by: Abdikarim Hussein Abdi (w16958964)
This blog post aims to introduce the topic of consumer culture as part of my Theories of Media and Communication module this semester. Following extensive research online sourced from articles, reports and analytic data, I have found enough information to be able to explain the important points relating to consumer culture. To start off with, the definition of what consumer culture is: “consumer culture is a form of material culture facilitated by the market, which thus created a particular relationship between the consumer and the goods or services he or she uses or consumes” as defined on a website online.
As posted in an online report published by Aytelan Firat, Kemal Y. Kutucuoglo, Isil Afrikan Saltik and Ozgur Tuncel in 2013, they state that there are 5 categories of consumer culture which are conspicuous consumption, symbolic consumption, addictive consumption, compulsive consumption and sacred consumption. Consumer culture essentially became popular following the post World War 2 period in which purchases in shopping on basic necessities like food, water and clothes increased in many industrialised or western nations by people. Certain products and services and goods became of increasing importance to people thus increasing its influence in the market due to significant demand in them. This meant that spending increased, the sales reported by businesses increased, consumers generally tended to be happier following purchases and created a sort of popular sub culture in consumer consumption. Cars, electronics, hygiene products were all examples of items of high commodity in that time which became introduced and highly advertised in many industrialised countries. For example, the rise of the cars in sales from the 1950s meant that people moved in droves to the suburbs, were able to commute to jobs and this created a culture around cars that still exist in modern times. Some popular and attractive features about automobiles were its style, class, features and horsepower namely. As countries developed, consumption became more commonplace in many places and involved opting for things beyond mere subsistence. The cardinal feature of this consumer culture were acquisition and consumption as means of achieving happiness. Consumer culture did grow to include privately-owned utility, pumping information and entertainment into people’s homes. This did in turn exploit image and symbol far greatly in the eyes of consumers. These points were explained in an article by Kerryn Higgs. Social media consumerism also promoted consumer’s interests in purchasing goods or services in a way known as marketing. People’s relationship with their lifestyle and consumption changed to the detriment of global production and the need for mediated communication changed the way in which media is consumed as written in a report by Zehra Cansu Rendeci.
Some examples of top consumer culture trends in 2023 include that consumers want more control over spending, there were concerns over inflation and rising prices, in-store shopping remained a preference for many consumers, demand for sustainable products, consumers are buying more stuff repeatedly, more social commerce spending will take place on TikTok and more brands will adopt the direct to consumer-first model as analysed by a Michael Keenan in an online article.
References:
- Consumer Culture – Sociology – Oxford Bibliographies – https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0135.xml#:~:text=Consumer%20culture%20is%20a%20form,or%20she%20uses%20or%20consumes
- Consumer Culture | Definition, Theories & Examples – https://study.com/learn/lesson/consumer-culture-overview-theory.html#:~:text=What%20is%20an%20example%20of,and%20how%20much%20they%20have
- Consumption, consumer culture and consumer society – https://ideas.repec.org/a/cta/jcppxx/11310.html#:~:text=Conspicuous%20Consumption%2C%20Symbolic%20Consumption%2C%20Addictive,categories%20defining%20distinctive%20consumption%20styles
- A Brief History of Consumer Culture – https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-history-of-consumer-culture/
- The Impact of Digital Media on Consumer Culture – https://www.iccsor.com/index.php/jatss/article/view/136
- 9 Biggest Consumer Behavior Trends in 2023 – https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/consumer-behavior-trends
- The State of Consumer Trends in 2023 – https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-consumer-trends-report
