “It’s the very reality of what I am doing or who I am let’s say” These quotes from participants 4 and 5 state that what they post in their stories serve to express the reality of their lives. It is inevitable to affirm that they are individuals who know how to stay true to themselves and to present themselves in any social setting in their true colors. But this is rather arguable since human beings are social creatures who strive to confidently affirm their presence and who they are in society. It is also important to highlight how these same participants talk about how they spend quite some time editing their stories and feel good when they receive positive feedbacks and approval of their stories, which comes to question how paradoxical their behaviors and judgments might seem. When people decide to engage in social media and make their lives public, they are seeking to be seen by others as highlighted by participant 2: Participant 2: “It’s a manifestation of human behavior usually, sometimes they just need some attention, you can help them, sometimes they want to show some achievements as well, so it’s very interesting to see how humans react, how they like to project themselves to people.” The way people project themselves in their Instagram stories aim to communicate a certain image about who they are to the viewers. This supports the evidence of postmodernist multiple and situational selves (Anderson, 1997) as creators of such personal sites represent a medium to communicate several selves which might not be entirely possible in real life (Schau & Gilly, 2003). It is as if they are marketing themselves through their consumption and creating a positioning of what type of Instagram users they want to be. For example, some individuals seek to be the funny type, the intellectual type, the traveler type, or even just the lazy type. It is a matter of choice and framing, Furthermore, other participants uncovered important elements on how Instagram stories do not always reflect the reality as mentioned: Participant 9: “(laughs) Well even if we do not want to admit it but everyone just shares things that are appealing and make people think that they are having such a great and happy life, even if the reality is totally different. Basically it is all about sharing the right angle.” Participant 9: “Well to be honest, Instagram stories are all about sharing something that looks good and how you are having a great moment even if the reality might be different.”Participant 10: “It is undeniable that the life we chose to portray in our stories only reflects what we choose to show or how we want others to think we live our life. So yeah, it is more of a fictional life.”In fact, the inputs from these participants indicate how stories are about sharing the right picture, right moment, and right angle of the life they want to show to others. Social media became just an expansion of the social behaviors that have been present for long years. The importance of understanding such elements lays in how it shapes the consumption of people since it all becomes about sharing it on their social media. It is important for marketers to capture these factors in order to know how to appeal to the postmodern consumer and make sure to be incorporated in their consumption. Moreover, individuals always try to portray themselves as successful and achieved persons for both personal and social reasons that will be uncovered in the later sections. Change in Consumption Consumption is a phenomenon that has been studied throughout the years with the aim of understanding consumers and their behaviors. It is important to highlight the role that the Web 2.0 has played in reshaping the lives of individuals and more specifically their consumption patterns. In fact, consumption behaviors and patterns have changed in parallel with the changes that happened in the digital marketplace (Webster, 2010). Social media allowed individuals to become open to the whole world with an easy access to share, communicate, and get any type of information in a simple click. Social media users are now subject to sharing their lives and the different products and services they consume instantly. Consumption has become driven by the need to share and show others how individuals enjoy their daily life. Moreover, it became common for individuals to go to places, purchase products, and show off certain brands just because they are ‘Instagrammable’. Such behaviors clearly speak for how consumption has witnessed a significant change due to the usage of Instagram stories. Instagram has emerged as a tool to take a screenshot of the moment and consumption behaviors of the users on the spot. It is not always an easy task to clearly see how the incorporation of Instagram stories have changed people’s consumption as mentioned: Participant 2: “Well, I believe it has, somehow, but not in a very very big way, but it is definitely different than how it used to be before, now you get to know where people are, what they are doing on a daily basis. Before that they would just post something and it could be like 2 weeks ago, and it would stay there, and you wouldn’t know where that picture was taken or how long ago. With Instagram stories it’s every 24 hours, you feel like you are updated, you are living with those people, you’re updated of their status or whatever they are doing, or whatever they are interested in right now, so you get to know more about people on a more personal level.”Participant 4: “I will say that it did not change anything or how I live my life, but it added another activities to my life, like when I go to the restaurant, way before Instagram, I would have never taken a picture and posted it, but now I do, I think it’s like they have given us an additional task in our lives. Or when you visit some places, you might just take some photos and keep it or print it at home or show friends from your mobile or from your camera. But at this point with Instagram stories, you can portray that moment live and then send it as your story, and people can see right away where you are and what you are doing.”These quotes from participants 2 and 4 indicate the fact that it requires some reflection to actually realize to what extent the consumption patterns of Instagram users have changed. It became such an essential part to take a picture or video as an additional task during the consumption process, making it something that became part of their consumer journey. It allows people to portray who they are, where they go, and what they consume constantly and according to their likings. At the same time, it allows them to be informed about others and the different things they consume. This means that the flow of information and the role that consumers play in marketing have evolved significantly. Not to mention, given that the audience on these personal web spaces is wider, the website creator is more meticulous on what they decide to present, which is heightened by the opportunity of getting a reaction from observers (Schau & Gilly, 2003). In fact, checking other people’s stories as a source of information and inspiration became such a common behavior. When a person sees the people they follow consuming a certain product or brand, they are motivated to do the same thing. If they have a question about a product or service, they can easily ask the person who posted about it and get an instant reply. Brands and companies need to be aware of these changes if they want to ensure their success and make sure to capitalize on such marketing opportunities. Along these lines, the consumption of individuals have changed due to how consumers strive to find the perfect story to share. During this process, they look for the perfect restaurant to post in, the nice meal to capture, or the brand that will amaze the viewers of their stories. This is an element that companies and brands need to adapt to in order to be part of the Instagram trend and push their target segment to consume their products and services while spreading the word to their community for free. These elements have been highlighted by participant 7 in the following quote: Participant 7: “Maybe not that much, because I used to take a lot of pictures personally before as well, but I mean I take a lot of photos through the app as well, and photos of what I do during the day, so I think it has changed that behavior maybe. Also when I do something I think: oh I want to post this on my story or it would be nice to have this photo and you think about a certain video or angle or if people go somewhere to eat you think: oh I want to go there and post it on my story. It sounds so sad as well, but as a person I think a lot of people think that way as well.”Motives behind Consuming through Instagram StoriesPersonal DimensionOne of the main motives identified in the interviews for consuming through Instagram stories has been that of the personal dimension. The age of postmodernism is governed by fragmentation and complexity, as well as the decentering of the subject (Venkatesh, 1989). In fact, in postmodernity, consumers seek to delve into novel and exciting experiences (Fuat Firat, Dholakia & Venkatesh, 1995) and engage with market offerings to build their self-image, and to position themselves (Van Raaij, 1993). Since consumer culture theory allows consumption to be addressed from a more symbolic and experiential aspect (Arnould & Thompson, 2005; McCracken, 1986), the reason that people decide to showcase their daily consumption behavior through stories has personal underlying roots. As so, what consumers decide to consume is highly dependent on their values, taste, and lifestyle, and so inevitably through consumption decisions, people are able to communicate their identities and interests (Van Raaji, 1993).Identity Formation:In the digital world, a main motive which Schau and Gilly (2003) identified for creating personal sites was the need to present one’s created self by using symbols, objects, and places, among other things. Individuals who create user generated content can also portray their identities, sometimes multiple ones, through the text or photos they decide to post (Nguyen & Alexander, 1996).Participant 7: “(Instagram Stories) It is about how you communicate, not just your values, but how you represent yourself. It’s kind of like building your story I would say.”As technology continues to infiltrate our lives, social media, more specifically Instagram stories, allow for a better understanding of consumption and consumer behavior. Moreover, as the above quote demonstrates, Instagram stories provide a popular means for people to create and portray their identities. Rosenberg (1979) identifies three dimensions of one’s self-concept, the extant, the desired, and the presenting self. Many times, during the interviews, the participants were able to honestly, and eloquently describe how they would like others, i.e. their Instagram followers, to perceive of them based on what they post as stories. It was important to many interviewees to be seen as fun individuals with a sense of humor, and who lead interesting lives. Participant 3: “Well, I want to be seen as a creative person, stylish person, up to date, in on the trends, in on the new places that are upcoming, I’d like to be known as someone who is enthusiastic, who goes to the new places, and is fun”Participant 7: “Thinking about the content I post, I want to be perceived as a person who likes having fun, who likes to travel, who has great taste in music obviously, but also kind of enjoys nature, the whole skiing aspect and being outdoor.”Participant 8: “I think I want to be perceived as someone that cares about design, aesthetics, someone funny and likes to make fun of herself or things that happen, bring a smile to other people, and someone that also enjoys moments and wants to share them with others when I am with friends or people that I love.”Participant 10: “I think in general I want to be seen as a woman who enjoys life and a certain lifestyle. I mean I share different things and try to give this whole image of a person who knows how to balance between school and all the other activities she likes to do.”Participant 9: “I have never thought about this before, but I would say that I want to be seen as a successful young adult who manages to maintain a good career and an entertaining lifestyle.”Interestingly, while most respondents provided adjectives they would like to associate with, a few also clearly identified “professions” they would like to be considered as, such as chefs, divers, and tennis player.Participant 6: “so my close friends call me chef Shifty so I’d like to be perceived as a chef, even though I’m not a chef, but I really like cooking, so you can see that many of my stories are related to food, and this is the image I am giving out to the public.”Participant 2: “I posted it as a funny, somehow nice video, but it was actually promoting my abilities as a tennis player as well, as an ex-professional player.”Participant 1: “So as I mentioned before, I’m an amazing diver, and an amazing cook, so amazing diver-cook.”The desire to present themselves as they would like to be perceived is clear through the content of the respondents’ stories and how they describe this content during photo elicitation. Often times the respondents did not outright describe themselves in a positive light, or as an image they were trying to project, but by analyzing the content descriptions they provided, other aspects of identity creation through consumption on Instagram stories became clear. By posting pictures of fancy restaurants and meals, or while on a plane in first class, participants aim to be seen as affluent. Content of traveling to different countries, or attending events and concerts aims to portray a person who is cultured, intriguing, and adventurous.Participant 9: “Well to be really honest about it, I realize that showing that I am sitting in the VIP lounge kind of seems like I am showing off for the fact that I am flying in the business class. I am, we all try to create a certain image and take advantage of such situations to show how well we are doing in our lives.”Figure 4.1 Instagram stories posted by participants As one participant described the content of a picture he posted after seeing the aftermath of the new year’s fireworks polluting the streets, it was obvious that through that photo, he wanted to be perceived as a person who cares for the environment.Participant 4: “I just wanted to say that we can celebrate the new year and it can be beautiful without the fireworks. You can have these kinds of fireworks, but it has to be better regulated because it produces so much trash and the world is polluted enough, and you should not produce anymore trash into this beautiful world.”When describing a blurry picture of a yellow taxi she has posted on her story, one participant describes adding a quote whereby she was trying to convey that she is an optimistic person with a positive outlook on life.Participant 3: “I thought it shows the creativity I have within me and I added a quote which says: when life gets blurry adjust your focus, so it’s a motivational quote and I always like to keep myself motivated and show the people around me that you have to keep going, you have to stay motivated.” Another participant, when describing one of her stories, is clearly motivated to manifest her consumption of a book she is reading in order to seem smart and knowledgeable.Participant 7: “I’m sitting with very relaxed clothes and my sandals on, having a cup of coffee which I strategically placed on a book where you can see the title, and the title is called “The End of Your Life Book club” and it’s a sad but very nicely written book which I thought was kind of intellectual.”It is noteworthy to mention that the self which consumers aim to communicate might not be a single self, but rather, as typical of postmodernist thought, might consist of several or situational selves (Anderson, 1997), whereby some of the identities created might not be consistent with that of a person’s real identity (Turkle, 1995).Participant 2: “That’s the good thing about stories, you can show all aspects of yourself. There is not one image that I want people to see but there is like this whole persona that I am trying to project in my stories. I would like people to see that I am professional, that I’m serious, that I’m very good at what I do, but at the same time I would like them to see the personal side of me like my sense of humor, the way I deal with people, and the way I deal with any kind of situation”Participant 9: “It is a way to portray myself as a person who is health conscious, even if it is not really the case most of the time.”Such narratives act as useful means for the formation of identities, both collective and that of the self (Wertsch, 1998). Respondents also expressed their aim in showing their hobbies and interests through their Instagram stories. Through their consumption of the things they enjoy doing, and by posting these experiences on their stories, their self-presentation was aided.Figure 4.2 Instagram stories posted by participantsParticipant 2: “I was actually showing my interest in this sport and all aspects of it, it was also a little bit to show off that I have these rackets and specifically those brands of rackets, they are very rare, legends used to play with them, and I happened to collect them so it is somehow to show off my collection as well to the people, my interest.”Participant 7: “Also, I am very interested in skiing and I have done a ski season before so it’s also more about the connection to the fact that I like skiing and to show that now I’m skiing and that’s nice.”Participant 7: “But it is just part of me being at the festival showing the music I like, so it’s more about showing my music taste.”Participant 6 on why he likes posting about food: “Because food is my number one hobby if you would say, I like eating, I like cooking, I like everything related to food.”Participant 8: “I decided to post this picture because it was a great night for me because I have been quite artistic my whole life. And that night some friends decided to paint together. It was a happy moment because I felt like I could paint again, enjoy it, while drinking wine and talking with friends.”Participant 10: “I always enjoy travelling, so I share my travels very often.”Branded StoriesWhen users share stories of their daily consumption on Instagram they tend to include vast aspects; however, it is inevitable to notice the presence of brands in the stories of the participants. In fact, users include different “branded” stories depending on their consumption habits and interests. Moreover, brands are an important part in understanding the way people consume through their Instagram stories. The prominent presence of brands can be perceived to serve different purposes and can be due to several reasons. Brands and labels have always been an intangible asset that all companies try to capitalize on because they realize to what extent they play a critical role in defining their positioning and relationship with customers. The brand is the bridge between the company and the consumer (Holt, 2002). Companies always strive to create a significant brand awareness and positioning in the minds of the target markets (Holt, 2002). The following responses elaborate on illustrations of how brands were incorporated into the stories of the participants:Figure 4.3 Instagram stories posted by participantsParticipant 3: “There are some brands that you’ve been seeing a lot these days and we got bored of them. This brand on the other hand , it’s a really well-known brand yet it’s not very popular, it’s the niche brand, you feel like the people who wear them are really elegant, classy, yet very in and trendy, so it mixes like both worlds because they are very comfy, you don’t need to wear socks, you can just wear them and go, but when you wear them, they are actually pretty, and people look at them and they look at you and they are like: waw you have nice Soludos shoes. So this is why I wanted to post it, to show that I really love them and I own them.”Participant 1: “Like when I post a cigar and it’s Cohiba, the people who know me will understand: ok look at this guy, he’s a boss.”Participant 8: “There was a time where I posted an organization which organizes free, well you can also contribute, performances. Musicians will come to a secret location and the audience that apply can attend the event. That special event made me feel super good and I wanted people to know more about it because it is a great idea. I did not share it because they asked me or offered a reward, it just made me feel really good.”Participant 9: “Well to be really honest about it, I realize that showing that I am sitting in the VIP lounge kind of seems like I am showing off the fact that I am flying in the business class. I am, we all try to create a certain image and take advantage of such situations to show how well we are doing in our lives.”Participant 10: “I guess it is part of what Starbucks does to people. You always see people sharing their drinks or the setting of the restaurant in order to show that they are associated with the brand.”These quotes and responses from the interviewees illustrate a series of important elements. In fact, each of them includes different types of brands depending on their interests and what they aim to communicate as part of the consumer culture collective sense of consumption (Kozinets, 2001). In fact, participant 3 highlights how sharing the Soludos shoes brand is due to the fact that she is a big fan of the brand and she is proud to show that she owns them because she always receives such positive compliments when wearing them. Association with the brand in identity creation is clear when Participant 3 describes the brand as “classy, elegant, and stylish” and continues to explain that she wanted to show her creative, stylish and well-dressed side through posting about Soludos in her story. Similarly, Participant 1 is clear about how he uses Cohiba cigars to create a strong and successful self-image, or as he describes it “a boss” image. Participant 8 discusses how thrilled and exclusive she felt when she attended a private and secret concert that an organization was throwing. It was essential to feel like she has been chosen to attend and wanted to express it to her followers. In addition, Participant 9 shared in her story how she was waiting in the VIP airline lounge in the airport to express that she is flying business class. It is essential for her to create such image about herself and what kind of consumption she adopts. Participant 10 talks about the iconic Starbucks logo due to the story she shared showing her coffee break. She expressed the fact that sharing the brand is just “what Starbucks does to people”, as if it became such a widespread and common behavior to share such stories in order to be associated with the brand. It highlights elements such as rituals, symbolism of products, the involvement of consumer stories to create brand meanings, and the meanings that create personal and shared consumer identities (Sherry, 1991). The reasons why these individuals decided to share such specific brands lay in the fact that they want to be associated with the brand and have several implicit goals such as showing off, feeling special, and creating their identity. The rise of postmodernism and social media gave birth to co-creation and the value of user generated content (Ritzer, 2009; Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010). When discussing whether participants felt that they were creating value for the brands they post about in their Instagram stories, the responses highlight the fact that none of them actually realize that they might be creating value and possibly being exploited until they take the time to analyze and consider it. It became such a common and mundane occurrence to share what they consume and the brands they like through their stories that respondents do not realize the outcome it has for the companies.Participant 3: “I’ve never thought about it, this is the first time that I actually think about it but I’m actually doing them a favor without getting paid for it. But, you know, some brands they deserve this… I think they deserve this kind of value, because they are nice, they haven’t done me anything wrong. On the other hand, they’ve given me comfort, fashion, so it doesn’t bother me that I am creating this awareness for them.”Participant 7: “I mean I would say I’m so loyal to them as a band and for them providing music, so for me it makes me feel good I would say”Participant 6: “No I wouldn’t say I’m creating value for Universal Studios, basically Universal Studios is huge. But I think it’s the other way around, that Universal Studios are adding value to this story, it’s giving it content.”After further consideration, many of the participants admitted that they do feel like they create value for the brands they post about, for reasons such as information sharing and creating awareness, which will be discussed in the social dimension part of the analysis. On the other hand, what is relevant to the personal dimension of motives for manifesting consumption through Instagram stories, is rather related to how individuals justify creating this value as can be seen in the quotes above. Participant 3 believes it is worthwhile to post about the Soludos brand because they are deserving of her value creation since they have given her personal value of comfort and fashion. Participant 7 describes the joy she feels for posting about the brand at the concert due to her high loyalty for that band. On the other hand, Participant 6 does not sense that he is creating value for the brand he posts about, to an extent where he believes the opposite, which is that the brand is actually creating value for him as it is an important landmark which others can see he visited. Similar results were found with other respondents and their shared brands. This leads to the understanding that co-creating and producing user generated content is considered to be an added value to the consumers more than the brand. Even if they realize they are producing value for the brand, the value it creates for them is greater. Interaction represents the core of value creation as co-creation; however, consumers utilize network interactions to co-construct their contextualized value outcome (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Sharing brands they consume allows the participants to gain great personal value in terms of being associated with brand, which support the previous statements shared by the participants.Participant 7: “It’s tricky to say because maybe not really, but in some sense it becomes this co-creational win-win, like not necessarily saying that they benefit from me just posting this but if we think about it from a bigger scale, yeah a lot of people posting, it’s definitely beneficial for them as a brand, but then for me, it’s also beneficial for me because in terms of my self-branding or my own identity I get to add this to my palette, so I would say it’s a win-win”Participant 9: “Well honestly no, I do not feel exploited by the brand since I am the one who chose to share the story because I really like it. But on a personal level, I won’t deny that it serves to show what kind of things I consume and the brands that reflect who I am as a person and my likings.”Participant 10: “Mmm no, I do not feel like I am exploited because I share the things I like. I would be lying if I do not admit that it brings me personal satisfaction to be associated with certain brands. I like to share a certain brand, restaurant or anything similar to show off the fact that I can enjoy these things.”Social DimensionSocial Interaction and Engagement An important element of sharing Instagram stories relies on the fact that they are shared to be seen by the followers of the users whether they choose to have a private or a public account. Moreover, it is inevitable to conclude how the fact that individuals want to portray their consumption is based on social factors. A big part of social media relies on sharing things with others and embracing the sense of community. When people post a story, it is because they want it to be seen by others and to serve a certain purpose. Consumption behaviors rely heavily on social interactions because they define the norms, social structures, and habits of individuals. The creation and development of the ‘self’ results from constant participation in the society and the exchange with other individuals (Mead, 1934). People consume things because they want to express to their surroundings a certain image and identity as discussed before. However, it is also a matter of creating a social environment of interaction and exchange with the community. The following responses from participants express these matters: Participant 1: “Why do I do it? Just to communicate with the people who I know, who know me, who follow me, like I’m living my life, this is what my life looks like, it’s not boring, I do some activities, some stuff, I’m living, I’m out there, going, coming, traveling.”Participant 3: “Well first of all, using these social media platforms, usually you want people to see things, I think I like people to see what I do, where I go, the restaurants I go to, if something new opens I like people to know that I’ve been there, and putting a picture of a burger without anything doesn’t look appealing, when you add these emojis or these gifs, it makes it more interesting, so that’s why”Participant 5: “honestly people can see like videos or screenshots of what I’m going through every day in my life. I think that’s the point, it’s like a digital album for me. Yeah the point is really to just to show and be vocal more about my thoughts and opinions through pictures and videos, so yeah you can know a lot about me through my stories”The inputs obtained from the participants highlight the fact that sharing Instagram Stories is based on sharing what they do on a daily basis and what kind of things they consume. It is about showing others that they are doing interesting things that look appealing and acting as if they are living their best life. The ‘confessional society’ created a contemporary consumer culture where individuals feel forced to share their private lives with the public in order to avoid being socially excluded (Bauman, 2007). Consumers decide to share a certain product, brand, restaurant or location in order to interact with others and to be associated with what they decide to showcase. Participant 5 described the stories as a “digital album”, which comes to place to show that stories reinforced how consumption is part of the social interaction and exchange in the community. It represents a way of networking or showing what kind of people they want to belong to based on the lifestyle and consumption habits they adopt and share with others. Social media users stay informed about each other by following what their community is up to through examining their purchase behaviors, lifestyles, and delineate the words of others (Webster, 2010). In addition, users strive to use Instagram stories to develop a sense of belonging and be updated on all the trends that are going on in order to reach social approval as elaborated in the following quotes: Participant 3: “I think part of it is influenced by the people around me because sometimes people would be posting a new food restaurant place that I would like to go to because of their story. And sometimes I am the one influencing people because I post something and everybody would be like, where are you? Where is that? It’s amazing! What are you having? So I think it goes both ways, I am influenced by the people around and I’d like to influence the people around me.”Participant 5: “I don’t check like everyone’s story I just check my close friends’, my family, yeah the people that I care about like I’d like to know what they are doing, what they are up to.”Participant 9: “I think it is an essential part of Instagram the fact that you can keep in touch and updated on all what people are doing in their lives. To know about the new trendy places, products, and activities to do. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family no matter how far they are.” In fact, the responses from the participants emphasize on the fact that what users decide to post and consume on their stories is related to what others post too. They tend to be interested to check the stories of the people they follow, which ultimately influences them. Individuals might change their behaviors because of they feel the pressure of being perceived through the eyes of the others, which is emphasized in the ‘looking glass’ concept (Cooley, 1956). Not only do they want to know how others are living their lives and what they are up to, but it is also a matter of choosing who they want to be associated with. It allows them to get an idea of who these people are and their lifestyle based on all what they consume. Moreover, stories created a two-way exchange and communication because users get influenced by others just as much as they hope to influence their followers, and this is illustrated by the feedback they receive when they post a story as follows: Participant 5: “It feels nice, it feels like you’re communicating what you are trying to do, that’s the whole point, and people are seeing it and they are reacting, and that’s cool, because that’s the whole point right?”Participant 6: “Yes of course, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting as frequently, it’s positive reinforcement 101, if I’m not receiving any good comments, good feedback about what I’m doing, I would lose interest slowly and stop in the end.”Participant 7: “It’s like all of these things on social media, it’s like the quick dopamine, the ‘like’ economy, so it makes me post more, it’s like this feedback loop, where if people like what you post, you adapt the content you post, so I feel like it kind of defines the niche in terms of what I post but also I mean it feels nice”Participant 7: “I feel like it’s so easy to comment, that it’s just nice to do so. I mean I like the engagement myself so why shouldn’t I engage with others’ content.”These quotes embrace how Instagram stories play an important role in embracing the social and exchange aspect of consumption. It has always been important to receive feedback and approval from others when people decide to consume a certain product or service (Smith, Stavros & Westberg, 2017). Showing off a certain style or brand label aims to create a certain feedback from others. Furthermore, expressing the lives and consumption patterns of users on their stories has been reinforced through receiving reactions and comments from their followers. The positive reinforcement that they feel when they get a positive reaction or when others are interested to know more about what they are doing, creates a certain need to share more. ‘Viral marketing’ and ‘contagions’ are defined by Webster (2010) referring to the deep involvement and constant need to share images and videos through social networks with the public. Participant 7 referred to this as “quick dopamine” which highlights the fact that the exchange on Instagram stories and receiving feedback becomes an addiction for users. This illustrates an important motive to push individuals to portray their consumption through Instagram Stories. Brands as social consumptionAs previously demonstrated, participants heavily portray their consumed brands, be it products or services, through their Instagram stories. According to the empirical findings, the interviewed individuals tend to portray their brand related consumption through stories for two main social reasons, either to create awareness and share information with their followers, or to be able to associate themselves with the groups of people that purchase certain brands, or brand communities. The prevalence of eWOM has created a broader form of communication than traditional word of mouth since it makes it available to transmit information to a larger audience (Cheung, Luo, Sia & Chen, 2009). Thus, it is no longer limited to verbal content, but also visual ones through photos, and videos (Lee & Tussyadiah, 2010). Instagram stories offer a creative and entertaining way to broadcast consumers’ eWOM. Participant 1: “Create value for these brands? I don’t get like thousands and thousands of viewers of my stories but yeah I assume I do because some people ask me: oh what is that beer? And then I tell them oh it’s my favorite weak beer and people who value my opinion, who are basically people who follow me, then they might go out and try it and they might love it themselves and yeah if that creates value for the brand, then yeah I would say yes.”Going back to value creation by users, this response from Participant 1 opens the discussion to an important element regarding the implications of sharing branded stories on the consumers and the brands. The respondent highlights the fact that he did not share the brand with the focus of creating value for the company, but the fact that it might push others to try his favorite beer brand which ultimately creates value for the creator.The power of the internet and advancement of technology has empowered ordinary consumers to take the role of brand ambassadors and storytellers (Booth & Matic, 2011). eWOM that is brand related allows consumers to transmit their consumption to others (Stauss, 2000). Consumers are less skeptical of the truthfulness of WOM (Feick & Price, 1987) and brand related UGC has gained credibility among consumers (Chu & Kim, 2011), and so these play a vital role in forming purchase opinions and decisions. The main motive identified for manifesting consumption through stories lies in sharing positive word of mouth about a branded product which the respondent values in order to influence and even inspire others to engage in similar consumption. When users share brands, products, or services they are promoting the brand and doing significant marketing efforts. This is evident in the below responses:Figure 4.4 Instagram stories posted by participantsParticipant 3: “This picture was taken in Amman, Jordan. I had tasted for the first time a knefe ice cream at a place which I tagged called four winters. First of all, the ice cream was amazing honestly, so I wanted people who are not familiar with this flavor to know that it is amazing and that it exists and if they don’t have it, they should bring it to their country or wherever they are.”Participant 4: “I would not say that I feel proud, but I feel like oh ok I actually I’m communicating new things to people who don’t know that this brand actually exists or they have never tried these kind of drinks, so they will know that it tastes good and I would even recommend them to buy it if they are looking for something to boost their day, to stay awake I mean.”Participant 3 went out of her way to take a picture which shows the entire ambiance of a restaurant she tags in her Instagram story. The reason for showcasing her consumption of this knefe ice cream through her story was to create awareness of a novel and unique product, to familiarize her followers with the restaurant, and to recommend them to try the treat she was having. Moreover, Participant 4 discusses how he shares his liking for the Nocco brand as a drink in his stories because he wants to advise people to drink it when in need of an energy boost.As Arvidson and Caliandro (2015) demonstrate, in our current consumer culture, admirers of brands on social media become part of brand publics where individuals create meanings for brands based on their daily consumption of those. Driven by the desire to share experiences and produce a certain collective impact of a group (Arvidson & Caliandro, 2015), it can be deduced that participants also share their consumption, especially brand-related content, in order to associate with a certain group of similar consumption behavior. Participant 3: “I like to post my clothes as well, I live with people who are stylish in the office around me so sometimes I don’t want to be classified as the less stylish, so I like to post my clothes, and how I am mixing and matching my items.”Participant 2: “I was actually showing my interest in this sport and all aspects of it, it was also a little bit to show off that I have these rackets and specifically those brands of rackets, they are very rare, legends used to play with them, and I happened to collect them so it is somehow to show off my collection as well to the people, my interest. […] So, this is to show my interest and maybe interact with other people who share the same interest as well.”Within the domain of practice theory, Holt (1995) uses the metaphor of consumption as classification to demonstrate how consumers communicate by using objects to classify themselves vis a vis other consumers. The above excerpts demonstrate this since Participant 3, who works at a large advertising agency, truthfully admits so share stories of the brands of her clothes in order to fit in with the rest of her colleagues at work. By portraying what brands she consumes, and how she creates her outfits, she hopes to be part of and belong to a certain group of people at work, due to her fear of being labeled as less stylish. On the other hand, by posting pictures of rare forms of branded rackets which show his deep interest in tennis, Participant 2 hopes to engage with others with similar interests. ConclusionThe following chapter serves to conclude the essence of the thesis. First, the main findings of the research are presented in order to answer the research questions. Secondly, the managerial and theoretical implications of the research are elaborated to accentuate the relevance of the results. Finally, the limitations and future research prospects of the topic are discussed in order to make way for further research. Main FindingsIn light of the emergence and popularity of novel real-time social media features, such as stories, deciphering how the concept of consumption has expanded requires an in-depth understanding of how consumers maneuver in the contemporary digital world through their consumption behavior. Our research was guided with the purpose of exploring the motivations behind individuals manifesting their consumption through Instagram stories, and, along these lines, set out to contribute towards gaining an understanding of how this consumption is actually portrayed.The empirical findings offer a suitable basis for presenting the way in which consumers manifest their consumption through Instagram stories. In fact, it highlighted the routine-like behavior which individuals engage in everyday in order to portray their daily life events to their followers. People tend to share a wide range of their activities through stories, such as food and beverage consumption, locations visited, hobbies and interests, and brands they come in contact with, among other things. Through stories, people can engage in storytelling, with themselves being the main characters, as they narrate their lives in an easy, quick, and convenient manner. It is an interactive and entertaining mode of sharing daily experiences, consumption behaviors, and even moods and emotions with a wider circle of acquaintances. Stories are popular among individuals since they can translate the moments people experience and due to their exclusive 24-hour lifespan, allow for more flexibility and the opportunity to showcase more aspects of one’s life. The reality which users create through their stories is almost never an indicator of their actual realities. Although Instagram stories can be less perfect that regular posts, individuals spend considerable time and effort into adding features to their story content to make them more aesthetically pleasurable to look at, increasingly enjoyable, additionally interactive. While stories show moments in one’s life, users insist on only showing the happy and optimistic parts of their lives. Individuals seem to frame their consumption in a way that would portray their identities and their lives in a favorable light with respect to others. This is amplified by the fact that the existence of Instagram stories has created a need to constantly post stories informing people of what is happening in one’s life. This has led Instagram stories to affect and shape consumer behavior as individuals strive to create an image of themselves in the eyes of others that would present them as successful people with exciting lives. It is not uncommon for consumers to feel the need to visit certain places, buy specific products and services, and attend interesting events in order to be able to post a story about it for their feed. The empirical material also managed to display the underlying motives that influence consumers to share their daily activities and forms of consumption, which can be classified into two main dimensions, personal and social motives. Consumption decisions play a significant role in aiding individuals in the creation and development of their identities. An important element to why users decide to consume through Instagram stories is due to the fact that such forms of UGC allow consumers to portray a self-concept which is a result of a negotiation of one’s extant, desired, and presenting self. Sharing what activities a person engages in during the day, their place of work, their adventures and travels, and even mundane forms of consumption, all comes together to create a persona or identity for the individual sharing the content. A person is free to decide what lifestyle, image, and personal characteristics they choose to associate themselves with, be it creative, funny, adventurous, skilled, or intellectual. In our contemporary consumer culture, individuals can actually portray different identities at different moments, resulting in a fragmented self-concept that can often entail conflicting identities. The prevalence of brands in Instagram stories can be attributed to consumers striving to associate themselves with the qualities and characteristics of brands in the formation of their personal self-image. By sharing their consumption of a certain brand, users hope to create an image of themselves as belonging to the clique of users of that brand, and so assign themselves similar image components of that brand. Moreover, what consumers usually do not realize is that by sharing brands through stories for example, they aid in the value creation for those brands. However, the brands that people decide to create UGC about, are usually perceived as brands which the consumers are loyal to, admire, or think highly of. Not to mention, the decision to feature brands in Instagram stories, although not always a conscious and intentional decision, is often perceived as adding value to the user and their content. Another important element of consumption through Instagram stories relates back to the social dimension of consuming, which is strengthened with the popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram stories. As social creatures, people often seek interaction and communication with others. Through consumption, a person can communicate specific aspects about themselves, and can seek to not only belong but identify with groups or communities which share similar interests or activities. Needless to say, when thinking about how this plays out in a digitalized world, social media in general, and Instagram stories in specific, have made consumption more social than ever. Thus, the motives for manifesting one’s daily consumption is heavily reliant on the need to communicate what one is doing during the day and learning about what others are engaging in during the day. It is also a mean to share information with followers, usually in the form of eWOM relating to branded stories, or request information, opinions, and affirmation. Based on the empirical results, it can be deduced that consumption behavior through Instagram has infiltrated and became an inseparable part of the customer journey. Posting stories about what is being consumed has become an indispensable part of almost everyone’s lives whereby people show what they are eating, drinking, what locations they are visiting, but also post-purchase behavior when they post about what products or services they bought and experienced. Individuals also heavily seek to watch other people’s stories and often get inspired, influenced, and motivated to have the same or similar experiences, like visiting the same restaurants or countries, buying products, as well as finding new interests and hobbies.Another important area of interest draws a comparison between consumption in the past and consumption in our current days. Perhaps one can argue that the basic objects of consumption are the same, however, the channels used by people to communicate this consumption have become different with the vast digital channels available and especially with the convenience and creative tools of the stories feature. A crucial distinction that arises with understanding consumption through Instagram stories is the increased importance of intangible aspects of consumption objects, such as branded products, tagged locations, and events. In addition to the value of the images connected to consuming these elements have increased in comparison to the past, as experiences now need to be “Instagrammable”.Finally, the new playground of displaying consumption has shifted to being more digital. It could be said that the rules or motives for consumption in the physical world and through Instagram stories are rather similar, but the audience for showing off consumption has become much wider. While in the physical world, consumers pursue associating themselves with physical objects, social media illustrate a multidimensional consumption. Instagram stories offer users to easily associate themselves with geographical locations, hobbies and interests like painting and sports, social movements such as sustainability and environmental causes, in addition to concerts and events, as well as other people or groups.The story used to introduce the thesis induces how mundane and routine-like sharing Instagram stories have become in portraying daily consumption. The inputs from the participants of this study illustrated a series of underlying motives for sharing stories. Posting a story is not merely about sharing an instant moment; it is about social engagement and the creation of a personal identity. Stories showcase a multidimensional consumption where consumers have become interested in the intangible aspects of products and services, more than ever. Managerial ImplicationsThe research topic of the thesis aims to grasp a better understanding of consumption in the current new digitalized world. In fact, the rise of social media redefined different understandings of consumption, which need to be considered by companies and brands in order to ensure their survival in the market. The focus of the research aimed to uncover the different motives behind why consumers portray their consumption through Instagram stories. The research uncovered several elements that served to answer the research questions, while covering important and meaningful practical and managerial implications. Since social media and Instagram stories became an essential part of the life of individuals, firms need to adjust to the changes that occured in the market. As a matter of fact, consumption patterns have evolved with the changes that the digital marketplace witnessed (Webster, 2010). It is important that companies invest continuous efforts to understand their consumers and how to incentivize their target market to consume their products or services. The findings of the research indicate the personal and social motives behind how and why consumers portray their consumption on Instagram stories, which offer important insights that companies can use. Fundamentals of marketing rely on understanding the needs and wants of consumers (Camilleri, 2018), which the findings of the paper help companies to understand. Companies can utilize these motives to know how to appeal to their targets segments and develop offerings that will serve their needs. Along these lines, companies need to follow the trend and create products and services that are considered “Instagrammable” since it became important for customers. The findings revealed how far individuals are willing to go just to share the perfect story, which is something that needs to be considered by firms when developing their products. It can be extended to be considered a new product feature that customers account for when making their choices. Moreover, an important part of the consumption pattern of individuals on their Instagram stories revolve around brands along with the rise of co-creation and user generated content. Co-creation and user generated content constitute an important marketing tool for firms that can prove very beneficial for companies (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2018). The constant sharing of branded stories serve to spread electronic word of mouth, which became an important source of information heavily relied on by customers. Sharing pictures or videos with a certain brand serves as free marketing for companies since it spreads information instantly and with a simple click. However, companies need to be aware that as much as it can be a good source of marketing, it can backfire if negative publicity is shared. With the emergence of social media, information can become viral in a very short period of time. This means that companies need to be careful in their proceedings because any small mistake can cause great damages. “The ownership of the brand and its reputation has always belonged to the consumer” (Booth & Matic, 2011), which emphasizes how consumers became brand ambassadors and storytellers. Consumers have several motives behind sharing their daily lives and what they consume; therefore, companies need to know how to use these motives to make them share their brands on their stories voluntarily, and in a positive light. Theoretical ImplicationsThe theoretical framework served as an important basis to understand the phenomenon that the thesis at hand aims to tackle. In fact, the understanding of consumption remains a topic of interest for researchers because it is constantly changing in parallel with the changes that occur in the market and that are adopted by consumers. There is a need for more comprehensive empirical research on consumption through social media or perspectives on consumption in the digital sphere. The emergence of social media reshaped the way individuals consume things, which was emphasized in the findings of the research. Nowadays, social media has incrusted itself in the daily lives of users and revolutionized marketing processes (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011). In fact, sharing images and videos on Instagram stories became an important part of the life of active Instagram and social media users. It allows them to portray their consumption on a daily basis while making sure to share the perfect story. The efforts invested by the users to take the photo, edit it, and consume the product publicly speaks for the emerging importance of stories. It portrays how people now decide to let others ‘consume’ before they even get to enjoy or benefit from the product or service. The illustration of these behaviors reflects on the customer journey and how such technological changes revolutionized consumer behavior. Nowadays, It became necessary to account for the role that stories play throughout the whole journey since it serves as a tool to assess alternatives, to share the consumption of the product or service in question, and to share any post-purchase feedback, all in an instant and viral manner. As a matter of fact, social media allocated to consumers new innovative ways to share information between users (Lipsman, Mudd, Rich & Bruich 2012). Moreover, stories created a multidimensional consumption where it is no longer about consuming a physical product or service, individuals share locations such as restaurant and hotels, travels, hobbies, and sports. This is emphasized through “Consumption choices and experiences tend to determine one’s taste, values, lifestyle, skills, and ability for future behavior.” (Van Raaij, 1993, p.559). Stories now emphasized the social aspects of consumption and how it is a way of portraying the self and socializing with others too. The findings regarding the personal and social dimensions of consumption come in place to embrace how the motives have similar grounds but different implications in comparison to traditional consumption. Real-time social media have not been around for a long period, which means it is still a topic under exploration. Consumption in a digital sphere remains an important focus for researchers and the findings presented in the thesis provide meaningful theoretical implications to be investigated in a deeper manner. Limitations and Future ResearchThe purpose of the thesis at hand investigates the motives behind why and how consumers portray their consumption through Instagram stories. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews in order to gather a good understanding of the phenomenon, but this approach puts in question the generalizability of the findings. The scarcity of time and resources limit the access to participants and larger empirical findings. Furthermore, it goes without saying that qualitative research tends to be subjective while objectivity in such approaches remains almost impossible due to the interpretative aspect of the research. Moreover, the topic aims to uncover the different motives of consumers, which are not easy to detect and require adequate interpretation. Thus, there is a risk that participants tend to provide socially desirable answers (Malhotra, Birks, & Wills, 2012). For example, a netnographic research strategy could have been adopted to migrate from this limitation (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). However, due to the scarcity of time and resources, the setting did not allow the usage of supportive quantitative methods or a netnographic research strategy. Therefore, future research can focus on conducting research based on a quantitative method to support the findings of our research along with a netnography to gather sufficient data. The paper uncovered how Instagram stories influenced consumption, with a focus on the personal and social motives that convey their consumption. Future research should investigate in a deeper manner the influence of real-time social media on consumption and how it reshapes consumer behavior. It would also be interesting to explore implications of how cultural differences might affect such consumption patterns. In addition, researchers should invest their efforts in understanding the postmodern consumer in today's digital sphere in respect to how social media impacted the customer journey.References Anderson, W.T. 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Journal of consumer culture, vol. 8, no. 2, pp.163-196AppendicesAppendix AParticipants’ chosen Instagram stories for photo elicitationAppendix BSample of Interview GuidePreparatory Stage:Hello, my name is (name), and I am conducting research for my thesis project for a Master’s in International Marketing and Brand Management at Lund University.I would like to conduct an interview with you, because I am interested to learn more about your Instagram activity, more specifically Instagram stories.This interview will take around 25 minutes of your time.The interview is being recorded as a reference for writing my report and analysis. Your identity will remain completely confidential. Are you willing to participate in this interview knowing that it will be recorded?If yes: Thank you so much for agreeing to take part in my study.Before we start with the questions I would like to remind you that there are no right or wrong answers, I am very interested in hearing your honest opinion, so I would like you to answer as freely and as openly as possible.Background Information:Could you please tell me you name?How old are you?What is your nationality?What do you do? Could you tell me a little about yourself?Main Questions:General:How often do you post Instagram stories?What do you think is the main purpose of Instagram stories?Do you have a private or a public account? Why?Do you usually edit your content before posting them on your story (use gifs, music, hashtags, location, etc…)?If yes, how much time do you spend on editing your content (pictures/videos)? (long time, short time, average amount of time)Why do you feel the need to edit your stories?Specific:What are the most common kinds of content you include in your Instagram stories? / What things do you post mostly about? (probe if not mentioned: food/ meals, workout, purchased items, brands, travel, pictures of other people, pictures with friends, …)(Choose pictures and ask): I have selected 4 Instagram stories that you have posted and I would like to ask you a few questions about them.Can you describe the content of this picture that you had posted?Why did you decide to post this picture? What do you hope to achieve or communicate through it? (Repeat same questions for next pictures.)If not mentioned earlier: Do you ever post stories that feature brands (restaurant names included)?o If yes: Why do you decide to feature brands?o Do you think you create value for the brand you post about?o If yes: How does that make you feel? What do you hope to achieve/ communicate when you post Instagram stories in general? (probe if not mentioned: self-expression, interaction, sharing information,…)Do you think that what you post as your story is influenced by what your followers /friends might like to see?How do you want to be perceived by the people who follow you based on what you post on your Instagram story?/ What is the image you are trying to portray?Do you hope to receive any type of reaction from posting Instagram stories?If yes, what kind of reaction?Have you ever received positive comments on an Instagram story you posted?If yes, what did that feel like?Are you selective with what part of your life you post on your Instagram stories?Is the content you post portraying your reality or is it a reality you want others to see? (Probe in both cases) What do you like about Instagram stories?What makes Instagram stories different than regular posts?Is there anything you dislike about Instagram stories?Do you check other people’s Instagram stories? Why?Does what other people post influence what you post? How?Do you react to other people’s stories?In the past there was no such thing as Instagram stories, have Instagram stories changed anything in how you go about your daily life/ consumption?End Interview:Would you like to add anything to the discussion?Thank you for your time, your participation is very helpful for the success of my thesis. ................
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