EXPRESS: Confronting Cultural Appropriation: Toward the Ethical Marketing of Cultural Difference

Abstract

Brands that engage in cultural difference marketing—the use of elements from another culture to create novelty, distinction, and value—face increasing public scrutiny over the issue of potential cultural appropriation. Yet the question of how brands can ethically address this issue while continuing to pursue the benefits of cultural difference marketing remains undertheorized, leaving many brands to respond reactively. Drawing on foundational social theory and an extended qualitative study of the Korean pop (K-pop) industry, this work synthesizes key ethical concerns about cultural appropriation. It identifies three distinct facets of cultural appropriation harm that brands may inflict when using diverse cultural elements: disconnection (unfair attribution), distortion (unfair representation), and dispossession (unfair distribution of benefits). It further identifies three brand strategies that can mitigate such harm in different ways—correcting (recognizing harm through expressions of accountability), connecting (preventing harm by learning and collaborating with source cultures), and championing (resisting the structural foundations of harm through initiatives that combat marketplace inequality). Together, these findings comprise a novel framework for the ethical marketing of cultural difference. This framework disambiguates when and how cultural difference marketing may lead to cultural appropriation and theorizes the emerging role of brands as proactive mitigators of cultural appropriation harm.