A indústria de cosméticos, capital simbólico e classes sociais: estruturação social a partir da indústria de beleza no Brasil

Abstract

The present study aims to unveil the marketing strategies of the beauty industry in Brazil with a view to the symbolic reproduction of the stratification processes that develop in Brazilian society. In this sense, the analysis was developed from the theoretical lenses of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. Indeed, the empirical object of this work consists of a selection of advertising pieces, advertisements for cosmetic products, as well as the positioning in the beauty market of the cosmetic brands Natura, Avon, Boticário and L’Oréal. Our purpose is to understand how the cosmetics industry in Brazil contributes to the construction of the symbolic representation of social classes. To this end, the analysis of the social logics that govern the market strategies of the main manufacturers of cosmetic products in the country, included temporal sections of advertisements from the 20th and 21st centuries to highlight how the industry modifies its advertising language according to the processes of social change and consequent transformation of dominant aesthetic standards.