Cultivating Hope

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published online 13 August 2013Journal of Consumer CultureMariam Beruchashvili, Risto Moisio and James W. Gentry

Cultivating hope

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Article

Cultivating hope

Mariam BeruchashviliCalifornia State University, Northridge, USA

Risto MoisioCalifornia State University, Long Beach, USA

James W. GentryUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

Abstract

Building on prior theorizing on hope, dramaturgy of emotions, and the notion of trans-

figuration, this paper examines how the Weight Watchers brand elicits and embodies

hope among its consumers. Based on the findings from a qualitative study of Weight

Watchers, the authors propose a three-stage conceptualization of brand-centric hope

cultivation. This conceptualization highlights the importance of collective processes in

hope emergence, elevation, and emplacement in which religious vernacular guides how

Weight Watchers express and experience brand-centric hope.

Keywords

Emotional branding, hope, weight loss, qualitative, interviews

How does a brand come to elicit and embody hope for highly uncertain outcomes,such as weight loss? Hope is arguably ‘‘a marketable entity that affects the eco-nomic viability of many industries’’ (MacInnis and de Mello, 2005: 1), includingthose promoting weight-loss pills, cosmetics, or even magnetic bracelets (de Melloand MacInnis, 2005). However, apart from some recent research (Wang et al.,2013), most scholarship has focused on understanding the consequences ratherthan the antecedents of hope for information processing, search, and choice (deMello et al., 2007; Winterich and Haws, 2011). Such a conceptual focus is largelydue to reliance on cognitively oriented appraisal theory, the dominant theoreticalframework on understanding hope, which treats emotions as a result of individuals’

Corresponding author:

Mariam Beruchashvili, Associate Professor of Marketing, California State University, Northridge, 18111

Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8377, USA.

Email: [email protected]




cognitive evaluations of their environments (Lazarus, 1999). Indeed, as MacInnisand de Mello (2005: 3) point out, in the appraisal-theoretic framework hope is ‘‘anemotion attached not to . . . a brand . . . but to a goal’’ and forego the possibility ofunderstanding the relevant process whereby a brand might come to embody andelicit hope.

In this paper, we develop a dramaturgical theorization about brand-centric hopecultivation. Our theorization builds on Durkheim’s (1915/1965) notion of transfig-uration as well as research on hope, religion, and branding. Congruent with priorstudies, which posit that interactions among a brand’s consumers contribute tobrand-centric emotions (Cova and Pace, 2006; Schau et al., 2009), we find thatamong the North American Weight Watchers members interviewed and observedin this study, the feeling of hope is a result of collective, rather than just intra-psychic processes. In line with dramaturgical theorizing on emotions (Turner andStets, 2005), interactions among Weight Watchers members, group leaders, andeven Weight Watchers non-members all play a role in inducing and enhancinghope. These findings are congruent with the view that hope is an emotion withreligious roots (e.g., Cartwright, 2004), as well as with the idea that brands resonatein light of religious vernacular and worldview (e.g., Belk and Tumbat, 2005;Kozinets, 2001).

Theorizing brand-centric hope cultivation

Marketplace-mediated quest for hope

Hope is a commodity in the marketplace. Products ranging from hair-loss remediesto magnetic bracelets promise hope in that ‘‘something positive, which does notpresently apply to one’s life, could still materialize’’ (Lazarus, 1999: 653). Brandssuch as Weight Watchers may be particularly attractive for those hoping to loseweight. Weight Watchers is distinct from its competitors such as Jenny Craig or LAWeight Loss because the service revolves around the support of fellow consumerswho share a moral career and a yearning for weight loss (Bradford et al., 2013).Given the importance of fellow consumers as vehicles of oversight (Beruchashviliand Moisio, forthcoming; Moisio and Beruchashvili, 2010), the mere presence ofother consumers in the Weights Watchers context may invoke hope, with theunderlying idea that hope cannot be achieved alone, but rather through one’sunion with others (Benzein and Saveman, 1998). Construal of hope in theAmerican historic-cultural milieu is predicated on the view that hope requires rela-tionships and connections to others who share similar fates (Delbanco, 1999).Some even equate group environments with the personal experience of hope(Vugia, 1991), suggesting per Braithwaite (2004: 128) that ‘‘when individualsseek to achieve an outcome as a group, hope is inevitably involved.’’

By fostering access to other consumers with similar desires, brands such asWeight Watchers can promote yearning and conviction that losing weight is never-theless possible. Group contexts foster consumers’ sense of being needed, offer

2 Journal of Consumer Culture 0(0)




valued support, and restore independence (e.g., Liu et al., 2010). Beyond this,research consistently finds that groups can elevate feelings of hope (e.g., Herth,2000). Groups cultivate hope as they afford consumers the opportunity to givemeaning to their psychological, social, or physical adversity (e.g., Mascaro andRosen, 2005), and enable individuals to focus on moving forward rather thandwelling on their condition. Espousing hope, however, requires that the groupinteractions among a brand’s consumers resonate at a deeper level.

Religion and hope

Hope is an emotion ingrained in Christianity. It is one of the foundationalChristian virtues tied to notions of salvation and transcendence (Cartwright,2004). Religious underpinnings of hope manifest across numerous contexts. Forinstance, research on individuals experiencing illness underscores the associationbetween individuals’ religious affiliation and the feeling of hope (e.g., Bellamy et al.,2007). The religious framing of hope is similarly evident in how consumers assignmeaning to difficult life events (Nedderman et al., 2010), as well as in how belief inthe ability to overcome obstacles set on individuals’ path is fostered when hope isframed in religious terms (e.g., Ai et al., 2004). Moreover, the religious foundationof hope may be functional because it helps shift consumers’ focus to the process ofpursuing outcomes. Hope for weight loss can be construed in religious terms suchas pilgrimage, wherein dieters imagine themselves on a shared journey in search ofthe promise of wellness (Cartwright, 2004).

The idea that the Christian religious vernacular gives meaning to hope suggeststhat hope is a secular emotion with sacred undertones. Throughout consumerculture, hope is sacralized in light of religious metaphors, notions, and ritualsingrained in intellectual traditions of the Western cultures (Belk et al., 1989). Wetherefore advocate the view that religion offers a potent symbolic resource, a res-ervoir for defining the individual’s experiences and displays of hope (Watts et al.,2006). The view that religion permeates even non-religious consumers’ brand rela-tionships and language is evidenced by prior research. Religious vernacular is atwork in reviving a brand abandoned by its manufacturer (Muniz and Schau, 2005),giving meaning to a brand and its followers (e.g., Belk and Tumbat, 2005), or evenproviding a meaning system for the brand’s dominance over its users’ volition, guiltalleviation, and successes in weight loss (Moisio and Beruchashvili, 2010).

Hope cultivation as a dramaturgical process

To understand how a brand such as Weight Watchers may draw on religious ver-nacular to cultivate hope, we turn to the dramaturgical theorizing on emotions(e.g., Turner and Stets, 2005). Congruent with the conceptualization that hope is asocial, consumption-centric emotion (Beruchashvili and Moisio, 2013), the drama-turgy-of-emotions theorizing emphasizes the role of structural factors (Cartwright,2004; Lively and Heise, 2004). Influences of large-scale social structures such as

Beruchashvili et al. 3




religion on emotional experience and expression are mediated via smaller groups orinstitutions (Gordon, 1990). Emotions, accordingly, are experienced in relation tothe actual or imagined presence of social others whom Denzin (2007: 3) calls‘‘emotional interactants.’’ Displays of emotion in groups also often amount toattempts to influence others as well as the self (Heise and O’Brien, 1993). Forinstance, the display of optimism by mountain-climbing tour guides is an attemptto influence consumers (Tumbat, 2011).

Dramaturgical theorizing posits that emotional experience and expression arefiltered through emotion culture (Turner and Stets, 2006), ‘‘a group’s set of beliefs,vocabulary, regulative norms, and other ideational resources pertaining to emo-tion’’ (Gordon, 1989: 322). We propose that religion permeates Weight Watchers’emotion culture. Experiences and expression of hope in such a view are indirectlyguided by religious vernacular-infused feeling rules, framing rules, and emotionwork. For instance, emotion work, the acts of trying to feel emotions appropriateto a situation (Hochschild, 1983), may structure how Weight Watchers displayhope to themselves and to others. We also propose that religious vernacular struc-tures hope by guiding Weight Watchers to formulate and rely on shared feelingrules (Hochschild, 1979). These feeling rules stipulate how and when WeightWatchers ought to feel hope. Religious vernacular may also influence hope throughframing rules, the shared conventions about ascribing meaning or definitions tosituations (Hochschild, 2003). Thus, religious vernacular may structure hopethrough Weight Watchers’ emotion work, feeling rules, and framing rulesembedded in the brand’s emotion culture.

Transfiguration of brands as repositories of hope

Understanding how a brand might become charged with emotion requires recourseto the notion of transfiguration (e.g., Durkheim, 1915/1965). According toDurkheim, the notion of transfiguration suggests that a society and the transcen-dental spirits that many societies worship are one and the same thing. The belief inreligion and transcendental notions is, in Durkheim’s view, simply a misguided layintuition that results from tendencies to attribute the cause of emotion-laden epi-sodes to an outside entity. The group interprets its emotional experiences in lieu ofnotions about a transcendental being and attributes the cause of its experiences toan imaginary construct a group calls its god. The material items associated withsuch events similarly become religious ‘‘totems’’ that embody the emotional ener-gies associated with religious rituals. A secular reading of the transfiguration prin-ciple suggests that when Watchers undergo hope-laden interactions at meetings,they would be inclined to attribute hope to the brand, effectively treating it as anemotional totem.

The transfiguration principle has received support in the research on brands thatdeal with collectivities. Indeed, some claim that a ‘‘brand is a powerful totem thatregathers its loyal users into a contemporary clan. Members of the clan share anaffinity that situates them in a common experience of belonging’’ (Brown et al.,





2003: 29). The view that belonging or the group’s ‘‘consciousness of kind’’ (Munizand O’Guinn, 2001) may in fact occur around the shared emotional experiences istherefore not without precedent. We suggest that a brand may also become aconvenient symbol that organizes a brand’s consumers’ emotional experiencesvery much like religious symbols do. Prior research on Weight Watchers is sup-portive of such an assertion. Among its members, Weight Watchers assign punitivepowers to the brand (Moisio and Beruchashvili, 2010), a finding indicative of anunderlying transfiguration process, where the actions and emotions aroused duringWeight Watchers meetings are transferred to the brand. Thus, we posit that theprocesses that give rise to appraisals enhancing hope also fuel the transfiguration ofthe Weight Watchers brand as reflection of its members’ hopes.

Research procedures

In line with the methodological strategy to choose research contexts due to theirpotential to offer theoretical insights (Arnould et al., 2006), we focused on theWeight Watchers brand. Weight Watchers operates a service that helps its consumersto lose weight, a highly uncertain yet possible outcome that may be linked to hope(de Mello and MacInnis, 2005). In this context, our data collection involved a com-bination of non-participant observation and long interviews. The first author con-ducted non-participant observation at 143 Weight Watchers weekly group meetingsacross three different locations in a midsized city in the AmericanMidwest, as well asinterviewing 40 Weight Watchers consumers over a period of approximately 2 years(See Table 1). In line with the recommendations for conducting market-orientedethnographies (Arnould and Wallendorf, 1994), while attending weekly meetings,each covering a 30–45-minute-long period, the first author observed the membersand their interactions with one another, with the group leader, or with the WeightWatchers staff before, during, and after the meeting. The first author also triangu-lated observations across three sites, days of the week, and times of the day.

To gain insight into Weight Watchers consumers’ perspectives, we adopted thelong interview method (McCracken, 1988). We recruited informants at meetings orthrough snowball sampling. Our sample includes lifetime members who havereached their Weight Watchers’ target weights, and regular members who havenot yet reached their target weights and pay a fee to attend group meetings. Thefirst author conducted interviews using an interview guide. Each interview beganwith the ‘‘grand tour’’ questions about the informant’s past experiences with excessweight and weight loss, and gradually focused on eliciting information on how theinteractions and relationships evolving at the weekly Weight Watchers meetingscontributed to the informant’s experiences of hope. Each interview lasted betweenone to one and a half hours and involved the use of follow-up probes to bring outextended experiential commentary.

Our data analysis follows the extended case methodology (Burawoy, 1998). Weentered all interview transcripts into the Nud*Ist software package for qualitativedata analysis, and through the process of coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990)





Tab

le1.

Desc

ription

of

the

info

rman

ts.

Pse

udonym

Age

Eth

nic

ity

Occ

upat

ion

Educa

tion

Mar

ital

stat

us

House

hold

inco

me

Abig

ail

24

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

est

udent

Mas

ters

inpro

gress

Mar

ried

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Aga

tha

38

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

est

udent

PhD

inpro

gress

Singl

e$30,0

00–39,0

00

Agn

es

53

Cau

casi

anSe

creta

rySo

me

colle

geM

arri

ed

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Bern

ice

44

Cau

casi

anN

on-p

rofit

volu

nte

er

Bac

helo

rsM

arri

ed

$60,0

00–69,0

00

Bess

ie60

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

assi

stan

tA

ssoci

ates

degr

ee

Div

orc

ed

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Bonnie

53

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

tech

nic

ian

Som

eco

llege

Singl

e$40,0

00–49,0

00

Bri

anna

47

Cau

casi

anR

ese

arch

tech

nolo

gist

Mas

ters

Div

orc

ed

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Can

dic

e56

Cau

casi

anSa

les

asso

ciat

eSo

me

colle

geM

arri

ed

NA

Ceci

lia22

Cau

casi

anC

linic

altr

ainin

gai

dH

igh

school

Singl

e$30,0

00–39,0

00

Chlo

e54

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

coord

inat

or

Bac

helo

rsM

arri

ed

$70,0

00–79,0

00

Dai

sy52

Cau

casi

anA

ssis

tant

coord

inat

or

Som

egr

aduat

est

udy

Mar

ried

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Dar

lene

32

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

support

Bac

helo

rsM

arri

ed

NA

Dolo

res

33

Cau

casi

anA

ssis

tant

pro

fess

or

PhD

Mar

ried

$70,0

00–79,0

00

Eden

23

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

est

udent

Mas

ters

inpro

gress

Singl

e$20,0

00–29,0

00

Ele

nor

54

Cau

casi

anA

ging

speci

alis

tB

achelo

rsM

arri

ed

$80,0

00–89,0

00

Eri

ca52

Cau

casi

anSc

hoolteac

her

Bac

helo

rsM

arri

ed

$90,0

00–99,0

00

Fran

cis

59

Cau

casi

anSo

cial

work

er

Som

eco

llege

Wid

ow

ed

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Gin

ger

57

Cau

casi

anSe

lfem

plo

yed

Som

eco

llege

Mar

ried

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Hal

ey52

Cau

casi

anPublic

rela

tions

speci

alis

tM

aste

rsM

arri

ed

$70,0

00–79,0

00

Har

riet

26

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

ere

sear

chas

sist

ant

Mas

ters

Par

tners

hip

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Isis

38

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

ere

cruitm

ent

dir

ect

or

Mas

ters

Singl

e$110,0

00

and

ove

r

Jade

30

Afr

ican

Am

eri

can

Gra

duat

est

udent

Mas

ters

inpro

gress

Singl

e$20,0

00–29,0

00

Jasm

ine

31

Afr

ican

Am

eri

can

Rese

arch

chem

ist

PhD

inpro

gress

Singl

e$20,0

00–29,0

00

(continued)





Tab

le1.

Continued

Pse

udonym

Age

Eth

nic

ity

Occ

upat

ion

Educa

tion

Mar

ital

stat

us

House

hold

inco

me

Kat

e58

Cau

casi

anSe

creta

rySo

me

colle

geM

arri

ed

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Kear

a50

Cau

casi

anR

eta

ilst

ore

man

ager

Som

eco

llege

Mar

ried

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Leah

30

Cau

casi

anSc

hoolteac

her

Bac

helo

rsSi

ngl

e$30,0

00–39,0

00

Lin

dse

y50

Cau

casi

anC

ente

rco

ord

inat

or

Bac

helo

rsM

arri

ed

$90,0

00–99,0

00

Mar

go53

Cau

casi

anH

ouse

wife

Hig

hsc

hool

Mar

ried

$110,0

00

and

ove

r

Min

dy

46

Cau

casi

anSc

hoolteac

her

Mas

ters

Mar

ried

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Nora

36

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

tech

nic

ian

Som

eco

llege

Mar

ried

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Pam

ela

47

Cau

casi

anH

ouse

wife

Som

eco

llege

Mar

ried

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Renee

56

Cau

casi

anA

dm

inis

trat

ive

support

Som

eco

llege

Mar

ried

$110,0

00

and

ove

r

Selm

a43

His

pan

icH

ouse

wife

Hig

hsc

hool

Mar

ried

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Shan

non

41

Cau

casi

anR

ece

ptionis

tH

igh

school

Par

tners

hip

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Sydney

59

Cau

casi

anR

etire

dSo

me

colle

geM

arri

ed

$50,0

00–59,0

00

Tam

my

29

Cau

casi

anSc

hoolteac

her

Bac

helo

rsSi

ngl

e$40,0

00–49,0

00

Tri

sh50

Cau

casi

anSc

hoolca

fete

ria

work

er

Hig

hsc

hool

Mar

ried

$30,0

00–39,0

00

Veda

46

Afr

ican

Am

eri

can

Soci

alw

ork

er

Bac

helo

rsD

ivorc

ed

$40,0

00–49,0

00

Whitney

33

Cau

casi

anG

raduat

est

udent

Mas

ters

inpro

gress

Singl

e$20,0

00–29,0

00

Yola

nda

27

Cau

casi

anR

ece

ptionis

tSo

me

colle

geSi

ngl

e$20,0

00–29,0

00





we sought to keep track and to organize our dataset systematically. During theanalysis, we traced the patterns in the dataset relative to religious notions asso-ciated with hope. Through iterations, we sought out cases converging and divergingfrom our codes, highlighting experiences of hope and their religious underpinnings.Later, we scrutinized the codes, and collapsed smaller codes into larger ones in lightof the emerging theoretical model (Spiggle, 1994). Insights were gained throughcomparison of non-participant observation data with the interview data (Arnouldand Wallendorf, 1994). The findings we discuss next are the end result of our dataanalysis.

Findings

Light at the end of the tunnel: Predestination narrative and hope emergence

To have hope is to turn away from despair. This requires, in line with the theory ofhope (MacInnis and de Mello, 2005), processes that convert impossibility intopossibility, despair into hope. The notion of Calvinistic predestination (Mueller,2003), which entails eternal damnation for some and salvation for others, offers anarrative that shapes how Weight Watchers experience their relationship to them-selves and their commitment to achieving weight loss through Weight Watchers.The predestination narrative also invites consumers to search for outside sources ofsymbolic salvation, such as Weight Watchers.

Sin. Among our informants, despair emerges from the internalization of the fram-ing rule of bodily fat as sin (Stearns, 2002). This view is evident in how informantslabel themselves: ‘‘We’re all sinners here . . .we’re not here’ cause we [have] donesomethin’ good,’’ remarks 53-year-old Agnes, who joined Weight Watchers in thehope of losing 40 pounds. Agnes’ self-identification as a ‘‘sinner’’ alludes to thecultural expectation that being overweight is a physical sign of moral failure (e.g.,Bordo, 1993). Like sinners, they are left to describe excess weight as a burden. Suchfeeling rule that weight ought to be experienced as something members must carryaround yet are incapable of getting rid of on their own was expressed by Candice:‘‘ . . . fat, it’s, it’s satanic . . . it can be deadly . . . hard to fight it . . . I do feel hopelessat times.’’ Candice is a 56-year-old Weight Watcher on a mission to lose at least 50pounds and who compares her fatness to the Biblical incarnation of evil.

Weight Watchers also evoke the framing rule that being overweight is retribu-tion for sin. It is rooted in the commonly shared fatalism that our informants learnto feel about their excess poundage. Because disciplining the appetite and the bodyis everyone’s moral responsibility (Thompson and Hirschman, 1995), the over-weight status that Weight Watchers have brought upon themselves represents apunishment for their sins as revealed by Bernice: ‘‘ . . .maybe it’s like punish-ment . . . punishment from God or something, after abusing your body for somany years, feeding it with crap, . . . and it [weight] won’t just go away.’’ Berniceis a 44-year-old Weight Watcher who has become a member for the second time





and is still struggling to take off 40 extra pounds. She recruits the religious notionof divine retribution, which punishes evil deeds and rewards good ones. Bernice’ssentiment is shaped through the framing of penance that past moral transgressionsagainst the body have earned her. She knows to feel bad in consequence. Bernice’semotional distress is conditioned by the realization that, by neglecting the moralduty of bodily care (e.g., Saguy and Gruys, 2010), she has sealed her destiny andhas to wage an enduring battle with body fat. This emotional duress is even moreprominent when compared to the joy of thinness—another feeling rule conditionedby cultural glorification of slimness (Wolf, 2002).

Curse. Closely aligned with the notion of punishment for sin is another religiousnotion, curse, which fuels Weight Watchers’ tendency to view the brand as a pur-veyor of hope. The idea of the curse captures the belief that excess weight, as thesign of divine penalty, is inescapable. Once afflicted with overweight, WeightWatchers believe they will not be able to rid easily of it. Although the notion ofcurse gives meaning to Weight Watchers’ unending struggle, at the same time, itfuels sense of desperation:

I’ve tried losing weight my whole life. . . . some days, I get up in the morning, I jump on

the scale, it’s in my bathroom, I weigh myself the first thing in the morning. Some

days, I just think why, why can’t I just wake up, and see it’s [weight] gone. Why I, have

this, struggle, you know . . . it just sweeps over me, feels hopeless, like, there’s no

salvation, you know, I’ll just smell food and it’s gonna end up on my hips. . . . just

don’t wanna get into my clothes, don’t wanna look in the mirror, don’t wanna go to

work, just don’t feel like getting on with my day.

This informant, Darlene, refers to herself as a ‘‘hopeless dieter’’ since she keepsregaining, unable to maintain weight loss for an extended period, an experiencefamiliar to other informants as well. Like Darlene, many informants have been inWeight Watchers previously, but after regaining weight, they stopped adhering tothe diet regimen and attending group meetings. In Darlene’s story, the battle withweight is a source of despair such that at times it affects her day-to-day functioning.Like others, Darlene aligns her emotions with the feeling rule of hope, the elusiveprospect that someday the unwanted weight may disappear upon awakening, theyearning that animates ritualistic weighing every morning. The exclamation thatthere seems to be ‘‘no salvation’’ connotes to the emotional state in which ‘‘the painof despair . . . lies in the fact that a hope is there, but no way opens up towards itsfulfillment’’ (Moltmann, 1967: 23).

The notion of curse helps frame the Weight Watchers brand as a source ofsymbolic salvation. For our informants, curse is the causative force that incapaci-tates them: despite zealous attempts, excess weight prevails. They feel emotionalsurrender and abandon as they run out of patience, resolve, and faith that long-lasting weight loss is attainable: ‘‘After dieting for so long, I’ve spent so much time,money too, money went into it too, I just stopped believing it’s ever gonna happen.





I pretty much threw up my hands in the air,’’ says 27-year-old Yolanda, who hasbeen a ‘‘yo-yo’’ dieter since her teens and believes herself to be under the spell ofcurse:

I have tried . . .God knows, as long as I remember myself, I am always losing

weight . . . but . . . it’s like I’m cursed or something . . . I’ve always been pudgy, and . . . it

just [weight loss] won’t stick. . . . so, I, maybe it’s not in my cards, what else . . .maybe I

just should give up in despair.

As Yolanda desperately seeks to understand why weight loss evades her, sherecruits the notion of predestination, the Biblical manifestation of providentialwrath against evil that teaches her to feel as if she has somehow earned her cor-pulence. Yolanda evokes the religious idea of predestination (‘‘not in my cards’’),which is her last meaning-making resort given that she has struggled with weightloss for such a long time. The predestination narrative gains traction becauseweight loss ‘‘won’t stick.’’ Something that acts as a proof of a curse thereby pro-vides an explanation rooted in the supernatural that requires no actual proof.

Hell. Beyond the vernacular of sin and curse, our informants also evoke the notionof hell to convey pains entailed by their weight loss pursuit. Indeed, we encountergrim references to hell to describe this despair in a number of the informants’interviews. Sinners hope for salvation, because the alternative is damnation tohell—physical and spiritual death. Daisy evokes the notion of hell to explain herstate of despair:

I have over 100 pounds that I gotta lose. But if I can lose 50, even 30, I’m pre-diabetic,

and if I don’t lose weight, I sure will become diabetic. My eyesight too, it’s been

always bad . . . and, well, if I don’t lose some weight, my sugars will spike, so, you

know, over the years, that can affect my eyesight . . . I don’t wanna go blind, I can’t

(chokes up) . . .when I think about, you know, I get so depressed . . . It’s like a deep pit,

I feel like sucked in it. . . . I need, maybe they [Weight Watchers] can save me.

To Daisy, a 52-year-old Weight Watcher who has been overweight since adoles-cence, being obese is akin to a life in hell. Daisy has been in Weight Watchers10 times prior to re-joining recently, hoping to lose 100 pounds. Daisy experiencesher overweight condition as being sucked into a ‘‘deep pit,’’ alluding to the depictionof the Biblical hell, the pit in which sinners are mired without hope for salvation.When Daisy elaborated on a grave consequence in the form of weakened eyesightduring the interview, she got emotional to the point of tearing up. Daisy has con-sidered bariatric surgery, but opted for ‘‘natural’’ weight loss withWeightWatchers.Weight Watchers emerges as her salvation from a metaphoric hell.

The inclination to see Weight Watchers as the gateway to weight loss is linked tothe experience that consumers feel that they have exhausted all other options.Many members indeed believe they have tried everything else, designating the





Weight Watchers group as their ‘‘last hope’’ as several of our informants do. Vedaexplains: ‘‘I told myself, I’ll try this [Weight Watchers] one last time . . . kinda likelast hope, after that, that’s it, for me, it’s over, I’m done trying!’’ Despite thefatalistic undertone, this interjection brings to the fore our informants’ deep yearn-ing for Weight Watchers to bring them out of the depths of the darkness into whichthey have metaphorically fallen. Some members even imagine the group will helperadicate their overweight condition for good. Weight Watchers offers light at theend of the tunnel, a viewpoint expressed by Candice:

I know it can run me to the grave . . . it’s devastating to think about it. I’m hoping to

lose some weight here [Weight Watchers] . . . to see some light at the end of this, to just,

to just bounce back to living, instead of, worrying I’m gonna die.

Candice recruits the religious imagery of light as she describes Weight Watchers asa glimmer in darkness. Weight Watchers emerges as her guiding light, the remotechance to overcome the afflictions of the overweight state: respiratory complica-tions and immobility due to pain in the spine and joints. The deeper religiousmetaphor underlies Candice’s jeremiad: Weight Watchers resembles the transi-tional space between hell and paradise. Weight Watchers thus emerges as abrand that can erase Weight Watchers’ disconsolate condition. Thus, desperationand the feeling of past trials fuel our informants’ belief that the Weight Watchersbrand offers them a gateway to lose weight. It offers them a promise of symbolicsalvation and a chance of achieving eventual weight loss.

‘‘I’m a real convert now’’: Hope elevation through conversion

A conversion process is needed to elevate hope. This conversion process involvesacquiring a new identity as well as an associated belief system as suggested byprior research (Snow and Machalek, 1984). Undergoing a spiritual rebirth meansthat dieters learn to associate weight loss with virtues. It also entails learning tohave faith. To overcome the threat of despair, an ever-present haunting shadowin Weight Watchers members’ daily struggles with weight, Weight Watcherslearn the feeling rule of faith, which focuses on silencing the voices of doubt.By helping consumers undergo spiritual rebirth and learn to have faith, theWeight Watchers brand heightens the importance its consumers place onweight loss and makes them feel that their environments are conductiveto weight loss, both of which are hallmarks of hope (MacInnis and deMello, 2005).

Spiritual rebirth. Upon joining Weight Watchers, our informants learn to leave theirold selves behind, along with any markers of past moral defects. Nora, a 36-year-old member who cannot remember ever not dieting, explains: ‘‘ . . .when I joined,I remember telling the leader, it’s kinda been hopeless for me . . . she said, ‘you’rehere now, you’re gonna be a whole new person once you’ve gone through this, like





physically, and mentally.’’ Such a story underscores the view that the moment ofjoining the group becomes a moment of spiritual rebirth, a moment fueling ‘‘bio-graphical reconstruction’’ characteristic of religious conversion experiences (Snowand Machalek, 1984). Keara recounts one such story highlighting the conversionprocess and its moment of spiritual rebirth:

. . . the neat thing that came out of that meetings was, the leader told us, ‘‘if you

haven’t gotten rid of all of your quote-unquote fat clothes, you need to get rid of

them . . . it will be a very positive, very humbling experience to get rid of all your quote-

unquote fat clothing.’’ So I went home, and thought about it, and contemplated, and I

prayed about it, and I just decided that I’m gonna go through my closet and I’m

gonna get rid of all those fat clothes, and I did. . . . see, my old me would not just do

that, but I just kinda blew that off and, keep thinkin’ hey, I’m a new me, I’m a thinner

me, no way I’m ever gonna go back to being unhappy fat person. I even joked in the

meeting, ‘‘I’m a real convert now’’ (laughs), and everyone was cheering, sayin’ I’m

brave . . . I definitely felt hope, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.

Keara is a 50-year-old business owner halfway to her 50-pound weight-loss goal.She describes a ‘‘demonstration event’’ that provides ‘‘dramatic evidence both tooneself and to others that one is imbued with the appropriate spirit or force andis therefore an authentic devotee or convert’’ (Snow and Machalek, 1984: 172).Rebirth signified by the disposal of her old clothes involves symbolically divestingherself of the old ‘‘fat’’ self that signifies an identity interwoven with despair. Bydiscarding her entire wardrobe, Keara evokes the metaphor of shedding old skinto account for the moment of leaving behind her past, desperate self. She, likeother members, learns to feel that such moments ought to be experienced cath-artically. As the sign of commitment to change through Weight Watchers, the actof throwing away old clothes enables Keara to feel like she is moving ahead onthat journey.

Through spiritual rebirth, Weight Watchers learn to frame their ongoing weight-loss pursuits as meaningful quests for self-improvement. They are encouraged toview dieting as a virtuous, selfless act rather than a narcissistic, vain pursuit ofphysical beauty. While some members certainly yearn for enhanced physicalattractiveness through slimmer physiques, the group meetings attempt to instillthe notion that weight loss should be felt as a morally righteous cause, a framingrule explained by Selma:

I’m reminded why I’m here. I’m trying to do somethin’ good, you know . . . people

don’t often understand, like [those] outside Weight Watchers, they think we’re here

for vanity, like we only wanna look good, that’s an added bonus of course (laughs),

but people, they don’t understand that it’s a sacrifice, like it takes time to toss a

beautiful salad as opposed to throwing stuff into microwave, or, it takes time to get

to the meeting . . .what we do here is much bigger, it’s good for us and good for

others . . . that helps with hope.





As a 43-year-old housewife, Selma is on a mission to achieve a 45-pound loss. AsSelma is losing weight, she has learned to frame the pursuit of weight loss as asacrosanct moral duty. Selma has internalized this framing rule partly due to theconviction that she is fighting with the outside world, which is prejudiced againsther weight-loss effort. Removal of the framing of weight-loss attempts as superflu-ous and replacement with a sanctified frame combats the body-reduction politicsthat frown upon women’s preoccupation with slimming down as a pursuit of vanity(e.g., Rothblum, 1994). The group meetings enable Selma to counter the suspicionsof superficiality and to see herself as a moral crusader instead. In this framing,dieting emerges as a devotional offering that brings about societal rectification.

Faith. Becoming a Weight Watcher also entails learning to have faith in the brand’sability to stimulate weight loss. As a feeling rule, faith defines how they ought tofeel about doubts, whether it means being more forgiving, more compassionate, ormore patient when it comes to evaluating one’s own and others’ dietary challenges.Having faith is then an antidote to doubt that lingers in the back of our informants’minds. By adopting the feeling rule of faith, Weight Watchers members learn to feelthat whatever obstacles they may directly or indirectly encounter, they should notlet setbacks take away from the belief that Weight Watchers will help its membersachieve weight loss. Erica describes how the group leader instills the feeling rule ofhaving faith:

. . . the group leader, she took my height and weight, and I knew I wanted to lose a

hundred pounds, but when I heard someone else say, ‘‘so, your goal is a hundred

pounds,’’ I felt real bad. I guess I was showing in my face, I even said, like, heck, how

can someone lose a hundred pounds . . . the group leader, she talked to me a bit, she

said, ‘‘you gotta believe it’s gonna happen’’ . . . it’s like faith . . . like believe, in God

even if we don’t see’im, it’s the same . . . you come here, doubting is worst you can do

for yourself. I thought that was a neat comparison . . . it just felt reassuring, hopeful.

Erica’s account of her first group-meeting experience is telling of the inculcation offeeling rules at Weight Watchers group meetings. By evoking the feeling rule offaith, the group leader evokes the parallel to religious faith, which renders doubtsundesirable. They have no space in how Weight Watchers ought to feel. In drawingsuch a parallel, the group leader uses faith aligned with its theological conceptionas an antidote to despair (Moltmann, 1967). In lieu of such a feeling rule, she asksErica to embrace the program, to take a leap of faith rather than calculate the oddsof weight loss. Erica feels comfortably reassured by the group leader, who puts herin what she believes to be the ‘‘right mindset’’ for the weight-loss pursuit.

The feeling rule of faith also helps members frame daunting aspects of dieting astests of one’s faith in the brand. By evoking the notion of dieting as the passage ofthe faithful, the group leaders’ and the peers’ reassurances that ‘‘trials and tribu-lations’’ will eventually earn a reward rekindles the notion of righteous suffering.The ongoing discipline of faith is framed as a journey toward eventual reward akin





to the believers’ reward of salvation. Enduring dietary tribulations therefore is aninevitable, if not a necessary, part of the weight-loss journey, a point articulated byAgnes:

. . . at that meeting, one lady spoke up, and she was sayin’ ‘‘You can’t beat up on

yourself’ cause this is our cross to bear.’’ She said, ‘‘It’s ok to feel down a bit but you

can’t beat up on yourself when you mess up,’ cause when you feel bad, that’s when

you’re ready to give up’’ . . . she said, ‘‘Look at it as a test. It’s a test, so if you go

through with this, you dealt with your demons.’’ . . . so I remember that, and I don’t

feel as bad messin’ up . . . I feel hope.

Through the group meetings, members like Agnes, a 53-year-old Weight Watchertrying to lose 35 pounds, learn the importance of enduring emotional martyrdomdefined through perseverance in hardships. In Agnes’ quote, the reference to bear-ing the cross alludes to the road to Golgotha—on the road to crucifixion, Christtrailed the heavy cross symbolizing human sins. In the same vein, the emotionalburden of weight loss feels heavy upon Weight Watchers; it is their cross, and it ispermissible to feel occasionally burdened with its heaviness. Weight Watchers arereminded that by tugging their weight-loss crosses, they will conquer emotional‘‘demons.’’ The fellow Weight Watcher reminds the group that they ought not to‘‘beat up’’ on themselves after dietary failures. Such failures are within the boundsof emotional trials and tribulations along the weight-loss journey. If anything, theemotional martyrdom reinforces the prospect that upon passing the test, thereward of weight loss now looms larger.

Witnessing: Hope emplacement in the brand through worship

To forge a view of their environments as conducive to goal fulfillment, WeightWatchers need assurances. Through exaltation, religious practices associated withtestifying to the cause of heightened emotional energy (Durkheim, 1915/1965),Weight Watchers learn to assign the brand powers capable of protecting them inthe unsympathetic world outside the meetings. Through proselytizing, a sacrificialact associated with ‘‘divine worship’’ (Weber, 1993: 26), Weight Watchers converttheir environments into goal-conducive ones.

Exaltation of the Weight Watchers brand’s sacred powers. Exaltation entails payinghomage to transcendental power through such acts as praying, reading the holyscriptures, or giving thanks for the miraculous presence of the divine in one’s life,acts that also protect against bouts of despair.We find several instances of exaltationin our informants’ accounts. Even group meetings become objects of exaltation.Some members experience the meeting-room space as embodying emotionalenergy that relieves emotional burdens of a bad diet day or week. Informantsevoke the metaphor of ‘‘church’’ when elaborating these emotional effects: ‘‘I com-pare it to going to church. . . . it gives me peace of mind. . . . it’s like I feel I’m gonna





have a good week’’ (Francis). In Francis’ quote, the meeting emerges as the site ofworship, and just as attending church engenders a calming aura, attending the meet-ing induces peacefulness. Even the specific decor elements of the meeting space areexperienced as adding to the church-like aura related by Francis. For instance, bul-letin boards pinned with pre- and post-weight-loss pictures that hang in the meetingroom evoke veneration akin to religious artifacts. Notably, one of our data-collection sites at which Weight Watchers meetings were held was a local church.

Exaltation is also evident in how informants treat various articles such as leaf-lets, brochures, and other Weight Watchers materials accumulated over the courseof their membership. During tough times, Weight Watchers feel compelled toreexamine these materials as they might examine religious texts possessing sacredproperties. Many members own black faux-leather-bound diaries, which they call‘‘little black books.’’ These diaries, in which members record daily food intake andexercise, are given to every Weight Watcher upon joining. However, for someinformants, these objects possess special powers, as Renee elaborates: ‘‘ . . . thankGod for my diary . . . it’s like my bible, I carry it everywhere . . . I write everything Ieat down, even if I go overboard, and when I write it down, it never lets me stayupset too long.’’ Renee evokes the metaphor of the Bible. She is inseparable fromher diary just as the Bible is an indispensable companion to many believers.However, unlike the Bible, the diary reinforces the vital feeling rule learned atthe meetings that members should never feel that obstacles can overwhelm them.

Our informants also exalt other material objects infused with the WeightWatchers’ sacred power. These tokens include key chains in the shape of clappinghands, bookmarks engraved with the number of pounds lost, or smiley-face stick-ers affixed to the Weight Watchers’ weight-loss diaries. Beyond signifying members’commitment to the weight-loss pursuit, these tokens are contaminated with thesacred emotional energies of the group meetings that can be unleashed by a simpletouch. Interacting with these tokens imparts hope, as Bessie explains: ‘‘I tinker withmy keychain . . . kinda like a reminder, to be thankful, for the group and . . . bringsme to the positive world.’’ Bessie ‘‘tinkers’’ with her keychain like a believer fingersa rosary; it offers praise to the group and upholds her hope.

The emotion work of exaltation is regularly performed outside the meetings aswell. Emotional vocabulary (Gordon, 1989), including prayer-like mantras such as‘‘tomorrow is a new day’’ and ‘‘we’re losers but not quitters’’ are often meaningfultools of exaltation. Such emotional vocabulary is critical for manymembers who failto attend the group meetings regularly. They provide Weight Watchers with hope insituations where they need extra energy, such as tempting food situations. Somelifetime members may only manage to meet the group once a month rather thanonce a week, thereby feeling more vulnerable in dangerous food situations. ConsiderIsis’ story about a trial at a friend’s wedding, and particularly how the emotionalvocabulary enables her to reinstate the feeling rule of hopefulness despite obstacles:

It’s a kinda funny story, like we have this saying that goes ‘‘Nothing tastes as good as

thin does;’’ the leader used to repeat that often, I also kinda got hooked on it.





Well, after I started maintaining, I was doing pretty good but I didn’t go to meetings

for a while. Anyway, I went to a friend’s wedding in a different town, and food-wise it

was just horrible . . . there was all this food . . . it started with wedding rehearsal, and,

then, on wedding day, at the cocktail reception, there was this huge buffet, and . . . I

just went crazy. . . . I think I blew that week’s points, and, next week’s . . . I just didn’t

feel good . . . I felt like I was throwing all the hard work away. So what I did, right

before the cake, yeah, cake and desserts, I went to the powder room, I looked at

myself in the mirror and said, ‘‘Nothing tastes as good as thin does,’’ ‘‘Nothing tastes

as good as thin does.’’ I literally kept saying that to myself, like a prayer (laughs), and

thinking, ‘‘I’m not gonna feel bad, I did it, it’s over, I can take care of it,’’ kinda

remembering what I accomplished, and it felt much better . . . I only had like a taste of

the wedding cake, and that was it.

Like prayers, the proverbs, as charged containers of emotional energies learnedat the group meetings, infuse members with hope. Isis resorts to the aphorism‘‘Nothing tastes as good as thin does’’ to relieve herself from the possession ofthe food demon. Like the incantation of special prayers to ward off evil, Isisbegins chanting her Weight Watchers ‘‘prayer,’’ which rekindles the feeling ruleof faith in the face of dietary lapses: one must refuse to succumb to self-loathing in the aftermath of a downfall. By activating the Weight Watchers’feeling rule through ritualistic praying, Isis exalts the power of the WeightWatchers group. Her hope is restored, and consequently, she is savedher from bingeing on dessert. Thus, ‘‘prayers’’ allow Weight Watchers to over-come challenging situations, in which despair is always only an arm’s lengthaway.

Proselytizing. Proselytizing, the emotion work category of converting someone elseinto a believer of the Weight Watchers brand, is another prominent feature ofenhancing the individual experience of hope. It pertains to the emotion workinvolved in spreading the Weight Watchers brand’s message of hope, similar to‘‘evangelizing’’ (Schau et al., 2009). It is, however, predicated on the feeling rule ofhope. When members spread their hope-laden stories of Weight Watchers, theylearn to feel that such actions ought to make them feel hopeful. However, ratherthan representing a mere incident of positive word-of-mouth, proselytizing isingrained in the normative structure of Weight Watchers. Over the course ofbeing socialized into being a Weight Watcher, members learn to view proselytizingas an internalized duty to save others:

I’m a witness that it [weight loss] can be done. I can see that my co-workers, they are

now more conscious too, they ask me questions, so I talk to them . . . it might catch

on . . .maybe someone will go to Weight Watchers . . . the whole society may become

better, and . . . instead of sayin’ ‘‘I’m sick, I’m gonna die’’ . . . some people might actu-

ally be saved from that.





Bonnie is a witness to the power of Weight Watchers. Through her own emotionwork, she sets the example to her own co-workers to abstain from tempting officefoods such as cookies, a moral action she feels reinforces her own hope. As the co-workers follow suit and make inquiries, Bonnie discusses Weight Watchers with hercolleagues, akin to the practice known as ‘‘witnessing’’ in the religious vernacular.Bonnie views her co-workers’ change as an instance of the betterment of the world,leading to the potential salvation of many others, a favorable influence that might‘‘catch on.’’

Group meetings play a role in perpetuating the practice of proselytizing as anintegral aspect of emotion culture at Weight Watchers. The possibility of convert-ing someone else verifies that members believe that Weight Watchers possesses thekey to weight loss. Through the ritualistic sharing of firsthand experiences, themeetings impart to the members the notion that every Weight Watcher canmake a difference and create positive change in someone else’s life. Thus the mem-bers come to view themselves as active agents of proselytizing, a framing demon-strated by one of the group-meeting observations:

The leader addresses the audience by saying that they have five new members who

joined that day. The leader signals to a young woman in the middle row. Turning to

the group, the young woman stands up and says that this is very emotional for her; she

is here because of her friend and points to the lady sitting next to her. She says that her

friend lost a ton of weight, and talked about Weight Watchers. The young woman was

reluctant in the beginning, but seeing how her friend has changed—she states no one

in the office can bring in treats anymore, which causes a roar of laughter among the

audience—she is here today, hoping the same will happen to her. Her voice becomes

softer, and some of the members start clapping and cheering. The young woman sits

down, looking flushed, and the group leader takes the floor, saying that this is another

example of how the Weight Watchers have positive influence outside this room: they

can all be someone’s personal saviors. (Group meeting observation, site #1)

The above episode reveals how new converts are publicly welcomed into the foldand asked to engage in the emotion work of testifying. However, as the newmember testifies, the group leader reframes the new member’s experiences andthe overall narrative as one highlighting the moral imperative of proselytizing.In line with the proselytizing notion, non-Weight Watchers are cast as spiritualoutsiders (Bibby and Brinkerhoff, 1974) who need to be saved, and everyone inWeight Watchers can become someone else’s personal savior. Through such aframing, Weight Watchers can experience proselytizing as affirmation of theirown hopes. At the same time, the practice of proselytizing ensures the successionof the group membership, allowing everyone to become a potential ‘‘poster child.’’In so doing, Weight Watchers transform the social world outside meetings into onecongruent with their own. The world outside the meetings becomes an extension ofthe hope-laden emotion culture found at Weight Watchers.





Discussion

This paper contributes to the understanding of the relationships among brands,consumer collectivities, and emotions. We offer a theoretical framework developedin the North American cultural context to understand the pattern discussed in theliterature—namely, that brand collectivities cultivate brand-centric emotions (cf.Muniz and Schau, 2005; Schau et al., 2009). Previous consumer culture-theoreticscholarship has suggested that collectivities facilitate brand-centric ‘‘emotionalengagements’’ (Schau et al., 2009: 47), ‘‘shared emotions’’ (Cova and Pace, 2006:1099), or ‘‘sentiments’’ (Muniz and Schau, 2005: 739). These studies, though, offerlittle insight into the underlying collective processes through which brand-centricemotions are cultivated. Our research finds that brand-centric emotions are resultsof interactions between a brand, its consumers, and emotion culture. Our findings,circumscribed by the North American cultural milieu, show that cultivating hopeentails a dramaturgical process in which emotion culture, infused with religiousvernacular, guides brand-centric emotional experience. Weight Watchers con-sumers are steered by its emotion culture with religious undertones. This emotionculture facilitates expression and experience of hope through feeling rules, framingrules, and emotion work.

Our framework of hope cultivation suggests that consumer culture theory-oriented researchers have largely overlooked how emotions operate in consump-tion. Perhaps due to the view of emotions as individual, intra-psychic phenomena(Bagozzi et al., 1999), sociologically and anthropologically inspired consumer cul-ture scholarship has not focused on the study of discrete emotions (Beruchashviliand Moisio, 2013). For instance, the experiences surrounding goal-oriented pur-suits such as exercising, getting a plastic surgery, or perhaps involvement in mosthobbies are all deeply entrenched in emotions. It would be difficult to deny thereality that emotions during such pursuits are likely to emerge in relation to col-lective processes. Our research proffers an opportunity to further examine emotionexpression, emotion display, and even emotion suppression during such pursuitsthrough a dramaturgical perspective.

Our research also informs the nascent theory on hope in consumption (MacInnisand de Mello, 2005). Our study responds to the call for research into the culturaland social conceptualizations of emotions (Bagozzi et al., 1999), as we emphasizethe collective antecedents of hope in the context of the Weight Watchers brand.The findings reveal that the appraisals involved in experiencing hope, highlightedby prior cognitively oriented theory, have inherently cultural origins in religiousvernacular and collective processes (cf. Lazarus, 1999). While prior research pointsto the individual origin of hope, our research demonstrates uniquely that religiousvernacular permeates hope-cultivation processes that guide individuals’ intra-cognitive, appraisal processes. Theorizing developed in this paper therefore sug-gests that ideational resources such as religious vernacular alter appraisals thatevoke the feeling of hope. Religious notions also underlie a body of reinforcingfeeling and framing rules that preserve hope over time. While consumer culture





supplies brand context, religion furnishes cultural structure and language for theexperience of hope. It is our hope that future research further examines how idea-tional resources marshal hope cultivation in consumer culture.

Funding

This research was partially funded by the Department of Marketing at the University of

Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

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Author Biographies

Mariam Beruchashvili is Associate Professor of Marketing at California StateUniversity, Northridge, USA. Her research focuses on social construction of emo-tion, overweight identity, and consumer goals.

Risto Moisio is Associate Professor of Marketing at California State University,Long Beach, USA. His research examines pro-social behavior, gender identity, andconsumer well-being.

James W. Gentry is Graduate Chair and Maurice J. and Alice Holman CollegeProfessor of Marketing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. His researchinterests include consumer life-event transitions, cross-cultural differences in con-sumer decision processes, consumer acculturation, and family decision-making.




Cultivating Hope

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