Inside Consumption: Consumer Motives, Goals, and Desires

Following on from The Why of Consumption, this book examines motivational factors in diverse consumption behaviours. In a world where consumption has become the defining phenomenon of human life and society, it addresses the effects of critical life events on consumption motives, and the sociological and intergenerational influences on consumer motives and preferences. Its cross-disciplinary approach brings together some of the leading scholars from diverse subject areas to examine the central question about consumption: `why?’. This is a unique and invaluable contribution to the area, and an essential asset for all those involved in researching, teaching or studying consumption and consumer behaviour.

Table of Contents:
Section 1: Introduction 1 Inside consumption: new insights on what we buy and consume S. Ratneshwar and David Glen Mick Section 2: Consumer Approach and Avoidance Behaviors 2 Promotion and prevention in consumer decision making: the state of the art and theoretical propositions Michel Tuan Pham and E. Tory Higgins 3 Why and how consumers hope: motivated reasoning and the marketplace Gustavo E. de Mello and Deborah J. MacInnis 4 Death, where is thy sting? Mortality and consumer motivation in the writings of Zygmunt Bauman Darach Turley Section 3: Rules, Variety, and Flexibility in Consumer Choice 5 Making consumption decisions by following personal rules On Amir, Orly Lobel and Dan Ariely 6 Variety for the sake of variety? Diversification motives in consumer choice Barbara E. Kahn and Rebecca K. Ratner 7 Consuming fashion as flexibility: metaphor, cultural mood, and materiality Susan B. Kaiser and Karyl Ketchum Section 4: Sense and Sensibility in Consumption Decisions 8 A behavioral decision theory perspective on hedonic and utilitarian choice Uzma Khan, Ravi Dhar and Klaus Wertenbroch 9 Interplay of the heart and the mind in decision making Baba Shiv, Alexander Fedorikhin and Stephen M. Nowlis 10 Social marketing messages that may motivate irresponsible consumption behavior Cornelia Pechmann and Michael D. Slater Section 5: Consumer Identity: History and Virtuality 11 We are who we were: intergenerational influences in consumer behavior Elizabeth S. Moore and William L. Wilkie 12 The presentation of self in the information age John Deighton Section 6: Community and Culture in Valuing Brands 13 Communal consumption and the brand Albert M. Muniz, Jr. and Thomas C. O'Guinn 14 How societies desire brands: using cultural theory to explain brand symbolism Douglas B. Holt Section 7: Consuming Authenticity vs. Triviality 15 Transformations in consumer settings: landscapes and beyond George Ritzer, Michael Ryan and Jeffrey Stepnisky 16 Star gazing: the mythology and commodification of Vincent van Gogh Gary J. Bamossy Section 8: Commentaries 17 Conscious and unconscious processing in consumer motives, goals, and desires W. Fred Van Raaij and Gewei Ye 18 What consumers desire: goals and motives in the consumption environment Marsha L. Richins

About the Author :
S. Ratneshwar holds the Bailey K. Howard World Book Chair of Marketing and is also the Chair of the Marketing Department at the College of Business, University of Missouri (Columbia). His articles have been published widely and he currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Interactive Marketing. David Glen Mick is the Robert Hill Carter Professor of Marketing, at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia. His research has appeared in numerous journals and he currently serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of Marketing. He has served as Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and recently as President (2005) of the Association for Consumer Research.

Review :
'This book truly challenges us to think outside the box. The editors have assembled an impressive and diverse group of well respected scholars and some of the brightest young minds in the field. These authors push our thinking toward new frontiers in existing areas of consumer research (e.g., motivation, emotion vs. cognition, and decision making) as well as new topics (e.g., consumer hope, community and culture, intergenerational influences). This book will help set the research agenda for the next generation.' - Wayne D. Hoyer, The James L. Bayless/William S. Farish Chair for Free Enterprise, University of Texas at Austin 'This volume presents a rich variety of distinct approaches to understanding consumer motivations in an affluent society. These diverse approaches range from more atomistic views of consumers exercising approach or avoidance tendencies, pursuing goals, maximizing utility, responding to advertising, or making decisions, to more molar views of consumers participating in cultural systems, enacting rituals, engaging symbolic worlds, forming communities, or questing for identities. Rather than seeing these chapters as pieces of a coherent whole, the volume may be best read as a series of arguments on behalf of alternative paradigms. It is here that the book gains its power as a provocative contest of approaches by insightful authors steeped in different cultural mythologies and social worlds.' - Russell W. Belk, N. Eldon Tanner Professor, University of Utah