Story Consumption Symposium (#StorySymp)

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one."

With these words by George R.R. Martin in mind, we are organising a one-day symposium on the topic of story consumption. The Story Consumption Symposium will take place at Cass Business School in London, UK on Monday 25 June 2018, directly after the Saturday 23 June end of the European Association for Consumer Research conference in Ghent, Belgium and right before the Thursday 28 June start of the Consumer Culture Theory Conference in Odense, Denmark. The symposium will feature work in progress as well as papers currently under review at the top marketing and consumer research journals. The presentations originate from different paradigms and will tackle consumption of luxury, popular, professionally acted, and digital stories.

Our keynote speaker is Laura di Giuseppe, Brand Manager of J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie, and George R.R. Martin/Game of Thrones. Other presenters include but are not limited to Jennifer Edson Escalas, Eileen Fischer, Pauline Maclaran, Hope Schau, Luca Visconti, Bjoern Bohnenkamp, Anne Hamby, Pier Mannucci, Davide Orazi, Marie-Agnès Parmentier, Cristel Russell, and Lorna Stevens.

Registration is now open for scholars, practitioners, and PhD students interested in story consumption. We hope that you will join us if you are in the area on Monday 25 June and look forward to living a thousand lives with all of you!

Your symposiarchs,

Stephanie Feiereisen and Tom van Laer

Registration

Registration is now closed.
 

Symposium Programme

9:00 – 9:30 AM Registration and morning coffee/tea

9:30 – 10:00 AM Symposium opening talks

• Stephanie Feiereisen and Tom van Laer (Symposiarchs, Cass Business School)
• Marianne Lewis (Dean, Cass Business School)

10:00 – 11:00 AM SESSION I: LUXURY STORIES

• Framing narrative theory in consumer research: Story-making, telling, and receiving – Luca Visconti (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
• Legitimating luxury: How media narratives mitigate institutional complexity for heritage houses – Marie-Agnès Parmentier (HEC Montreal, Canada) and Eileen Fischer(York University, Canada)

11:00 – 11.30 AM Coffee/tea break

11:30 – 12:30 AM SESSION II: POPULAR STORIES

• Brand storytelling: Creating compelling cultural narratives – Pauline Maclaran (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) and Lorna Stevens (University of Bath, UK)

• Media trash narratives – Bjoern Bohnenkamp (Karlshochschule International University, Germany) and Caroline Wiertz and Marius Luedicke (Cass Business School)

12:30 AM – 1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 – 3:00 PM SESSION III: PROFESSIONALLY ACTED STORIES

• The differential impact of visual imagery and storyline’s quality on movies' critical reception and commercial success – Pier Mannucci (London Business School, UK) and Davide Orazi (Monash University, Australia)
• Public health strategies to counter the influence of alcohol storylines on youth: The interplay of narrative transportation and persuasion knowledge – Cristel Russell (American University, US) and Anne Hamby (Hofstra University, US)
• Narrative navigational strategies – Stephanie Feiereisen (Cass Business School) and Hope Schau (University of Arizona, US)

3:00 – 3:30 PM Coffee/tea break

3:30 – 5:00 PM SESSION IV: DIGITAL STORIES

• What happens in Vegas stays on TripAdvisor? Understanding the role of narrativity in consumer reviews – Tom van Laer (Cass Business School) and Jennifer Edson Escalas (Vanderbilt University, US)
• Keynote: Digital storytelling and content marketing in literary brands, from Tolkien to A Game of Thrones – Laura di Giuseppe (Brand Manager J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie, George R.R. Martin/Game of Thrones at HarperCollins Publishers, UK)

From 5:15 PM Drinks & light standing dinner at fairy-tale bar and restaurant the Fable