Chapter 1: a context for understanding consumption
Consumption is a core part of our everyday lives. Arnoud et al. (2004; 5) describes consumption as
‘individuals or groups acquiring, using and disposing of products, services, ideas or experiences.’
(individuen of groepen die producten, diensten, ideeën of ervaringen verwerven, gebruiken en van de
hand doen). In this chapter, we consider what has shaped our understanding of consumer behaviour
from the past to the present day as well as different approaches to its study.
How consumption became a part of everyday life:
An early history of consumer and consumption
Nowadays, the fact that we own so much seems to attest to the success of marketing and critical for
marketing is the relationship between production and consumption. Companies produce goods and
services for people to buy; in order to buy, consumers have to see value in these goods and services
so that they are prepared to exchange money for them. The term ‘consumer’ began to be used in
Europe from the twelfth century onwards to refer to the using up of something such as food,
candles, and firewood (Trentmann, 2016). The growth of trade and the developing of globalization,
has been a key element in the development of consumption. In the past, it used to be difficult to get
spices. Nowadays, thanks to a lot of international trade, it is quite normal that we can get everything.
While some people today are accused of excessive, wasteful, or conspicuous consumption,
others are concerned about ethical consumption and the impact that their behaviour has on the
environment and on people living in the socio-politically oppressive regimes.
Consumer insight 1.1:
Being a 'locavore' means one is part of a movement which aims to connect food producers and food
consumers in the same geographic region, in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food
networks. Locavorism can improve local economies and can have a positive impact on the health
environment, community, and society of a particular place. (Een locavore wil zeggen dat men
onderdeel is van een beweging die wil dat voedselproducenten en -consumenten in dezelfde regio
met elkaar in contact komen om meer zelfvoorzienende en dus veerkrachtige voedselnetwerken te
ontwikkelen. Locavorisme kan zorgen voor een betere lokale economie, gezondheid, milieu,
gemeenschap en samenleving in een regio.) Consumers who want to eat ethically and preserve local
farmland are increasingly embracing locally grown food.
O’Neill (2014) says there is no consensus as to what ‘local means and it does not exclude
more industrialized forms of production. Some thoughts about local foods:
1. Most people consider it to have been produced fairly close to where it is consumed
(Martinez et al. 2010).
2. It is considered to be the food sold at farmers’ market or similar (Smithers et al. 2008).
3. Food that is unique or has cultural significance to a particular place.
When consumption became a part of everyday life
One of the most significant developments for consumption came during the first half of the
nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century was a major economic
disruption, which led to the increased production of goods and to forms of manufacture that
produced more goods quickly, which meant that prices dropped and more people could purchase
them. At the same time, the marketing environment began to develop, with improved forms of
distribution, retailing and advertising.
, Before the Industrial Revolution, much production and consumption had been through
cottage industries, small-scale farming, bartering, and buying from neighbours, at fairs, and from
hawkers or others who travelled the country selling door to door. There were many markets and less
shops. In the eighteenth century, there were more shops and these developments were new
approaches to marketing. Advertising began to develop, and the first shopping arcades appeared in
the late eighteenth century in Paris.
The types of product sold also changed. Manufacturers and shop owners realized that they
could persuade people to buy more than they needed. The increase in the range and nature of
products was influenced by industrial innovations in all aspects of human life. Transport was the site
of successive waves of innovation, from steam to air travel. It was becoming increasingly apparent
that consumption brought social recognition to people.
Conspicious consumption:
Thorstein Veblen introduced the idea of conspicuous consumption, where goods represented a way
to compete and gain social recognition. (waar goederen een manier waren om te concurreren en
sociale erkenning te krijgen). The possession of goods signified esteem; without them an individual
was nobody. An important aspect of Veblen’s analysis of this leisure class was the ability to be
extravagant and wasteful. Today, we can define conspicuous consumption as the purchasing of
luxury items to publicly display wealth to enhance identity and/or prestige. (als de aankoop van
luxeartikelen om publiekelijk rijkdom te tonen om de identiteit en/of het prestige te verhogen.)
Today, we are encouraged not to be wasteful, and the waste that consumer society produces
has itself caused huge problems in landfill sites and in the environment. In this context, messages
around curbing excessive consumption are not straightforward, and it may be difficult for such
people to hear others exhort them not to consume excessively when so many of us have been able
to do so for so long.
Consumer insight 1.2:
Today, many people are concerned not only about the goods they possess but also about whether
they are ‘right’ products and brands and how they let everybody know about them. Nowhere are
status and luxury goods more evident than in China. Chinese consumers are also now the biggest
spenders on luxury items, with much of their luxury spending done while travelling abroad. It has
been suggested that the main motivation of Chinese conspicuous consumption lies with status -
seeking and enhancement. Luxury newcomers are brand-conscious while status surfers are not
brand loyal. (zijn merkbewust, terwijl statussurfers niet merkentrouw zijn). Luxury connoisseurs have
higher income or family money and are more sophisticated in their purchasing (hebben een hoger
inkomen of gezinsgeld en zijn verfijnder in hun aankopen) while fearless young spenders are focused
on what is tready rather than branded products. (zijn eerder gericht op wat verhandelbaar is dan op
merkproducten).
Some people think that this striving for luxury may habe had its day even in China, quoting
the Confucian philosophy of ‘zhong yong’ to ‘maintain balance and harmony’ and supported with
trends such as decluttering.
Shopping: from service to self-service
Alongside this recognition of both the functional and symbolic benefits for consumers, there were
also significant shifts in how consumers came to have access to goods, which also impacts on
consumption patterns and behaviour. Department stores came into their own in the nineteenth
century. Alongside the development of the department stores, other new ways of shopping were
,introduced. Catalogue shopping became particularly popular in the US at the end of the nineteenth
century. Through catalogues, department stores could be brought directly into their customers’
homes.
The 1930s saw the introduction of the self-service supermarket in the US. Impulse purchasing
was encouraged by the supermarket. The location of goods and their apparent easy availability was
an important feature and a major opportunity for retailers and producers in developing packaging
and point-of-sale material.
Developments have continued in self-service through vending machine technology.
Increasingly technological advances are helping to innovate how we shop.
Another recent phenomenon in retailing has been pop-up shops, and ‘pop-upping’ has also
spread to pop-up food outlets and pup-up brands. The first pup-up shops came in the late 1990s.
Pop-up stores offer consumers surprise and novelty, and because their lifespan is limited, they
introduce an element of urgency among consumers and, in the case of food outlets, almost a cult
following.
Shopstreaming is one of the innovations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic,
because people couldn’t shopping physically. Shopstreaming is livestreaming using the sales
associates as hosts. (Dit is livestreaming met de verkoopmedewerkers als gastheer).
From consumers to consumerism: the politics of consumption
The term ‘consumer sovereignty’ was first coined in the 1930s and came to represent the exercise of
freedom that people could have through compensation. (stond voor de uitoefening van de vrijheid
die mensen kunnen hebben door compensatie). Consumer rights organizations also began to
increase. The consumer rights organizations share the goal of ensuring that consumers are protected
in their marketplace dealings. The focus on consumer protection subsequently became an issue of
concern to both companies and governments, and many countries introduced legislation to protect
consumers.
Consumer activist Ralph Nader had a campaign against the US car industry in the 1960s with
attacks on GM, whose cars had been involved in numerous accidents. Through its campaigns, the
perspective of produces changed away from the concept of caveat emptor (i.e. ‘buyer beware’) to
recognizing that producers and retailers have a responsibility to the consumer not only in producing
goods but also in ensuring that they are safe, fair, and of the value promised. (de erkenning dat
producenten en detailhandelaren een verantwoordelijkheid hebben tegenover de consument, niet
alleen bij het produceren van goederen, maar ook bij het garanderen dat deze veilig en eerlijk zijn en
de beloofde waarde hebben.)
Today, one of our biggest concerns is climate change and both businesses and consumers will
need to change their behaviour if there is to be any progress in combatting this problem. For
example, the electric car market offers a new opportunity for companies, although this requires
extensive supply companies themselves.
Alongside this increased activism, consumers now have access to large amounts of
information that allow them to make better and informed choices. One of the most significant issues
that consumers and producers face is the sustainability of a world where production and
consumption are damaging the planet. In January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) adopted by world leaders at a historic UN summit in 2015 officially came into force. Over the
next 15 years, these will fight inequalities and tackle climate change.
, The postmodern consumer
An important feature of postmodern consumers is their fragmented nature. Postmodern consumers
do not seek a unified theme but want to explore different and separate identities to match the
fragmenting markets and the proliferation of products.
In the nineteenth century, Karl Marx was concerned about the real value of commodities
consumed. A commodity was primarily the product of labour. A critical aspect of goods was their
exchange value. Exchange value is the value of a good is to the consumer and therefore what it could
be exchanged for, usually its price (is de waarde van een goed voor de consument en dus waartegen
het kan worden geruild, gewoonlijk de prijs ervan). Postmodernism in the late twentieth century
turned the idea of exchange value on. Baudrillard (1981) suggested that consumers used goods to
create and manage their identities. Exchange value in the Marxist sense is replaced by what
consumption signifies. Similar to exchange value was the idea of use value, the value of a good to the
consumer in terms of the usefulness it provides (de waarde van een goed voor de consument in
termen van het nut dat het biedt). You might decide not to buy a jacket because it is too expensive,
meaning that the exchange value is higher than its use value to you.
Some have critiqued the idea of postmodernism as having been appropriated by late modern
forms of capitalism for their own managerial purposes. According to Boje, McDonald’s is using not
only a clever juxtaposition of engaging with children and parents with both cartoons and celebrities
to construct the idea of fast food being nutritious but also scientific-seeming charts of fat and
nutrition content endorsements from fitness experts. Other companies are postmodern
organizations because they are critical of some of the features of modern capitalism such as global
sweatshops.
Postmodern in marketing was seen as breaking down the divide between production and
consumption, leading to the idea of co-creation of value, whereby the consumer plays a constructive
and value-creating role, not only in consumption but also in production, by creating their own
products or taking part in production through connections with the firm
Consumer insight 1.3
Mod or tradi is eigenlijk het hebben/dragen van spullen/kleding waarvan het een traditioneel is en
het ander modern. Een combinatie daarvan.
After postmodernism: experiential consumption and consumer culture theory
When Marx was writing about consumption, he focused on tangible goods, but today we consume
many things that cannot be classified as material objects such as holidays, art galleries, and concerts.
In this part of the chapter, we consider the experiential consumer, who is an increasingly important
target for marketing.
The experiential consumer
In 1982, Morris Holbrook and Elizabeth Hirschmann introduced the idea of experiential marketing,
focusing on perspectives consumption rooted in social contexts. Their purpose was to shift emphasis
from the consumer as rational decision-maker to a model where the consumer was viewed as an
experience-seeker. Their work aimed to offer a way of analysing and explaining experiential
consumption acts in consumer behaviour terms.
Although these ideas first surfaced in 1980s, the effect came to the attention of the wider
business community through books such as The Experience Economy, and its impact has been
enduring, mainly in shifting companies’ emphasis away from consumers as buyers to a focus on
