What is Consumer Research?

Morris B. Holbrook

The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, No. 1. (Jun., 1987), pp. 128-132.

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 What Is Consumer Research?

MORRIS B. HOLBROOM*

I, long before the blissful hour arrives, studies consumer behavior; (2) consumer behavior en-
Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse tails consumption; (3) consumption involves the ac-
Of this great consummation. quisition, usage, and disposition of products; (4) prod-
-William Wordsworth (1 8 14) ucts are goods, services, ideas, events, or any other en-
The Recluse, lines 56-58
tities that can be acquired, used, or disposed of in ways
that potentially provide value; (5) value is a type of

T he field of consumer research in general and the

Jozlrnal of Consumer Research in particular cur-
rently find themselves in a crisis of identity. Whatever
experience that occurs for some living organism when
a goal is achieved, a need is fulfilled, or a want is sat-
isfied; (6) such an achievement, fulfillment, or satisfac-
the historical basis for its editorial policy, JCR has lately tion attains consummation; conversely, a failure to
come to embrace a variety of topics once thought too achieve goals, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants thwarts con-
arcane or abstruse for a scholarly publication devoted summation; (7) the process of consummation (including
to the study of consumer behavior. Recent examples of its possible breakdowns) is therefore the fundamental
this trend would include articles on ritual, materialism, subject for consumer research.
mood, styles of research, primitive aspects of con- From this argument, it follows that conszlmer research
sumption, language in popular American novels, the studies consummation (in all its various facets, including
good life in advertising, spousal conflict, play as a con- its potential breakdowns). Many will agree with this
sumption experience, product meanings, and con- conclusion. Yet most will also acknowledge that the
sumption symbolism. In short, it appears that in the study of consummation is not the meaning that usually
last few years the perspectives of an increasingly diverse leaps to mind when one hears the term "consumer re-
range of disciplines have stealthily crept into the field search" in the common parlance. Indeed, it appears to
of consumer research. me that, in its general usage, the term "consumer re-
These realities can scarcely be denied. They just are. search" lacks a clear meaning. It has grown so encrusted
They exist for everyone to behold and for many, in- with connotations arising from its association with other
cluding me, to admire and applaud. However, this pro- disciplines that, by now, it stands for everything, which
liferation of disciplinary perspectives in our field raises in this case is tantamount to nothing. I therefore propose
some interesting conceptual issues. One of the most a definition intended to provide a core meaning for our
important is ontological in nature and concerns the field of inquiry.
question, "What is consumer research?" Specifically, I propose that we use the {erm consumer
In attempting to answer this question, I shall pursue research to refer to the studj~of corzsz~mmatior?in all its
an argument influenced by various efforts to broaden many aspects. Consummation thereby designates the
our concept of consumer behavior to include not only core of the concept of consumer research. From this
acquisition but also usage and disposition activities (Ja- perspective, consumer research stands on its own as a
coby 1978) and to extend our view of products to em- separate discipline and borrows from other established
brace not only traditional durable and nondurable disciplines no more or less than they in turn borrow
goods but also other more intangible services, ideas, from each other. Here, I endorse the position recently
and events (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982). Specifi- articulated by Belk (1986, p. 423):
cally, I propose a definition of consumer research based
on the following key points: ( 1 ) consumer research My own vision is one of consumer behavior as a discipline
unto itself, with a variety of constituent groups, but with
no overriding loyalty to any existing discipline or interest
*Morris B. Holbrook is Professor, Graduate School of Business, group. That is, consumer behavior should not be a sub-
Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. He thanks Stephen Bell, discipline of marketing, advertising, psychology, soci-
Sarah Holbrook, and John O'Shaughnessy for their helpful comments ology, or anthropology, nor the handmaiden of business,
o n an earlier draft of this article. He also gratefully acknowledges the government, or consumers. It should instead be a viable
support of the Columbia Business School's Faculty Research Fund. field of study, just as these other disciplines are, with
A longer version of this paper, with complete references and a sum-
mary figure, may be obtained by writing to the author.
some potential relevance to each of these constituent
groups.

128
O JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH c Vol. 14 e June 1987
WHAT IS CONSUMER RESEARCH?

THE ROLE OF OTHER DISCIPLINES of brand preferences via (compositional) linear com-
pensatory models, (decompositional) conjoint analysis
I shall briefly review what I regard as the primary and ideal point formulations, or some (integrative)
contributions made by various disciplines to the study combination of the two. For all of its merits, this work
of value in acquisition, usage, and disposition, paying illuminates acquisition via brand choice far more than
particular attention to apparent gaps left by each field it does usage or disposition behavior. Further, with the
of inquiry to be filled by others. partial exception of the attitude modeler's normative
component, the typical psychological treatment does
relatively little to place brand preferences into the social
Macroeconomics context that includes ongoing interpersonal activities
The field of macroeconomics makes its major con- and shared symbolic meanings. However, these more
tribution to our understanding of acquisition, as rep- social concerns have been addressed by contributions
resented by a nation's aggregate spending behavior. from sociology and anthropology focused on various
Consumption spending is what remains after subtract- aspects of product usage and disposition.
ing government purchases, gross private domestic in-
vestment, and net exports from the Gross National Sociology
Product; it equals disposable personal income less sav- The sociological perspective in consumer research has
ings. This macroeconomic definition of consumption considered the social context in which consumption
obviously provides a very incomplete account of con- activities are embedded and has proven especially fruit-
sumer behavior. It tells us little about usage or dispo- ful in addressing problems raised by product usage. For
sition and remains silent on nonmarket acquisition. It example, concepts of conspicuous consumption and
focuses on the quantitative, easily measured aspects of role performance have helped to elucidate the use of
market exchanges while ignoring their more qualitative products as dramaturgical props that define and display
psychic or social aspects. Finally, it says little about the the consumer's self-image. However, these usage-related
process of choice among individual product categories. concepts do suggest the need for a complementary focus
However, the latter issue provides the major topic for on product disposition. Such issues have concerned
the treatment of consumption in microeconomics. studies that adopt the perspective of anthropology.

Microeconomics Anthropology
In its classic formulations via marginal utility theory, Anthropological approaches have made valuable
indifference curves, or revealed preference, microeco- contributions to our understanding of product dispo-
nomics achieves increasingly parsimonious explana- sition. For example, several researchers have studied
tions of the downward sloping demand curve and var- gift giving, a process wherein one person's disposition
ious income effects on purchases in a particular product simultaneously becomes another's acquisition. At a
class. This approach accounts for product purchases more mundane level of product disposal, garbological
only by virtue of taking the tastes that determine the research examines people's discardings to reach con-
shapes of indifference curves as given and relegating the clusions about their product acquisition and usage be-
investigation of such tastes to other disciplines. More- havior. Further contributions from anthropology to our
over, with rare exceptions such as those found in the understanding of product usage concern the study of
"new home economics," microeconomics says little those artifacts that consumers do not discard but that
about the investment of time, energy, and other re- instead become part of consumption rituals, ancestral
sources that occurs in a household's usage and dispo- traditions, and consumer mythology. Indeed, most
sition of various product classes. Further, with the par- products carry symbolic meanings in the social system
tial exception of studies that have focused on the un- and can be addressed from the viewpoint of semiotics.
derlying characteristics of goods, microeconomics However, questions of ritual, ancestral, mythological,
neglects choices at the level of the brand rather than symbolic, or semiotic meaning imply a context of social
the product. This problem of brand choice has, however, conformity and therefore tend to neglect the departures
received illumination from the work of psychologists. from ethical codes that are generally viewed as problems
of morality. Interest in such moral questions might en-
courage us to look for potential contributions from phi-
Psychology losophy.
Of particular value in handling the phenomenon of
choice among brands have been the multiattribute at-
Philosophy
titude models and multidimensional joint spaces used As yet, the general philosophical tradition has con-
by consumer researchers to account for the formation tributed relatively little to the study of consumer be-
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

havior. One possible avenue of rapprochement might from the poetic tradition of pastoral elegy as exemplified
borrow from praxeology to construct a consumer theory by Milton's Lycidas (Holbrook 1986).
of reasoned action. However, such a rational approach
would hardly cope with the aforementioned problems
of deviance. To address the latter, we might profitably TOWARD CONSUMER RESEARCH
borrow from ethics to construct a conceptualization of
consumption morality and thereby to address the phe- My account of the primary contributions from var-
nomena of consumer misbehavior. Without plunging ious disciplines to the study of consumer behavior has
into the niceties involved in defining "misbehavior," it necessarily been quite selective. Nevertheless, it appears
appears clear that many widespread consumer activities that several disciplines have contributed to the devel-
involve actual or supposed violations of societal value opment of our field, each filling in gaps left by the others.
norms or self-disapproved breaches of ethical codes. In this sense, historically, consumer research has
Among these, I would include irregularity (transexuality adopted a multidisciplinary stance. Indeed, the great
or psychotic hallucinations), irrationality (superstitious landmark syntheses-such as those by Howard, Nicosia,
dressing or compulsive gambling), illegality (taking Engel, and their various colleagues-have been em-
drugs or highway speeding), and immorality (adultery phatically eclectic and integrative in nature, drawing
or polluting the environment). As widespread (if re- on a number of different disciplinary perspectives. I ap-
grettable) consumption phenomena, these deserve full plaud this ecumenicalism even while, with Belk ( 1 986),
exploration in our literature. More generally, the in- I wonder if we might not move ahead faster if we were
fusion into consumer research of broadened perspec- to seek our own independent status as a unique disci-
tives borrowed from the philosophy of science has pline.
opened the way to approaches that depart from the pre- In this light, I find it instructive to contrast consumer
vailing tendency toward logical empiricism. Such post- research with marketing research. Much debate has re-
positivistic outlooks have included movements toward cently focused on the similarities and differences be-
encompassing the humanities. tween the two. For example, sessions at the 1984 and
1985 ACR conferences ("The Vices and Virtues of
Humanities Being Relevant" and "Whither ACR?") addressed this
topic and produced a variety of opinions. My own po-
Recently, the humanities have begun to sneak into sition is that consumer research involves the study of
consumer research in a variety of ways that may help consumption (acquiring, using, and disposing) as the
deepen our understanding of value in acquisition, usage, central focus pursued for its own sake whereas mar-
and disposition. To illustrate briefly, I would cite: (1) keting research, among other things, involves the study
the broadening of acquisition to include the consump- of customers in a manner intended to be managerially
tion of "free" goods that primarily involve the invest- relevant (Holbrook 1985, 1986).
ment of time expenditures on products such as enter- However valid my own opinion, this co~clusionand
tainment and the arts, (2) the extension of usage to its surrounding controversy highlight two important
encompass wider spheres of appreciative reactions, and facts of life for consumer researchers. First, the debate
(3) the deepening of disposition to address neglected itself suggests that, as a field, we show little agreement
issues concerning the nature of durability in consump- concerning what we mean by "consumer research." In
tion. Further, some researchers have suggested that art a sense, we share no consensus about what we study.
objects may themselves provide direct insights into At least, we do not agree about what we denote by the
consumer behavior and, conversely, that consumption term that defines our field of inquiry. Second, my own
symbolism may guide our interpretation of artworks. conclusion-reinforced by other participants in the de-
Meanwhile, more systematic content analyses have ad- bate such as Anderson, Belk, Hirschman, and Wallen-
dressed themes relevant to consumption found in comic dorf-suggests the need to ground consumer research
strips, novels, and advertising. More generally, the hu- in a central preoccupation with consumption, indepen-
manities may play a role in consumer research by sup- dent of any relevance that subject might carry for mar-
plying stories that help clarify our sense of who we are keting managers or, indeed, for any other external in-
and our vision of where we are going. This humanistic terests. These two considerations combine to argue for
impulse appears in the metaphorical character of such a redefinition of our field.
recent titles as "Theory Development Is a Jazz Solo: I therefore urge my fellow consumer researchers to
Bird Lives," "Casey at the Conference," "The Con- regard our discipline as a field of inquiry that takes con-
sumer Researcher Visits Radio City: Dancing in the sumption as its central focus and that therefore exam-
Dark," and "Whither ACR? Some Pastoral Reflections ines all facets of the value potentially provided when
on Bears, Baltimore, Baseball, and Resurrecting Con- some living organism acquires, uses, or disposes of any
sumer Research." The last paper, for example, ties to- product that might achieve a goal, fulfill a need, or sat-
gether its argument by means of conventions drawn isfy a want. In short, thus conceived, consumer research
WHAT IS CONSUMER RESEARCH?

studies all aspects of consummation (including its Nectarine Fruits which the compliant boughs
breakdowns). Hence, consumer research embraces most Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline
forms of human, animal, and perhaps even vegetative On the soft downy Bank damaskt with flow'rs:
consummatory behavior. In a sense, even if we ignore The savory pulp they chew, and in the rind
Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream. . . .
animals and plants, consumer research encompasses -John Milton (1674)
almost all human activities, regarded from the view- Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 325-336
point of consummation.
I see this inclusiveness as a strength rather than a In contrast to this sweet life in Paradise, modern con-
liability. From my perspective, almost everything we sumers face pains and difficulties imposed by prices and
do involves consumption (Holbrook 1985, p. 146): budget constraints, by scarcities of time and materials,
by questions of propriety and morality, and by an ex-
People get up in the morning, start consuming the mo- istential anguish in choosing among products, none of
ment their toes touch the carpet, allocate their time to which is perfect.
various consumption activities throughout the day, and
continue consuming until they finally drift off to sleep Second, as consumer researchers, we face a lonely
at night, after which they confine their consumption battle if we elect to sing about the remaining tarnished
mostly to dreams, pajamas, and bed linens. vestiges of the perfect consumption that characterized
our lost innocence. Those departed and maybe fictitious
In other words, our lives comprise one constant and pleasures involved pure and blissful consummation.
continual (though not always successful) quest for con- What remains in the human condition is an imperfect
summation. and tainted world in which consumers can only strive
What does or should distinguish consumer research to surmount their constant barriers to fulfillment. To
from other fields such as those previously mentioned is focus on this neglected quest-to deal single-mindedly
its conscious focus on consummatory behavior. Con- with the nature of value in acquiring, using, and dis-
summatory behavior involves activities aimed at posing-takes courage worthy of Wordsworth's brave
achieving goals, fulfilling needs, or satisfying wants. In Romantic cry:
short, it entails processes wherein consumers seek,
reach, and surpass consummation. One might therefore I sing:-"fit audience let me find though few!"
expect that consumer researchers would take consum- So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the bard-
In holiest mood. . . .
mation as their central focus. -I, long before the blissful hour arrives,
Yet, recall the quote from Wordsworth's Recluse that Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse
served as a preface to this article. In the present context, Of this great consummation.
its surrounding passage proves quite instructive:
Notice that the word "spousal" operates here in two
Paradise, and groves senses. Literally, it means "nuptial" and suggests the
Elysian, Fortunate Fields-like those of old nearly sexual energy with which the poet is married to
Sought in the Atlantic Main-why should they be his consummatory vision of paradisal fufillment. Fur-
A history only of departed things, ther, it suggests the cognate "espouse" whose associa-
Or a mere fiction of what never was?
For the discerning intellect of Man, tions convey the sense of supporting a cause. As implied
Wher, wedded to this goodly universe by Wordsworth's reference to a "lonely" peace, this
In love and holy passion, shall find these cause might require running against the grain of con-
A simple produce of the common day. ventional thinking- in relative isolation-at least for a
-I, long before the blissful hour arrives, while.
Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse Yet Wordsworth's message is one of hope based on
Of this great consummation. "the heroic dimensions of common life, and the gran-
deur of the ordinary" (Abrams 1963, p. 69). Only a tiny
As suggested by these poetic lines, the focus on con- fragment remains as what Frye calls "the one great flash
summation has died away in at least two senses. of vision" in Wordsworth's Recltrse (1963, p. 18). Let
First, figuratively, the world has fallen from the State us take this indeed reclusive but hopeful snatch of poetry
of Paradise in which Adam and Eve's sole task was to as a bright omen. Let us interpret its sole, stubborn
enjoy pleasant forms of consumption: survival as a sign that speaks to us through the centuries
and that signals a need to ground our work in its true
Under a tuft of shade that on a green
Stood whispering soft, by a fresh Fountain side foundation (consumption) and to anchor our efforts in
They sat them down and after no more toil a discipline that honors their relevance to human lives
Of thir sweet Gard'ning labor than suffic'd (consumer research). Let us dedicate ourselves to the
T o recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease study of processes wherein the acquisition, usage, and
More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite disposition of all kinds of products potentially provide
More grateful, to thir Supper Fruits they fell, value by fulfilling human wants. In short, let us join
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

with Wordsworth to chant, in lonely peace, the spousal considered, ed. Northrop Frye, New York: Columbia
verse of this great consummation. University Press, 1-25.
Holbrook, Morris B. (1985), "Why Business Is Bad for Con-
sumer Research: The Three Bears Revisited," in Ad-
[Received April 1986. Revised November 1986.1 vances in Consumer Research, Vol. 12, ed. Elizabeth C.
Hirschman and Morris B. Holbrook, Provo, UT: Asso-
ciation for Consumer Research, 145- 156.
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Abrams, M.H. (1963), "English Romanticism: The Spirit of search, Vol. 13, ed. Richard J. Lutz, Provo, UT: Asso-
the Age," in Romanticism Reconsidered, ed. Northrop ciation for Consumer Research, 436-441.
Frye, New York: Columbia University Press, 26-72. and Elizabeth C. Hirschman (1982), "The Experiential
Belk, Russell W. (1986), "What Should ACR Want to be Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings,
When It Grows Up?'in Advances in Consumer Research, and Fun," Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (September),
Vol. 13, ed. Richard J. Lutz, Provo, UT: Association for 132-140.
Consumer Research, 423-424. Jacoby, Jacob (1978), "Consumer Research: A State of the
Frye, Northrop (1963), "The Drunken Boat: The Revolu- Art Review," Journal of Marketing, 42 (April), 87-96.
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What is Consumer Research?
Morris B. Holbrook
The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, No. 1. (Jun., 1987), pp. 128-132.
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References

The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun

Morris B. Holbrook; Elizabeth C. Hirschman
The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9, No. 2. (Sep., 1982), pp. 132-140.
Stable URL:
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