O enfeite nosso de todo dia: significados atribuídos aos acessórios de moda por tweens

• Autor(a) principal: Machado, Sany Karla
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do FGV (FGV Repositório Digital)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10438/11400
• topic: Tweens; Consumption; Accessories; Meanings; Consumo; Significados; Acessórios; Administração de empresas; Crianças consumidoras; Consumidores infantis; Comportamento do consumidor; Moda - Aspectos sociológicos

“Tweens” are children, especially girls, included in an age group that can vary, depending on the author of the study, from seven to fourteen years of age. They are, thus, in a stage between childhood and adolescence. More important than their chronological age is the economic behavior that they have developed. As consumers, they have behavioral quirks and attitudes due to their social and emotional experiences. For example, they have intense concern as to how they are seen by those around them and resort to various devices to recognize and express themselves in their social relations. One of these devices involves the use of material goods to express identity and give significance to their emotions and the word around them. As they participate in society as consumers they have become increasingly eloquent and active in their consumer relations. The result is that this segment is described by some scholars as the richest and most influential generation of the meanings that tweens, aged eight to twelve years, attach to personal accessories. Ethnographic inspiration was chosen as an effective research method during four months of fieldwork with participant observation of ten tweens and interviews with relatives and accessory store owners. Secondary sources of information, magazines and social networks, also provided information for understanding the research problem. The results reveal the use of accessories as important tools for social adjustment, either because they aide tweens in expressing themselves to those around them, or with regard to social expectations regarding an acceptable appearance. Accessories are especially useful as they “play the game” of social life and to establish and strengthen emotional ties. In addition to the theoretical contribution regarding studies of consumer behavior in childhood, this paper also aims to provide information as to marketing decisions and the social nature of peer relations among this segment of the consuming population