BRANDING SNOWBOARDING LIFESTYLE - DIVA PORTAL
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Branding snowboarding lifestyle A case study of Burton Snowboards’ brand narrative of gender equity Laura Muukka Department of Media Studies / Centre for Fashion Studies MA Thesis 30 credits Spring 2018 Supervisors: Dr. Andrea Kollnitz and Dr. Philip Warkander
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to find out how snowboarding lifestyle and gender equity are
visible in Burton Snowboards’ branding on their Instagram accounts as well as in their retail
stores. Thus, the research questions were “How is (snowboarding) lifestyle and gender equity
visible in Burton Snowboards’ branding on their Instagram accounts and in their retail stores?”
and also, “How does branding differ in the two accounts and in the four stores?”
The theory part of this thesis looks into consumer theories, such as branding and marketing
communication. Also, the theory part concentrates on theories from social sciences mainly from
the point of view of gender studies. In addition, the study is deepened by theoretical connections
that are relevant for the overall research.
The empirical part of the thesis is a qualitative study, which was carried out by mixing two
different research methods. First, an extensive visual analysis of Burton Snowboards and
Burton Girls Instagram accounts was conducted. Secondly, in-store observations were carried
out in four different Burton Stores, three of them in the USA and one in Finland.
Based on the findings of the study, Burton Snowboards’ is advancing gender equity by building
and developing a lifestyle brand where actions and expressions are actively oriented towards
reducing gender stratification.
Keywords: Burton Snowboards, lifestyle, fashion, gender equity, branding
1
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5 METHODOLOGY, MATERIALS AND DELIMITATIONS 6 PREVIOUS STUDIES 11 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 14 BRANDING 14 LIFESTYLE 15 GENDER AND GENDER EQUITY 16 OUTLINE 20 CHAPTER 1: BURTON’S LIFESTYLE CODES AND TANGIBLE ELEMENTS 21 CHAPTER 2: INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS 29 BURTON SNOWBOARDS 29 BURTON GIRLS 34 CONCLUSION 38 CHAPTER 3: STORES 41 BURTON FLAGSHIP / HEADQUARTERS, BURLINGTON 41 BURTON FLAGSHIP, BURLINGTON 44 BURTON FLAGSHIP, NEW YORK 46 BURTON STORE, HELSINKI 49 CONCLUSION 51 CONCLUSION 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY 58
Introduction
I’m the happiest when I'm active, I enjoy doing yoga and all yoga-related activities but what I
love is snowboarding. It is the only activity where I’ve ever experienced the flow feeling. I feel
that inside I'm a very anxious person, but it is snowboarding that makes me feel very grounded.
My friends have told me that I mostly talk about snowboarding - the trips I’m planning and the
snowboarding clothes I’ve recently purchased. Soon I will be in slopes wearing them! Truly, it
is more than just the riding, it is the whole snowboarding lifestyle.
This narration of my passion depicts well how emotionally invested one can be to a lifestyle. It
is here where many brands have taken hold of, as “firms do not produce goods as such, but
instead produce worlds in which goods exist.”1 This notion by sociologist Maurizio Lazzarato’s
could easily have been the vision for the snowboarding brand Burton Snowboards, if only
Lazzarato would have said it in 1970s when the brand was founded by Jake Burton Carpenter.
Indeed, not only has Burton Carpenter pioneered in creating ground-breaking snowboarding
products and pushing the sport to even higher levels, literally, he and the company have also
made some branding history.2
Burton Snowboards, or in short Burton, is an American snowboarding company which
manufactures and sells globally not only snowboarding gear and tools but also its extensive
range of fashion goods. A large part of the products is categorised under the brand’s name
Burton Snowboards. However, the brand also has a separate line for goggles, helmets and
related accessories such as neck warmers and helmet hoods, called Anon Optics. Also, Analog
Clothing, an extension for the men’s apparel line is part of the company’s brand portfolio. The
company has its offices in Australia, Austria, Canada, California, China and Japan, while the
headquarters are in Burlington, Vermont, USA. The brand has altogether 31 retail stores world-
wide: eleven flagships, nine outlet stores and ten importer-led stores, and also one surfing
1
Celia Lury, Consumer Culture (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2011), 102.
2
Burton Snowboards, “Who We Are,” accessed October 24, 2017,
https://www.burton.com/it/en/about-us.
2
focused store in California. Around half of all the stores are located in the states while the rest
are in major Asian cities and central European ski destinations, with the exception of a store in
Helsinki, Finland.3
Burton’s core values and vision builds on a set of plan the company labels ‘The Stance’. Citing
directly the Burton Snowboards webpage:
At the heart of The Stance is the understanding that riding is not just a sport. It’s an attitude, a
mindset, and a culture that extends far beyond the mountain. This is a year-round lifestyle, a
way of being, and a way of doing without seasons, borders, or limits. By rallying around this
understanding, we’re able to keep progressing and strengthening our community on and off the
mountain.4
Indeed, the point for Burton Snowboards’ existence is not solely to sell snowboarding goods
but rather to create a style of living around snowboarding. Having its origins in extreme sports,
the company has started to enhance not only the role of lifestyle but also, and more importantly,
gender equity in their brand narrative. Turning to journalist Annie Fast: “Burton’s focus on
gender equity arose in 2003 […]. It was Jake who realised during a global directors meeting
that of the 25 people at the table, only three were women.”5 After this Donna Carpenter, the
wife of Jake, returned to the company, first taking on the title of founder and director of Burton
Snowboards Women’s Initiatives and later the title of CEO of the whole company. As Donna
Carpenter explains: “We were pulling from the ski, skate and surf industries, and we kind of
took on this male-dominated culture that we hadn’t planned for”.6 This led to the realisation
that “women don’t feel welcome in this company or the snowboard community”, Carpenter
3
Burton Snowboards, “Where We Are,” accessed April 10, 2018,
https://www.burton.com/it/en/about-location.
4
Burton Snowboards, “The Stance - These are Burton’s Core Values,” The Burton Blog,
accessed December 12, 2017, https://www.burton.com/blogs/the-burton-blog/innovation-
leadership-and-fun-these-are-burtons-core-values/.
5
Annie Fast, “Burton Ceo Donna Carpenter Prioritizes Gender Equity on and off the slopes,”
Rei Co-Op Journal: Stories of a life outdoors, accessed December 12, 2017,
https://www.rei.com/blog/snowsports/burton-ceo-donna-carpenter-prioritizes-gender-equity-
on-and-off-the-slopes.
6
Fast.
3
continues. 7 Not only has this understanding changed the company’s hiring practices but
importantly their image too. Consequently, leading the brand to increase their product range to
fashion goods for men, women and children. Therefore, in order to bring the lifestyle of
snowboarding alive, the company’s branding approaches must have expanded in order to
endorse these new products.
For Burton, alike most brands today, Instagram is a fundamental platform to captivate the
consumers’ attention. However, having a recognised brand enables the company to maintain
and develop their own stores too, which is rare in today’s retail market. This is an advantage as
the consumers can physically visit these stores and actually feel the brand. In agreement with
scholar Holly Thorpe:
Certainly a central issue in the contemporary snow field is branding. Today, more than a
hundred companies provide snowboarding-specific clothing in an abundance of styles.
Snowboard clothing carries status based on understanding the nuances of the culture. To
the initiated member, decoding a combination of clothing and equipment graphics and
other visual signifiers is an automatic process.8
7
Ibid.
8
Holly Thorpe, Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice, (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave
Mcmillan, 2011), 128.
4
Aims and research questions
The purpose of this thesis is to find out how (snowboarding) lifestyle and gender equity are
communicated in Burton Snowboards’ branding. I aim to understand and thereby explain the
portrayal of gender equity as well as the role of lifestyle in their branding narrative. I will be
looking at the phenomena in the brand’s two main Instagram accounts; Burton Snowboards and
Burton Girls, as well as in four Burton stores; Burton flagship and headquarters flagship in
Burlington, Vermont and Burton flagship in New York and also Burton Store Helsinki. Thus, I
will look into these research questions:
-How is (snowboarding) lifestyle and gender equity visible in Burton Snowboards’ branding on
their Instagram accounts?
-How does branding differ in Burton Snowboards and Burton Girls Instagram accounts?
-How is (snowboarding) lifestyle and gender equity visible in Burton Snowboards’ branding in
their retail stores?
-How does branding differ in the four Burton Snowboards’ retail stores?
Also, my study is guided by the hypothesis that Burton Snowboards’ can achieve gender equity
by building and developing a lifestyle brand where actions and expressions are actively oriented
towards reducing gender stratification.
Given these points, and in order to delimitate my research, I will follow the same guideline as
scholar Belinda Wheaton, citing directly:
It is not my objective to contribute to debates about nomenclature as numerous
comprehensive commentaries on what lifestyle/action/alternative/extreme sports are,
their histories, and how they at least initially differed from more traditional sporting
forms and cultures already exist.9
9
Belinda Wheaton, “Introducing the consumption and representation of lifestyle sports”, in
The Consumption and Representation of Lifestyle Sports, ed. Belinda Wheaton (Oxon, UK:
Routledge, 2013), 3.
5
Methodology, materials and delimitations
The empirical part of the thesis is a qualitative study, which will be carried out by mixing two
different research methods. First, an extensive visual analysis of Burton Snowboards and
Burton Girls Instagram accounts will be conducted. Secondly, in-store observations will be
carried out in four different Burton Stores; two in Burlington, Vermont, USA and one in New
York, USA as well as one in Helsinki, Finland, Europe.
As a method, I will use visual analysis in order to find out how Burton Snowboards
communicates the lifestyle of snowboarding and gender equity in their branding. To be more
specific, as a model for the research I will use ‘A basic model for analysis’ by Theo Van
Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt.10 There are four stages in the model; at the first stage, the observer
will look at the data as a whole and take notes. Next, at the second stage, the researcher will do
an inventory of all the images “around categories that reflect and assist [the] research goals”.11
The third stage is all about statistics, such as counting and comparing the images. This will be
the structure of the analysis. The fourth and final stage is searching for the meaning of the data
and revealing this in writing in the conclusion. To extend the analysis, I will study both the
photo content, that is the physical appearance, poses and body position as well as facial
expressions and emotional displays, and the photo context, that is the visual space in which the
photo appears, namely the caption.12
Critical visual analysis offers researchers an interdisciplinary method for understanding
and contextualising images [...]. If marketing depends upon images, including brand
images, corporate images, product images and images of identity, then research methods
in marketing must be capable of addressing issues that such images signify.13
10
Theo Van Leeuwen et. al., The Handbook of Visual Analysis, (London, UK: SAGE
Publications, 2001), 39.
11
Van Leeuwen et. al., 39.
12
Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, et al., Gender & Pop Culture: A Text-Reader, (Rotterdam, The
Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2014), 164.
13
Jonathan E. Schroeder, “Critical Visual Analysis”, in Handbook of qualitative research
methods in marketing, ed. Russell W. Belk (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing
Limited, 2006), 303.
6
Since Burton’s online marketing revolves around the imagery they produce on their social
media, using visual analysis is valid. Also, posts on social media are a way for the consumers
to engage with a brand, or like Theo Van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt puts it “images can also
offer us an identity.“14 As Van Leeuwen and Jewitt continue: “This is a transient sense of
identity consequent upon looking at the image, engaging with and enjoying the messages and
meaning it then gives to us.”15 Since one of the purposes of this thesis is to explain the portrayal
of lifestyle in the context of branding, visual analysis remains logical. According to Van
Leeuwen and Jewitt: “Visual content analysis is a systematic, observational method used for
testing hypotheses about the ways in which the media represent people, events, situations, and
so on.”16 Hence, my study hypothesis is well-founded.
As stated above, Burton Snowboards and Burton Girls Instagram account posts will be the
material for the visual analysis. In early March 2017, there are approximately 3780 posts on
Burton Snowboards main Instagram account, while the Instagram account of Burton Girls has
around 1700 posts altogether. Given the fact that it is not my objective to look into progress
and development of these accounts, I will only look at images posted between 1st of March
2017 to 1st of March 2018. Since the material for the in-store observation research will be
collected in the beginning of March 2018, having the end point at March keeps the overall
research cohesive. Additionally, a one full year is a sufficient timeframe in order to reveal
branding patterns and giving a comprehensive sample. When studying the brand’s main online
marketing platforms; the Burton Snowboards and Burton Girls Instagram accounts, the focus
will be on fashion. After the tentative research, I will single out specific images that I will
investigate more comprehensively according to the visual analysis. This way I will be able to
demonstrate how the lifestyle is showcased and if there is a significant difference between the
two accounts, especially in the portrayal of gender. In fact, I will only investigate every photo
where there are either people or just clothes depicted. Additionally, the images that I will select
are not only credible examples of demonstrating the lifestyle and gender equity but above all
displaying fashion. I want to observe how the images in these accounts and contexts
demonstrate gender equity and snowboarding lifestyle and also how the content differs in the
different accounts. Also, in order to delimitate I will not look into the posted Instagram videos,
14
Van Leeuwen et. al., 89.
15
Ibid., 89.
16
Ibid., 14.
7
nor the stories. Since, for the most part, the videos posted depicts snowboarding tricks and are
used to showcase snowboarding as a sport, they won’t fit to my selection criteria. Also, given
the temporal and spontaneous essence of the Instagram stories narrows their branding impact.
The amount of video posts for Burton Snowboards’ account is almost half of the total posts
number, while for Burton Girls the number isn’t that high.
Another study I will conduct, is the in-store observations that will be carried out in four different
Burton Snowboards’ stores by using observatory field notes. Since the key concepts of the
research, lifestyle and gender equity, are very abstract, I find observational study to be the most
fruitful. In agreement with researchers Chris Gratton and Ian Jones: “Observation is generally
more suitable for descriptive research rather than for explanatory research.”17 In fact, in this
way I’m able to observe the phenomena in their natural settings, in stores, where they are
supposed to be visible, and not in ‘artificial’ surroundings such as an interview or a
questionnaire, where the data might be limited or not truthful.18 The study is grounded on ‘the
practical model of fashion brand management’, a concept by Leslie de Chernatony and
Francesca Dall’Olmo Riley. 19 De Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley’s present six tangible
elements of a brand:
These include the logo and signage associated with the brand, the design, functionality,
packaging and labelling of its related products, the visual theme of marketing initiatives
used to promote them, and finally the design of points of customer interaction such as
websites and retail stores.20
I will identify each of them within the case of Burton Snowboards, emphasising on the retail
space, and its value in the matter of building the wanted lifestyle as well as gender equity.
Furthermore, these tangible elements will be deepened by theoretical connections that are
17
Chris Gratton et. al., Research methods for sport studies, (Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2010),
177.
18
Gratton et. al., 180.
19
Stephen M. Wigley et. al., “Making the Margue: Tangible Branding in Fashion Product and
retail Design,” Fashion Practice 5, 2 (2013): 253.
20
Wigley et. al., 249-250.
8relevant in consumer culture theories, such as ‘the construction of Lifestyle Brands’,21 a concept
by Stefania Saviolo and Antonio Marazza. The model illustrates lifestyle brands according to
three key elements: the background, the manifesto and the expression, which I will clarify
further in the thesis by analysing Burton Snowboards’ brand within the concept. Turning to
Saviolo and Marazza:
The store is key from two points of view: from a consumer point of view for the necessity
to fully perceive the lifestyle proposition, interact with the brand, meet peers and access
new products; [and] from a brand point of view for the essential role the sales assistants
have in the narrative, through the description of product characteristics and the
dissemination of stories and anecdotes that have the power to capture the consumer’s
attention and emotional involvement.22
I need to be aware of problems while recording the data. As Gratton and Jones explains: “What
to actually look for, and how to ensure that nothing of importance is missed are key issues in
observational research.”23 The pitfall in using visual analysis and in-store observations is, that
“it is often impossible to prevent interpretation from seeping into description”24. It is clear that
my Nordic background will show in my interpretation of an American brand like Burton
Snowboards is. Even though Europe follows America; its culture and brands, very closely, the
European point of view most likely differ from American. That is, we read the images and
advertisements in another way. For example, I might perceive the typical American aesthetics
as striking and unique or even exotic since the Scandinavian aesthetics is typically very
minimalistic with clean lines. According to Stuart Hall: “Cultures consist of the maps of
meaning, the frameworks of intelligibility, the things which allow us to make sense of a world
which exists, but is ambiguous as to its meaning until we’ve made sense of it.”25 As a result
‘conceptual maps’, which members of a culture or society share together, are created. In
21
Stefania Saviolo et. al., Lifestyle Brands: A Guide to Aspirational Marketing (Hampshire,
UK: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2013), 121.
22
Ibid., 75.
23
Gratton et. al., 181.
24
Schroeder, 305.
25
Stuart Hall, “Representation and the media,” Media Education Foundation Transcript,
accessed May 18, 2018, https://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Stuart-Hall-Representation-and-
the-Media-Transcript.pdf.
9addition, not only the cultural differences European and American consumers have, but
differences even inside a culture can affect the interpretation of the images and the intentions
of ads might not reach the customer as was planned. Schroeder argues: “Most consumers are
not necessarily visually literate, and art historical references and conventions may not
consciously inform their viewing of an ad.”26 As advertisements are polysemous, meaning they
can be read in multiple ways and even though advertisers attempt to transfer a specific meaning
in them, they cannot dictate how the viewers will interpret the messages. 27 However, this
interpretation issue will be taken into account while researching.
26
Schroeder, 319.
27
Trier-Bieniek et al., 55.
10Previous studies
When it comes to previous research, the subject of my thesis is very fresh, as I will study the
lifestyle market within snowboarding. Even though, this research is not about fashion as such
but about the aesthetic aspects of the lifestyle market, it will still be a contribution to fashion
studies. Indeed, there is still a huge research gap in studies that focuses on fashion in sport.
Previous sport fashion related research has concentrated mainly on textile development and/or
high-fashion brand collaborations with sport brands. To give an example the book Fashion and
Sport by author Ligaya Salazar has done just that.28 Another trending topic is the active-wear-
as-a-street-wear trend. An article by researchers Grant Anthony O’Sullivan et. al. studies
female’s active wear consumption in Australia.29 The most relatable study to my research was
a study about Patagonia and its paradoxes.30 In the study scholar Sharon J. Hepburn illustrates
how the brand’s message of so called ethical consumption actually increases the overall
consumption. However, as in my case of Burton Snowboards, no direct attempt has been made
to portray how a lifestyle company can visually demonstrate gender equity through branding.
Although snowboarding has been researched from multiple points of views it is still very
understudied subject from the perspective of fashion studies. In fact, I have not encountered
any study that concentrates on snowboarding and fashion. The literature I have found is very
much linked to social sciences, namely and logically to sport studies. Like fashion studies, sport
studies is an inter-disciplinary academic field that constantly grows as an interesting research
field of scholars worldwide.31 However, in agreement with Belinda Wheaton, the focus on the
previous research “[…] tend[s] to draw on narratives of colonial adventure, re-inscribing the
28
Rhiannon Harris, “Book review: Fashion v Sport by Ligaya Salazar (ed.) (V&A Publishing,
2008),” Fashion Theory 14, 2 (2010): 257, accessed March 20, 2018, doi:
10.2752/175174110X12544983515475.
29
Grant Anthony O’Sullivan et. al., “Women’s activewear trends and drivers: a systematic
review” Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 21, 1
(2017): 2, accessed March 20, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-07-2015-0059.
30
Sharon J. Hepburn, “In Patagonia (Clothing): A Complicated Greenness,” Fashion Theory
17, 5 (2013): 623, accessed March 20, 2018, doi: 10.2752/175174113X13718320331035.
31
Wheaton, Introducing the consumption and representation of lifestyle sports, 1.
11dominant historic version of the (often European) hegemonic male adventure hero subject as
‘white heterosexual, bourgeois, athletic, courageous, risk taking, imperialist, and unmarked’.”32
Also, another important notion in studies related to snowboarding, is the extensively researched
subject of resistance towards the dominant (ski) culture. In agreement with Belinda Wheaton:
there is a “[…] need to move beyond simplistic understanding of commercialisation as co-
option and resistance, to capture the complexity and messiness of the process, and of the
relationship between cultural industries, participants and consumers.”33
Scholars such as Belinda Wheaton, Holly Thorpe and Leslie Heywood have done valuable
research outside the male perspective, however these female scholars’ research has mainly been
focused on the female body and the image society has created for it. Such as Leslie Heywood’s
study on surfing girls and ‘girl-power images’ that are used in marketing towards young girls.34
According to Leslie Heywood: “female athletes are no longer ‘deviant’, they are normalised,
serving as ‘role models’, the ‘can do’ girls who have gotten it right.”35 Similarly, Holly Thorpe
has studied femininity in snowboarding culture. Not only she has published a book about it
Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice36, but also an article that uses a Foucauldian
perspective that shows “ways in which power is enacted and contested in snowboarding
culture”.37 Nevertheless, all of the previous studies have resulted in opening a dialogue between
different academic disciplines but also broadening the field of future research, especially in
gender equity. As Heywood cites another sociologist: “Anita Harris makes the argument that
since the 1990s, a convergence of neoliberal and feminist discourses has emerged to radically
reshape the categories of, and social ideas about, girls.”38
32
Ibid., 15-16.
33
Ibid., 9.
34
Leslie Heywood, “Producing girls: Empire, sport, and the neoliberal body,” Physical
Culture, Power, and the Body (2006): 101-120.
35
Heywood, Producing girls: Empire, sport, and the neoliberal body, 113.
36
Thorpe, Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice.
37
Holly Thorpe, “Foucault, Technologies of Self, and the Media: Discourses of Femininity in
Snowboarding Culture,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 32, 2 (May 2008): 199.
38
Heywood, Producing girls: Empire, sport, and the neoliberal body, 103.
12As it shows, a great deal of research progress has been made in the last few decades. As Belinda
Wheaton explains: “[…] lifestyle sports are important arenas where feminist questions emerge,
and thus for exploring the potential of sport to be a politically transformative space in relation
to gender, sexuality and ‘race’”39. As a sport scholar Wheaton is naturally concerned about
sport, nevertheless it is the truth for lifestyle brands too. Not only is the female perspective
important in a socio-cultural aspect but also because of its relevance for economic value.
Belinda Wheaton continues: “In many lifestyle sports the female consumer has become one of
the most valuable and targeted commodities.”40 Indeed, there is a relatively new master’s thesis
concerning this in snowboarding by Hailey Ronconi that touches upon the same principles,
branding communication and gender differences, as I will in my study.41 Ronconi’s study is
based on a survey she conducted in USA, focusing on women snowboarders’ consumption
practices and the choices of brands they make. However, the study is not very comprehensive,
instead it has a rather limited focus on the local snowboarding females.
To sum up, in previous studies the main research topics have been identity, subculture and
lifestyle sport. In fact, since sport studies has been an academic field for a longer period of time
than fashion studies, there is plenty of research on the matter. To demonstrate that the study is
grounded and not coming out of the blue, the research in this thesis is based on the premise that
snowboarding is the basis of lifestyle brands such as Burton Snowboards. As will be
demonstrated later, lifestyle brands consist of fashion, sport and other factors. With this in mind,
I will study Burton Snowboards’ branding of gender equity by looking at their Instagram
accounts and retail stores.
39
Wheaton, Introducing the consumption and representation of lifestyle sports, 12.
40
Ibid., 5.
41
Hailey Ronconi, “Gender Differences in Snowboarding: An Empirical Analysis” (UVM
Honors College Senior Theses, School of Business, University of Vermont, 2015), 4.
13Theoretical framework
I will use some different theories but mainly the same ones, for both of the individual studies.
For the study on the Instagram accounts, I will use exclusively the sociologist Erving Goffman’s
conceptual framework of gender advertisements. However, the extensive guide for lifestyle
branding by scholars Stefania Saviolo and Antonio Marazza will be used for both the study on
Instagram and to the study that concentrates on the retail spaces. Also, ‘The practical model of
fashion brand management’, a concept by scholars Leslie de Chernatony and Francesca
Dall’Olmo Riley will be applied to both of the studies. Likewise, in the final analysis, ‘a model
of stability’, a concept by Janet Saltzman Chafetz will tie together the complete research.
Additionally, relevant concepts from consumer theories will be applied to both of the studies in
order to deepen the analysis.
I will start by describing the central terms of this thesis, that are branding, lifestyle, and gender
equity. Since these terms can be seen as abstract, I find it beneficial to define them in the context
of my thesis. Throughout this thesis when referring to the terms branding, lifestyle, gender,
and/or gender equity, the definitions are as stated below.
Branding
The practise of branding, where a trade name is associated with a set of marketable
characteristics to a product, 42 is a modern consumer culture mainstay. As Andrew Reilly
explains: “The concept of branding is important because it creates a connection between the
product and the customer and differentiates one product from another.”43 Most importantly,
customers are loyal to brands, which reflects on greater sales numbers. Also, branding is not
only about specific products, instead it helps to construct an identity and set a vision for the
company.44 Branding is “created through advertising, promotional materials, visual display and
42
Kate Scully et. al., Colour Forecasting for Fashion, (London, UK: Lawrence King, 2012),
180.
43
Andrew Reilly, Key Concepts For The Fashion Industry, (London, UK: Bloomsbury,
2014,) 111.
44
Reilly, 110.
14customer’s experience with the brand that align to create a specific image.”45 Corresponding to
consumer demand, branding started to focus on lifestyles and sought out niche-markets.46 It is
like economist John K. Galbraith argued in his theory of consumer demand, the “production
[…] creates the wants it seeks to satisfy”,47 or in short the Dependence Effect. As in the case of
Burton, by creating and promoting the desirable lifestyle, the brand changed their dependency
process. Now the advertising and marketing of the Burton lifestyle creates the customer
demand, not the products the brand offers. As the example shows, in contemporary consumer
culture, producing lifestyles where the manufactured goods can be used, has become the
primary manufacturing method, rather than the simple method of just producing goods. In
agreement with professor Colin Campbell: “[…] the old production-style criteria such as
occupation, educational qualifications or income […]” 48 have given space for the new
categorisation that is by lifestyle. Turning to scholar Celia Lury: “a greater emphasis [is] on
choice and product differentiation, on marketing, packaging, and design, on the ‘targeting’ of
consumers by lifestyle, taste and culture rather than by categories of social class […]“49
Lifestyle
The term lifestyle is extensively used in contemporary marketing since it allows a brand to
further expand their product portfolio. Furthermore, as said above, the term is very abstract; it
is well-known but also somewhat difficult to explain. However, commonly it is like the name
implies, a style of life that includes not only a specific (sporting) activity but also a way to dress
and behave. It does not have to dominate the consumers’ life, it can also be just a hobby. The
scholar Belinda Wheaton describes it the best: she uses the term lifestyle since the participants
themselves describe their activity as a lifestyle rather than a sport.50 It must be remembered that
“lifestyle brands are not made to please everyone, but to be adored only by those who recognise
45
Ibid., 111.
46
Ibid., 120.
47
John K. Galbraith, “The Dependence Effect,” in The Consumer Society Reader, ed. J. B.
Schor, and D. B. Holt. (New York: USA: The New Press, 2000), 23.
48
Colin Campbell, “The Sociology of Consumption,” in Acknowledging Consumption, ed.
Daniel Miller (Florence, KY, USA: Routledge, 1995), 110.
49
Lury, 86.
50
Wheaton, Introducing the consumption and representation of lifestyle sports, 3.
15themselves in the proposition and intend to join.”51 In fact, what awakes the motivation in the
participants to practise snowboarding lifestyle is the particular and exclusive social identity it
provides.52
Getting in to a lifestyle is a process. When examining snowboarding it seems the falling in love
with the activity happens rather quickly. It takes time to learn how to snowboard, consequently
leading to investing in it and thus it becomes a lifestyle. Researcher Holly Thorpe explains this
as the becoming of a ‘cultural sponge’; absorbing information from various sources, as well as
learning from the occasional ‘cultural faux pas’.53 As Thorpe continues: “Numerous qualities
underscore the social hierarchy in snowboarding, for example, geographical divisions,
commitment, equipment, ability, and age.”54 However, even though boardsports used to be
considered as alternative sports they are now fully-incorporated as part of popular culture.55
Gender and gender equity
As sociologist Janet Saltzman Chafetz points out, gender is a term used “to distinguish between
males and females”. 56 Moreover, scholars Anne Cranny-Francis et. al. add: “Gender is the
culturally variable elaboration of sex, as a hierarchical pair (where male is coded superior and
female inferior).”57 Indeed, it is not the biological sex that construct and support the gender bias
but rather the marginalised status women have not only in the (extreme) sport discourse but
also in the sociocultural context by large. Having and accepting this as a starting point, helps to
guide the direction of the thesis.
51
Saviolo et. al., 66.
52
Belinda Wheaton, ”Introduction: Mapping the lifestyle sport-scape”, in Understanding
Lifestyle Sports: Consumption, Identity and Difference, ed. Belinda Wheaton (New York:
Routledge, 2004), 4.
53
Thorpe, Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice, 112.
54
Ibid., 127.
55
Catherine Palmer, “Death, danger and the selling of risk in adventure sports”, in
Understanding Lifestyle Sports: Consumption, Identity and Difference, ed. Belinda Wheaton
(New York, USA: Routledge, 2004), 55.
56
Janet S. Chafetz, Gender equity: An Integrated Theory of Stability and Change, (Newbury
Park, USA: SAGE Publications, 1990), 28.
57
Anne Cranny-Francis et. al., Gender Studies: Terms and Debates, (New York, USA:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 4.
16In the improvement towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, sport is a good
platform, since it “[…] provides a space in which women challenge stereotypes about
physicality, can renegotiate concepts of femininity and masculinity, and demonstrate to their
communities what they are physically and mentally capable of achieving.”58 It does not matter
what sort of a sport it is, but as long as taking part and getting involved is nevertheless equally
possible. Turning to Trier-Bieniek et. al. “This message is especially significant for young girls
who need confident, strong female athletic roles models in order to get involved and maintain
their involvement in sport.” 59 Indeed, in lifestyle-sports promotional imagery, women are
characterises as ‘good consumers’, meaning “fashioning self-reliant, self-monitoring,
individualistic, and flexible consumers, marring the discourses of liberal feminism and
neoliberalism.”60
In the case of snowboarding, it was the masculine look that initially provided women another
alternative to the prominence of femininity in other sports.61 It was in the late 1990s, when the
snowboarding industry noticed the opportunity in the then niche market of female
snowboarders, starting to produce snowboarding related equipment and clothing for them.62
However, for a long time, and I might argue that still in many today’s snowboarding brands,
“the ‘shrink it and pink it’ mentality” 63 is very much evident. The ‘shrink it and pink it’
mentality, labelled by Holly Thorpe, refers to the issue of not seeing women as their own group
of consumers but as the marginalized participants. What is more, is that: “‘Too many of these
companies rely on male perspectives of what women want. I don’t want butterflies, flowers and
birds on my snowboard - and everything doesn’t have to be pink’”, citing a female snowboarder
in Holly Thorpe’s study.64 As Thorpe continues: “Certainly many young women, particularly
novice boarders, appreciate the opportunity to purchase clothing and equipment designed
specifically for their technical, physical and/or cultural snowboarding needs.” 65 Indeed, in
58
Trier-Bieniek et. al., 154.
59
Ibid., 167.
60
Wheaton, Introducing the consumption and representation of lifestyle sports, 8.
61
Thorpe, Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice, 124.
62
Ibid., 69.
63
Ibid., 70-71.
64
Ibid., 73-74.
65
Ibid., 73-74.
17today’s snowboarding market the wisest and most successful companies have realised the need
of targeting and producing female specific clothing and other goods according to the
snowboarding women’s needs and wants. At the same time, fashion has been seen as a women’s
thing, that is not important or is second-rate. This contradiction between fashion and its bad
reputation still diminish the female (snowboarder’s) status. However, if fashion gets women
involved in sport, it should be used as an advantage since in the long run, it will weaken gender
stratification. For instance, “[...] female athletes involved in masculine sports use a variety of
methods to ‘feminize’ their appearance […]”66 When it comes to snowboarding women might
find for instance, long hair, clothing and its colouring a priority in achieving this.
To define gender equity, I turn to Janet Saltzman Chafetz, who has established a model called
‘a system of gender equality’.67 To point out, my aim is not to not give a full-scale and detailed
explanation of each of the concepts, but rather a short statement of the main points of the model.
According to Chafetz, the gender inequality system is built on two bases: the coercive and the
voluntaristic, which maintain and reproduce gender stratification. The coercive bases are further
expanded to the concepts of the division of labor and the resource power. Whereas, the
voluntaristic bases broadens to social definitions and the maintenance of gender equality. The
coercive bases are the aspects of gender system maintenance, that take place both in micro-
level within the family and meso- and macro-level outside the household.68 The fundamental
issue in the coercive bases is that men have a superior role and possess more power in relation
to women (or in micro-level from husbands to wifes) in most gender-stratified societies.
Whereas, the women’s responsibility is mainly on child rearing and household work. Part of
the meso-level is that “the characteristics of social roles create the characteristics of role
incumbents.”69 Also, as an example, Trier-Bieniek et. al. underline this, since the characteristics
generally linked within sport are socio-culturally defined as masculine; including strength,
power, dominance, competitiveness and aggression.70
66
Trier-Bieniek et. al. 160.
67
Chafetz, 16.
68
Ibid., 45.
69
Ibid., 54.
70
Trier-Bieniek et. al., 159.
18The voluntaristic bases include the learned attitudes through social definitions of gender
ideology. Turning to Chafetz: “Gender ideologies are more stable and resistant to change,
because they are typically embedded in yet broader belief systems, especially religions, along
with overarching socio-political and cultural views of the world.”71 However, according to
Chafetz gender stratification can be decreased: if one of the central targets changes, that
constitute the most essential support, then the entire system most likely changes to the desired
direction.72 Based on these aspects, Chafetz has created ‘a model of stability’ which I will apply
to Burton Snowboards further in the thesis.
71
Chafetz, 65.
72
Ibid., 99.
19Outline
The remaining part of the thesis will be divided into three chapters. The first chapter serves as
the base of the overall research, where the fundamental lifestyle codes and tangible elements
are established. The other two chapters covers each one of the methodologies used in this study.
In the second chapter, I will apply visual analysis to Burton Snowboards and Burton Girls
Instagram accounts. Both of the accounts will be evaluated and reviewed independently, after
which a comparison between them will be conducted. Following this, I will focus on the in-
store observations I did at four different Burton stores. Each of these stores will be analysed
and discussed separately. Next, the chapter will be concluded by connecting the findings of the
stores, in order to highlight the lifestyle codes of the brand. Additionally, theoretical concepts
about gender equity will be used in both of the chapters, in order to broaden the research.
I will finish the thesis with an overall conclusion, by disclosing the thesis’ aims, that are: how
are (snowboarding) lifestyle and gender equity visible in Burton Snowboards’ branding on their
Instagram accounts and in their retail stores. Also, the thesis’ hypothesis that Burton
Snowboards can achieve gender equity, by building and developing a lifestyle brand where
actions and expressions are actively oriented towards reducing gender stratification, will be
uncovered.
20Chapter 1: Burton’s lifestyle codes and tangible elements
As explained in the theoretical framework, the term lifestyle is very broad, and it has been used
quite freely in previous advertising strategies. In this thesis, I’ve decided to illustrate the term
through Burton Snowboards, or more specifically through their brand cornerstones. The
lifestyle brand cornerstones are, as the term implies, the starting components of `The
construction of Lifestyle Brands’. 73 This model created by Stefania Saviolo and Antonio
Marazza, expresses the methods for a lifestyle brand to succeed. These corners or key terms are
labelled the background, the manifesto, and the expression. Each of the terms are further
expanded by components which have different functions.
First, the background that expands to credo and stories of the brand, Saviolo and Marazza
describe credo as the “values that express the unique and original point of view of a brand”74,
particularly the foundation and principles of the brand’s culture. For Burton, everything is based
on the already introduced set of plan ‘The Stance’. Additionally, for the Burton motto ‘Durable
Goods’, which truly aggregates the essence of Burton products and their quality. Also, must be
remembered the Burton Snowboards’ pioneering status in helping to grow snowboarding not
only as a sport but also as a lifestyle. Another important element in the background is the
“stories and anecdotes that have the power to engage the audience and fuel the mythology of
the brand”. 75 The stories are practical and solid reflections of the brand’s credo. 76 It is
immensely important for a lifestyle brand to raise interest and be memorable among the
consumers. Burton has a well-known slogan ‘riding is the reason’, which has become the
hashtag (#ridingisthereason) not only for the Burton ambassadors but also the consumers, to
use when sharing experiences from the mountains on Instagram. Social relevance is a key factor
for a brand to be able to get the consumers engaged. Most importantly, it has a boosting and
sustaining impact on a brand’s image and reputation.
73
Saviolo et. al., 121.
74
Ibid., 121.
75
Ibid., 121.
76
Ibid., 63.
21Erving Goffman has theorised the social encounters humans have to a dramaturgical framework
in his book The Presentation of self in everyday life. According to the theory, people ‘perform’
differently in different social settings or specifically in ‘front stage’, ‘back stage’ and ‘off
stage’.77 At front stage, the person or in Goffman’s theory, an actor acts as he/she knows he/she
is being looked at, while at backstage he/she has no roles to perform and off-stage, the actor
meets independently the audience without the rest of the performers at the front stage.78 A part
of the theory; ‘The arts of impression management’79 can be applied to Burton’s organisational
culture, which is a text book example of internal marketing. The company’s basic principle is
to create a pleasant work environment for their employees. For instance, the company organises
“in-house yoga sessions, an annual holiday party, summer BBQs, an annual mountain cleaning
day, and avalanche training”80, all more or less showcased on the brand’s marketing platforms.
Also, the company has ‘the two-feet-rule’, that is if it snows more than two feet, the office will
be closed, so everyone can go snowboarding.81 In a way, Burton has created an imitation of the
‘backstage’ for their employees where the in-group solidarity is high, “to the degree that team-
mates and their colleagues form a complete social community which offers each performer a
place and a source of moral support[…].”82
The second part of `The construction of Lifestyle Brands’ is the manifesto, that is divided into
the lifestyle proposition and the lifestyle codes. Turning to Saviolo and Marazza:
The manifesto, as a public declaration of principles and intentions, is something different
from the vision and mission. The vision describes the purpose, the reason for existence
77
Ashley Crossman, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: An Overview of the Famous
Book by Erving Goffman,” ThoughtCo, accessed May 20, 2018,
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-3026754.
78
Crossman.
79
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (London, UK: Penguin Books,
1990), 209.
80
Burton Snowboards, “Work For Us,” accessed October 24, 2017,
https://www.burton.com/it/en/work-for-us.
81
Burton Snowboards, “The Stance – These are Burton’s Core Values”.
82
Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 209.
22and the ultimate goal of an organisation. The mission materialises the vision into a
concrete goal.83
Rather, the manifesto is the foundation of the specific codes that make the brand instantly
recognisable, and also proposes the lifestyle the consumers can identify with.84 For Burton, the
lifestyle proposition is their commitment for building a rewarding, collaborative and high-
performance community where leadership, respect, honesty, collaboration, learning,
accountability and recognition are the leading values.85 However, since vision and mission are
basic terms in business economics, I find it necessary to state those in the case of Burton too.
The Burton Stance is the foundation of the company’s operations and it serves as the vision and
mission, however what drives these has been specified. The drivers are the innovation and
design, as well as being the leading brand in every marketplace in every product category.
Additionally, supporting and sponsoring not only the world’s best athletes but also the local
snowboarding communities and dealers as well as operating as sustainably as possible. Equally
important is to advance the sport together with spreading the Burton’s year-round lifestyle.86
Moving on to the other part of the manifesto, that is the lifestyle codes. According to Saviolo
and Marazza the lifestyle codes are: “logos, shapes, patterns, materials, colours, details or even
specific types of product.”87 Leslie de Chernatony and Francesca Dall’Olmo Riley have created
an even more developed model; the six tangible brand components: including the logo and
signage, the design, functionality, packaging and labelling of its related products, the visual
theme, and the design of points such as websites and retail stores.88 To fully understand the
lifestyle codes of Burton Snowboards, I have decided to use both of the models.
83
Saviolo et. al., 65.
84
Ibid., 121.
85
Burton Snowboards, “The Stance – These are Burton’s Core Values”.
86
Ibid.
87
Saviolo et. al., 70.
88
Wigley et. al., 249-250.
23Picture 1. Picture 2.
Burton Snowboards is the largest and most recognisable snowboard brand even though they
had a few difficulties in the mid-90s to early 2000s, when they re-branded their logo multiple
times, mainly changing the initial letter B to various variations.89 Salt Lake City hosting the
winter Olympics in 2002 gave a boost for Burton to promote the sport and brand. The company
decided to redesign the logo once and for all. “Burton’s solution was to create a bold, iconic
mark that would define the brand for years to come. The idea that was put into place was the
ubiquitous Burton Arrow.” 90 (Picture 1.) Since then the brand has been on top of the
snowboarding business, implementing the logo in their every product, cementing the brand’s
visual identity. In addition, the brand has a mountain logo, which is well presented in the
brand’s marketing. (Picture 2.) Mountain can be seen as a “Symbol of transcendence, eternity,
purity and spiritual ascent. [It is also] associated with immortals, heroes, sanctified prophets
and gods.”91 Not only it is an expected symbol for a snowboarding oriented brand, but also it
corresponds well with the Burton values. According to the store manager in Burton Store
89
Printwand, “How Burton Snowboards Logo Reinforced Their Business,” accessed October
24, 2017, https://www.printwand.com/blog/how-burton-snowboards-logo-reinforced-their-
business.
90
Printwand.
91
Mark O’Connell et. al., The Illustrated Sourcebook of Signs & Symbol, (Leicestershire, UK:
Anness Publishing, 2013), 110.
24Helsinki, the brand has decided to cut down the text ‘Snowboards’ off their logos, just leaving
the simple ‘Burton’ text. The reason behind this is the move from the extreme sports to the
lifestyle brand, where the company is not only selling the sport but everything that is involved
in it. Additionally, the fact that Burton is such an acclaimed brand, coupled with the world-
wide pronounceability of the name, makes it even more approachable a brand.
As presented above, Saviolo and Marazza widens the lifestyle codes to shapes, patterns,
materials, colours and details, while in de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley’s tangible elements
these codes are simplified to design and functionality. Since one of the points of this thesis is
to find the lifestyle codes of Burton, I will explore these in detail further in the analysis part.
Burton does not have a distinctive print and/or fabric that are used in their designs year after
year. However, the constant innovation of the technical fabrics and the craftsmanship that goes
into making the garments are savoured in Burton’s lifetime warranty. Clearly, an
acknowledgement for the lifestyle brand’s need for producing high quality and weatherproof
products. Or in other words, Burton’s way to commit to the technical performance aspects of
the line, i.e. product functionality.92 Citing Wigley et al. “developing a functional aspect to the
brand’s collection is a significant means of expressing brand credentials.”93 According to the
Burton Store Helsinki manager, the most iconic and recognisable Burton products, outside of
the actual snowboards, are the simple logo t-shirt and the popular luggage and backpack range.
However, the store manager pointed out that the logo t-shirt has lost its fashionable place from
its prime years of 1990s. However, over the years, Burton has developed a few collaborations
with “brands that carry the same attitude, influence, and dedication to progression.”94 These
collaborations are labelled Burton Coalition. One of the most popular and exposed coalitions is
L.A.M.B x BURTON, an annually produced snowboarding clothing collection in collaboration
with Gwen Stefani’s fashion line L.A.M.B. (Cover picture.) The collection has a unique style,
and it is designed clearly for daring women. The price points are slightly more expensive than
other similar Burton products. However, since the essence of the coalition is distinctly original,
the pricing seems appropriate.
92
Wigley et. al., 254.
93
Ibid., 254.
94
Burton Snowboards, “Burton Coalition,” accessed April 5, 2018,
https://www.burton.com/it/en/c/coalition.
25Packaging and labelling are part of the tangible elements, granted that they are obvious
platforms for branding. In every Burton garment and product there is a tag that has information
not only about the brand but also, of course the price and barcode for the purpose of identifying
each product. In addition, Burton uses branded stitched labels that can be found in both outside
and inside of every garment. These label designs vary from the Burton mountain logo to the
simple text ‘Burton’, and even sometimes adding a small note, usually Burton motto ’Durable
Goods’, “suggesting that these are products for people” who are active and thus need products
that endures and suits to their on-the-move lifestyle.95 Secondary packaging, the carrier bags,
which every customer gets after a purchase, are branded with the mountain logo. At the same
time these paper bags serve as a symbolic sign for Burton’s value of sustainability. Inside the
paper bag there is a note on the bottom that says:
Burton Sustainability: Our commitment is to make Burton as respected for our environment and
social impact as we are for our products. In doing so, we will help make the sport we pioneered
– and our lifestyle – sustainable well into the future.
The note has also a link to Burton’s sustainability webpage, pointing out another characteristic
lifestyle code for Burton.
The third and final part of `The construction of Lifestyle Brands’ is the expression, that is how
the brand communicates its manifesto. According to Saviolo and Marazza, these three
components are the store and its products and services.96 Since the central objective of my thesis
is to find out how Burton Snowboards expresses their brand narratives of lifestyle and gender
equity, this part will be the content of the next two chapters. Also, the visual theme of marketing
initiatives and the design of websites and retail stores are important parts of the six tangible
elements model. Similarly, these elements form the next two chapters.
Also, according to Saviola and Marazza, in order to succeed, a lifestyle brand must have a
visionary leader: “a Visionary Leader is an individual with a charismatic profile, a higher
sensitivity and a strongly assertive and original perspective that he/she is able to express
95
Palmer, 57.
96
Saviolo et. al., 71.
26through a product and a brand”97, clearly, so is the case for Burton. In fact, the brand has two
leaders; Jake and Donna Burton Carpenter, even so much that they are put on a pedestal by their
Picture 3. Picture 4.
followers. Indeed, Burton employees and sponsored snowboarders refer to them as legends, for
instance when posting on Instagram, as has done a Burton Team rider Kelly Clark (Picture 3.)
It is elemental for the leader to be daring in order to attract admirers who will become the
ambassadors of the lifestyle brand. As Saviolo and Marazza explain: “Subsequently you need
an organisation of supporters that shares, keeps alive and develops the same principles by giving
structure to the original intuition and helping to translate it into products, communication and
experience year after year, even in different categories, and in all markets of the world.”98 Must
97
Ibid., 79.
98
Ibid., 78.
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