This paper analyzes how socio-cultural structures shape the interpretation and consumption of western luxury fashion brands among Kuwaiti Muslim women. Synthesizing solutions, which is the notion of two opposing ideas being resolved within consumption, is employed as a theoretical framework. Qualitative research consisting of in-depth semi-structured interviews guided by photo elicitation was employed as the data collection method. The findings show that Muslim women in Kuwait “unveil” the sexual symbolic meanings of luxury brands through their interpretation of advertising. However, they then “veil” this sexual symbolism by drawing attention to their own modesty and utilizing the status of the brands to communicate their family name. The western luxury fashion brand offers a synthesizing solution; a delicate balance between constraint and choice, allowing Kuwaiti women to “unveil” sex appeals, yet also re-constructing such appeals to represent socio-cultural structures. Understanding socio-cultural dynamics of Kuwaiti women’s fashion consumption extends marketing theory and practice.

Religion is an important cultural factor that has a direct impact on everyday human behavior and related identity constructions. The subject of religion has widely attracted the attention of consumer researchers in exploring the interaction between religion and consumption behavior, including understanding the influence of religion on consumer choices, attitude, loyalty, and lifestyle. The aim of this chapter is to address the importance of understanding religion from a practical perspective. It specifically unravels the difference between religious affiliation and religiosity, in an attempt to show how religiosity is a more accurate predictor of consumer behavior. Briefly, while religious affiliation relates to individuals’ membership with a religious group, religiosity refers to individuals’ degree of religious involvement. Examining individuals’ consumption behavior based on their religiosity reveals the existence of several religious subcultures. Identifying, segmenting, and targeting religious subcultures carries important implications for both marketers and practitioners. It enables businesses to communicate with their target audience more effectively by avoiding standardization strategies based on religious affiliation. Relatedly, this chapter also highlights the importance of recognizing that religions and their associated religious subcultures are globally dispersed rather than located in a specific culture. Cross-cultural and subcultural differences in practicing religion affect consumer purchase behavior of global brands. To facilitate their success and minimize any potential risk, businesses must critically examine the cultural environments of their planned locations, including understanding the target market as well as analyzing their wants/needs through intensive market research.

Consumer identification with brands has received extensive attention in the fields of consumer behavior and psychology. Such consumer-brand identification is conceptualized through the term “brand community”. A brand community is formed when a group of consumers express their interest towards and communicate their identities through a specific brand. The current literature shows that existing research on brand communities appears to be dominantly oriented towards tangible products. Accordingly, this research aims to explore the impact of social media marketing on brand community membership related to an intangible aspect of the self. Contextually, the research seeks to examine the impact of social media marketing of higher education institutions in Kuwait on students’ relevant associations. Students are at the core of higher education institutions due to identifying as both consumers and creators of value. A mixed method approach to data collection and analysis will be employed in this research. The findings of this research are expected to provide important implications for theory and practice.