Consumption patterns and macro marketing: a radical perspective

Abstract

Patterns of consumption in a society are shaped by choices made at the levels of production (what to produce[l]), distribution (how to allocate the products within society), information dissemination (how is the existence of products going to be communicated?), and pricing (at what cost will the exchange take place?). In studying these choices, that is, choices for consumption, marketing scholars have been almost totally occupied with a very narrow spectrum of choice, viz., brand choice. For example, in the 1964-74 period, research involving consumer choice published in the Journal of Marketing Research has been almost totally on brand choice, with a small number of articles dealing with product choice, and none with choice among consumption patterns. The same is true regarding the applications of new concepts and formulations to marketing phenomena. Almost all new concepts (such as, attitude theory, multi-dimensional scaling, etc.) have been applied to brand choice. Why this is so can probably be best explained by the historical development of the marketing discipline[2].