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This paper mainly aims to study the characteristics of college students’ consumption of mobile phones. Basically, its significance can be both theoretical and practical. For one thing, it can further testify Baudrillard’s symbol consumption theory and exemplify a logical explanation for college students’ consumption of expensive mobile phones. For another, mobile phone manufacturers may adjust their marketing strategies for different college students.
1.3 Research framework
This paper will be mainly pided into five chapters, namely, introduction, literature review, research design, results and discussion and conclusion. See Chart 1.1. First, research background, purpose and significance and research framework will be included in chapter one. Second, symbol consumption theory, previous research on mobile phone consumption and college students’ consumption will be reviewed in chapter two.Third, research model, research hypotheses and questionnaire design will be introduced in chapter three. Fourth, sample analysis, data analysis and summary will be presented in detail in chapter four. Last, major findings, implications and limitations will be given in the final chapter.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Symbol consumption theory
2.1.1 Baudrillard’s symbol consumption theory
Symbol consumption, firstly put forward by a French philosopher named Jean Baudrillard (1970), refers to a consumption phenomenon in which the symbolic values of a product, such as personal preferences, habits, lifestyles, values and attitudes, or social status and so forth, can be consumed by the public.
The original term “symbol” includes two basic components: the signifier representing sound and image, and the signified representing the implication and content. When applied to the area of commodity economy, it can mean the duality of product functions. On the one hand, as Baudrillard argues, consumers buy products for their visible or perceptible attributes including the quality, usability, design features, or style and so on. On another, people tend to pay for the referential meaning reflected by the product like inpidual tastes, values, or social status.
In his book, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, he stressed that all purchases, because they always signify something socially, have their fetishistic side (1983, p.63). Objects always say something about their users.
According to Baudrillard, if a product can meet the expectations of consumers, especially when it helps shape how others perceive them as they imagine, it then has its distinctive and symbolic meaning (2006). For instance, Armani-branded clothes are often synonyms to clothes of power in Wall Street, Gucci-tagged bags are often associated with fashion and fancy, and Channel No. 5 perfumes are propagated as a kind pursuit of elegance with high-standards.