A experiência sensorial e simbólica no consumo de carnes nobres no Brasil: uma análise do comportamento do consumidor de luxo

Abstract

This study investigated how Brazilian consumers of premium beef attribute symbolic, emotional, and performative meaning to their purchases, examining how practices of distinction, technical expertise, and identity performances shape the consumption experience. Using a qualitative interpretivist approach, in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation were conducted with 20 habitual consumers and analyzed through a triangulated method integrating Thematic Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal that premium beef consumption extends beyond functional attributes and operates as an aesthetic and affective ritual in which pleasure, pride, belonging, and moral rationalizations compose what is defined as the emotional essentiality of food-related luxury. Technical vocabulary and gastronomic expertise serve as legitimizing cultural capital, functioning as symbolic markers of distinction. A comparative analysis identified two consumer profiles: traditional, who rely on embodied knowledge and experience consumption as an intimate and authentic practice; and emergent, who actively build expertise and perform their consumption in digital environments as a strategy for visibility and social legitimation. Overall, the results show that the perceived value of premium beef emerges from the interplay between emotion, aesthetics, knowledge, and performance, positioning food-related luxury as a central practice in the contemporary construction of identity, belonging, and prestige. These findings highlight the importance of symbolic and affective dimensions in understanding premium product consumers and offer insights for experience design and market positioning within the luxury food sector.