Article 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.
Journal of Marketing, August 2026
About the researcher
Daiane Scaraboto is Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Business and Economics, at the University of Melbourne. Her research challenges taken-for-granted market notions such as value, exchange, and access, by examining how consumers collaborate, instigate market change, and engage with sustainability challenges.
Daiane is a 2024 Marketing Science Scholar, and Co-editor of the Journal of Consumer Research. She has served the field in multiple other roles including Chair of the Policy Board for the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Associate Editor for the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and ERB member for the Journal of Marketing and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others.
Daiane teaches Marketing, Society & Sustainability in Masters programs at the Faculty of Business and Economics, and supervises PhD students in research projects of relevance to public policy. She is currently serving in the role Co-Lead of the "Democracy, Civil Society, and Inclusion" Impact Accelerator at the University of Melbourne.
More about Professor Scaraboto