Exchange value – represent what the value of a good is to the consumer and therefore what it would
be exchanged for
Use value – the value of a good to the consumer in terms of the usefulness it provides
Sign/Symbolic value – Symbolic meaning consumers attach to goods to construct and participate in
the social world
Consumption function – Maps the relationship between disposable income and level of wages
Consumer behaviour – Individuals or groups acquiring, using, and disposing of products, services,
ideas, or experiences (Arnould et al. 2004)
Heart of economic development, business, and marketing
Consumer behaviour is informing marketing, feed into marketing strategy
Marketing is prescriptive, telling manager what they should do to build effective marketing
strategy
Consumer behaviour is descriptive, describing, analysing behaviour of consumers, influences
Anthropology
History
Psychology
Economics
Sociology
Karl Marx
Was concerned that people did not recognize the value of the commodities (product of
labour) they consumed
Once goods had lost the link with their nature of production and their use value, they tool
on a mysterious quality that he termed the ‘fetishism of commodities’
o The distinguishing or masking of commodities whereby the appearance of goods
hides the story of those who made them and how they made them
Freud’s psychoanalytic
He suggested that people’s behaviour was often determined by irrational and unconscious
motives and by socialized inhibitions
Consumption is a key feature of modern society
Consumer society
Having more than you actually need
A brief history of consumption
Hundreds of years ago, people had few possessions trade
Spice route
Some centuries later, elites started consuming more
,19th century industrialisation
Reduction in costs, mass production
Start of consumption society
Consumers purchase higher priced goods when similar low-priced substitutes are available
Veblen effect
Higher prices mean higher quality
Or
Desire for conspicuous consumption, to be seen buying and using expensive items (linked to
prestige and status display)
After first world war, Increase consumption as means of economic recovery (Milton Keynes)
US became for front of mass production
Ernst Ditcher Brands acts as a mirror/extension of consumer personality
Using qualitative methods to understand consumers
Brand personalities – Brands are living entities, people can relate to them
The scope of consumer behaviour
Shifted from a production defined to a consumption defined society
‘We’ consumers
Consumers
Identity seekers
How consumers choose products
Needs Recall Search Evaluate options Buy Feedback Start again
Assumes that people make informed decision/ act rationally
Extended problem-solving model
Heuristics shortcut, to help come up with a decision quickly
Two contemporary perspectives on consumer behaviour
1) Behavioural Insights/ Economics
a. Challenging the idea that consumers make rational decisions
b. Consumer behaviour is much more complex
be exchanged for
Use value – the value of a good to the consumer in terms of the usefulness it provides
Sign/Symbolic value – Symbolic meaning consumers attach to goods to construct and participate in
the social world
Consumption function – Maps the relationship between disposable income and level of wages
Consumer behaviour – Individuals or groups acquiring, using, and disposing of products, services,
ideas, or experiences (Arnould et al. 2004)
Heart of economic development, business, and marketing
Consumer behaviour is informing marketing, feed into marketing strategy
Marketing is prescriptive, telling manager what they should do to build effective marketing
strategy
Consumer behaviour is descriptive, describing, analysing behaviour of consumers, influences
Anthropology
History
Psychology
Economics
Sociology
Karl Marx
Was concerned that people did not recognize the value of the commodities (product of
labour) they consumed
Once goods had lost the link with their nature of production and their use value, they tool
on a mysterious quality that he termed the ‘fetishism of commodities’
o The distinguishing or masking of commodities whereby the appearance of goods
hides the story of those who made them and how they made them
Freud’s psychoanalytic
He suggested that people’s behaviour was often determined by irrational and unconscious
motives and by socialized inhibitions
Consumption is a key feature of modern society
Consumer society
Having more than you actually need
A brief history of consumption
Hundreds of years ago, people had few possessions trade
Spice route
Some centuries later, elites started consuming more
,19th century industrialisation
Reduction in costs, mass production
Start of consumption society
Consumers purchase higher priced goods when similar low-priced substitutes are available
Veblen effect
Higher prices mean higher quality
Or
Desire for conspicuous consumption, to be seen buying and using expensive items (linked to
prestige and status display)
After first world war, Increase consumption as means of economic recovery (Milton Keynes)
US became for front of mass production
Ernst Ditcher Brands acts as a mirror/extension of consumer personality
Using qualitative methods to understand consumers
Brand personalities – Brands are living entities, people can relate to them
The scope of consumer behaviour
Shifted from a production defined to a consumption defined society
‘We’ consumers
Consumers
Identity seekers
How consumers choose products
Needs Recall Search Evaluate options Buy Feedback Start again
Assumes that people make informed decision/ act rationally
Extended problem-solving model
Heuristics shortcut, to help come up with a decision quickly
Two contemporary perspectives on consumer behaviour
1) Behavioural Insights/ Economics
a. Challenging the idea that consumers make rational decisions
b. Consumer behaviour is much more complex
