The social mechanism of consumer culture formation by transnational companies

The article is devoted to the study of the social mechanism of consumer culture formation by transnational companies (TNCs). Based on the economic and sociological concept of “ritualized markets” developed by F. Wherry, the authors consider TNCs as producers of the market rituals. The analysis of the rituals provides a better understanding of making economic decisions by consumers based not on mathematical calculations, but rather on cultural beliefs and collective representations. Besides, it shows how the demand for specific products and services is formed and supported. To verify the hypotheses there have been conducted an empirical study titled “The Assessment of St. Petersburg Consumers Involvement in a New Consumer Culture of Bakery Products” in April-May 2017 by in-depth interviews on a sample of available cases, represented by gender, age and level of education. Interviews were conducted in families with the representatives of 1960s generation, born in the USSR, and the 1990s one, born during the penetration of TNCs on the Russian market. The authors conclude that transnational companies create the consumer culture of their product (i.e. the North-European bread) and extend it to the markets of other countries by creating special market rituals in order to include consumers in it. The performance of these rituals becomes a part of the consumers' everyday life, and its reproduction requires the repeated act of buying. In turn, it positively affects the financial indicators of profitability of transnational companies.