People and Faculty
Aimee Huff
Marketing

Aimee Huff

People and Faculty
Aimee Huff
Overview
Overview
Publications

Publications

Academic Journal
Marketing

“Objects of Desire: The Role of Product Design in Revising Contested Cultural Meanings”

We explore the link between product design and market legitimation by examining the evolution of a product market that has been shrouded by cultural taboo. Conducting media analysis and selected visual audits of sex toys over a recent 25-year period, we find that innovations in the design of these products – materials, form and function – can facilitate evolution of a mainstream market. Producers can facilitate legitimation by introducing innovative designs that significantly contradict existing cultural meanings associated with the category. Furthermore, when the aesthetic and functional aspects of a new product design are aligned with cultural norms, we find that mainstream media reframe the products in ways that signal social acceptance.
Details

244-271 pages 2017 Sarah Wilner Aimee Huff View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Marketing

“The Evolving Family Assemblage: How Senior Families 'Do' Family”

Purpose
A growing stream of consumer research has examined the intersection of family dynamics, consumption practices, and the marketplace. The purpose of this research is to make sense of the complex nature of family for senior families (adult children and their elderly parents) who employ the use of elder care services and facilities.

Approach
This research analyzes data gathered from in-depth interviews with adult siblings and their elderly parents through the lens of assemblage theory.

Findings
This paper advances a conceptulisation of the family as an evolving assemblage of components, including individual members; material possessions and home(s); shared values, goals, memories, and practices; prominent familial attributes of love and care; and marketplace resources. Three features of the assemblage come to the fore in senior families: the fluid meaning of independence for the elderly parent, the evolution of shared family practices, and the trajectory of the assemblage that is a function of its history and future.

Originality/Value
This research 1) focuses on a stage of family life that has been undertheorised; 2) applies assemblage theory to the family collective, demonstrating that a family can be conceptualised as an ever-evolving assemblage of human and non-human components, and this is a useful lens for understanding how senior families ‘do’ family; and 3) argues for a broader notion of family – one that is not household-centric or focused on families with young children, that encompasses members and materiality, and that foregrounds the dynamic, evolving nature of family life.
Details

892-915 pages 2016 Aimee Huff June Cotte View on: Google Scholar