Wednesday, December 12, 2007

What is Consumer Research?
Morris B. Holbrook
The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, No. 1. (Jun., 1987), pp. 128-132.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-5301%28198706%2914%3A1%3C128%3AWICR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B
The Journal of Consumer Research is currently published by The University of Chicago Press.
The Field of Consumer Research commonly and The Journal of Consumer Research specifically are in discussion recently. Based on editorial policy, JCR is more convoluted in consumer behavior studies. Ritual, materialism, mood, styles of research, primitive aspects of consumption, language in popular American novels, the good life in advertising, spousal conflict, play as a consumption experience, product meanings, and consumption, symbolism are the most recent examples for the articles that their popularity has increased in the field of consumer research. However, this increasing has caused some issues. The most important question interests in “what’s consumer research?”
The meaning of consumer research is based on a few key points which are (1) consumer research studies consumer behavior, (2) consumer behavior makes consumption, (3)consumption includes the acquisition, usage and disposition of products, (4) products are goods services, ideas, events, or any other entities that can be acquired, used, or disposed of in ways that potentially provide value; (5) value is a type of experience that occurs for some living organism when a goal is achieved, a need is fulfilled, or a want is satisfied; (6) such an achievement, fulfillment, or satisfaction reaches consummation; conversely, a failure to gain aims, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants thwarts consummation; (7) the process of consummation (including its possible breakdowns) is therefore the fundamental subject for consumer research.
However consumer research has a clear definition and is related to to the study of consummation in all its many perspectives. From this perspective, consumer research stands on its own as a separate discipline. According to Belk (1986, p. 423); “consumer behavior should not be a sub discipline of marketing, advertising, psychology, sociology, or anthropology, nor the handmaiden of business, government, or consumers. It should instead be a viable field of study, just as these other disciplines are, with some potential relevance to each of these constituent groups”.
THE ROLE OF OTHER DISCIPLINES
Macroeconomics
It is significant because it displays nations’ spending behavior. Moreover, it provides to understand processes easily. Hence macroeconomics concentrates on the easily measured perspectives of market exchanges by ignoring their psychic or social aspects.
Microeconomics
Microeconomics uses its classic formulations by approaching accounts to determine the shapes of indifference curves and to research information for the other disciplines. However, it ignores choices at the level of brand rather than the product not like psychologists.
Psychology
It is useful to understand consumers’ treatment about brand choices in community.
Sociology
It shows and define consumer’s self image in social context about product usage.
Anthropology
According to the garbological researching as an example, contributions from anthropology concern that consumers do not discard but that instead become part of consumption rituals, ancestral traditions and consumer mythology.
Philosophy
One of the rapprochements is related with a consumer theory of reasoned action. Further, it might be profitably borrowed from ethics to construct a concept of consumption morality and thereby to place the phenomena of consumer misbehavior. In addition, it would be included irregularity, irrationality, illegality and immorality. Commonly, consumer research of wide aspects can be borrowed from the philosophy of science. So that has opened the way to approaches that depart from the prevailing tendency toward logical empiricism which brings the concept of humanities.
Humanities
Illustrations of humanities:
(1) Comprising the consumption of "free" goods that primarily include the investment of time expenditures on products such as entertainment and the arts,
(2) Having wider spheres of appreciative reactions,
(3) Replacing ignored questions about the nature of strengths in consumption.
Furthermore, the role of humanities is in consumer research to help determination of our sense that we are and our vision of where we are going.
TOWARD CONSUMER RESEARCH
Consumer behavior seems that some disciplines have contributed to the development of our field, each filling in gaps left by the others. Therefore, historically, consumer research has relevance of multidisciplinary contributions.
Thus, it is instructive to compare consumer research with marketing research. Many discussions have been recently focused on the similarities and differences between the two. The writer thinks that consumer research encompasses the study of consumption (acquiring, using, and disposing) as the median focus convinced in its own gain whereas marketing research, among other things, involves the study of customers in a behavior intended to be managerially relevant (Holbrook 1985, 1986).
However, against of his opinion, this conclusion and its surrounding debate underline two important facts of life for consumer researchers. First, the discussion of that, as a field, there is a little agreement concerning what we mean with "consumer research." Second, reinforcements of conclusion, by other participants in the debate such as Anderson, Belk, Hirschman, and Wallendorf- thinks the need to ground consumer research in a central preoccupation with consumption, independent of any relevance that subject might carry for marketing managers or, indeed, for any other external interests. These two considerations combine to argue for a redefinition of our field.
Briefly, consumer research studies all aspects of consummation (including its breakdowns) and embraces most forms of human, animal, and perhaps even vegetative consummator behavior. Therefore it shouldn’t be ignored animals and plants; because consumer research encompasses almost all human activities including the viewpoint of consummation. This means almost everything we do involves consumption. (Holbrook 1985, p. 146)

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