Abstract:
Cultural intermediaries coin and circulate consumer segments in ways that overlap with the market segmentation practices from professional marketing. This paper investigates how cultural intermediaries perform market segmentation in ways that escape both the prescriptions of marketing academics and the control of professional marketers. Empirically, we document the emergence and demise of the lumbersexual, a neologism combining the metrosexual with the lumberjack. The findings show that cultural intermediaries authorize the segment in four stages. 1. Singling out anomalous behavior. 2. Casting prototypes that enable ostensive identification. 3. Anchoring within a taxonomy. 4. Vaccinating against future criticism.