What is consumer culture and why does it matter?
‘Consumer culture’ is one of those ubiquitous phrases that seems to get used a lot — often as a scapegoat — without a clear understanding of its meaning or why, exactly, it matters.
At the most fundamental level, a consumer culture is one in which society is structured so that citizens’ needs are met through consumption (generally in the form of monetary exchange for goods and services). It is, therefore, central to modern capitalist societies. However, consumer culture is kaleidoscopic in its manifestations, many of which can be unexpected, counterintuitive, and — in some ways — revolutionary.
This fact reflects the nature of consumption as embedded in the complex network that is ‘culture’. To me and many other scholars, culture is a complex web of people, things and ideas, interacting with and influencing each other both in the moment and over time. Consumer culture as a system (and consumption as a specific act within that system) can therefore only be properly understood in the light of these interactions and influences.
Let’s zero in for a moment on one specific and very mundane example: an individual (say, a recent college graduate) purchasing a laundry detergent from a supermarket. Classical marketing theory has rightly determined the role of factors such as price, packaging, branding, environment, and the individual psychology of the buyer in influencing their purchase decision. However, what it has generally neglected is the role of culture in shaping these and other factors.
For example, the value of cleanliness (and therefore of the product) is often determined by underlying cultural and religious beliefs such as the Puritan ideal of ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’, while ideologies such as environmental stewardship and even culturally generated knowledges such as taste contribute to consumers’ tacit understandings and evaluations of various product features (including chemical composition, package design and branding). Similarly, beliefs about what is ‘normal’ or ‘desirable’ within any given culture influence supplier-side decisions intended to target consumers within that culture — whether or not those beliefs are accurate.
This is why consumer culture matters — to business, to society, and to academia — and this is why consumer culture as a field of study (which, in marketing, shelters under the umbrella of ‘Consumer Culture Theory’) has become increasingly important. On the one hand, it provides marketers with valuable insights into the cultural drivers of consumption generally and consumer behaviour more specifically; on the other, it offers (at least in theory) the emancipatory potential of understanding. That is, the more we as a society and as individual consumers understand what drives our behaviour on not only a psychological but also a cultural level, the more we can critique and, potentially, seek to change that behaviour when desired.
This potential is pursued by various threads of culturally and critically oriented consumer research, including those concerned with driving more sustainable consumer behaviour. Others focus instead on consumer culture’s inherent potential for empowering individuals and societies by studying the ways in which consumption does, indeed, allow us to meet not only our most basic but also our highest needs — including, for example, self-actualisation, community and, more fundamentally, meaning. Still others critique this perceived potential, especially with an eye to structural and economic inequalities.
There are many approaches to and perspectives on the study of consumer culture; what they all have in common is a recognition that consumption is driven by culture, and that this matters — for consumers, for industry, and for society at large.
