Consumption, defined as ‘the action of using up a resource’,34 can be regarded from several different angles. Its interdisciplinary approach, that gathers psychologists, sociologists, economists and marketers, is coherent when putting consumption at one pole and consumers at the other. To keep this consistency, our starting point will be the act of consumption itself, analysed in time and space. Then will come a subjective analysis guided by personal feelings, attitudes and behaviours of consumers, while taking also in consideration individuals’ reaction to big businesses’ marketing strategies.
Human beings have always consumed natural resources. Over millennia, the act of consumption was carried out solely as a way to satisfy several human basic needs and thus allow humankind’s survival. However, as time went by, people began to change their approach regarding consumption.
The Industrial Revolution was the first meaningful event in the promotion of that change and although it had primarily focused on capital goods and industrial infrastructures, such as mining, steel, oil, transports and communications, it came to influence, in a short period of time, people’s way of living. Hand production methods were gradually replaced for machines and for new manufacturing processes that promoted an efficient use of water and steam power. So, if it is clear that ‘the Industrial Revolution (...) transformed production. It is less obvious, but equally true, that it transformed consumption’,35 and workers – that were also becoming consumers – ‘no longer choose to stop work early and enjoy more leisure; rather, they would prefer to work full-time, or even overtime, in order to earn and spend more’.36
34 ‘consumption, n’ (OED Online, OUP, 2017) <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/consumption>
accessed 10 March 2017.
35 Neva Goodwin and others, ‘Consumption and the Consumer Society’ (Global Development and Environment
Institute, Tufts University, 2008), 5 <www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/education_materials/modules/Consumption
_and_the_Consumer_Society.pdf> accessed 15 January 2017.
Another significant moment of the referred change was the end of the Second World War. The economy grew strongly and the worldwide living standards began to increase substantially for the first time in human history. Therefore, spending part of the income earned on new services and goods became common for the average household, ‘resulting in many people being better fed, owning cars, living in bigger houses (...) and having more clothes and new durable goods’.37 In parallel, travels, recreation and entertainment activities have also become accessible to the majority of people.
This new society – ‘where not a few individuals, nor a thin upper class, but the majority of families enjoys the benefits of increased productivity and constantly expands their range of consumer goods’ – represented the dawn of the mass consumption society.38
While people were enjoying all these new assets and goods, they were also generating most of the demand for them, thus establishing a two-way causality between productivity improvement and the expansion of markets and a mass consumption society. This two-way causality turned out to be a virtuous circle: as productivity improved, consumer goods’ prices went down, becoming affordable to an increasingly large number of households, from high- to low-income; this in turn generated larger markets for these goods, which induced further improvement in productivity. The rhythm became so intense that a series of consumer goods industries took off one after another.
This phenomenon, that varied across countries, regions and time periods, was firstly experienced in the post-war United States of America, but, very soon afterwards, many industrialised countries, such as Canada, Australia, Western Europe countries and Japan, went through similar processes.39 In these and other advanced economies,40 as the
household’s income grew up, some goods changed from a luxury to an amenity, and finally, to a necessity.
37 Alan Warde, ‘The Sociology of Consumption: Its Recent Development’ (2015) 41 ARS 119.
38 Kimironi Matsuyama, ‘The Rise of Mass Consumption Societies’ (2002) 110(5) JPE 1035-70. We did not have
access to the original version of the article, so it is not possible to refer the specific pages.
39 ibid.
40 According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2016 there were 39 advanced economies and 152
emerging markets and developing economies. See IMF, World Economic Outlook: Too Slow for Too Long
(Washington, 2016) 146. This classification is not based on strict criteria, economic or other, and it has evolved over time. The main criteria used by the World Economic Outlook to classify the world into advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are: (1) per capita income level; (2) export diversification, which means that oil exporters that have high per capita GDP would not make the advanced classification because around 70% of its exports are oil; and (3) degree of integration into the global financial system. See IMF, ‘Frequently Asked Questions - World Economic Outlook (WEO)’ (IMF, 4 October 2016) <www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/faq.htm#q4b> accessed 6 February 2017
In general, the world underwent massive changes, leading to a paradigm shift in relation to consumption and re-setting people’s priorities.41 The immense desire to consume
new products and to acquire new services was somehow satisfied by the creation of new spaces – retail stores full of advertisements, popular magazines and daily newspapers – where these products could be sampled, purchased and enjoyed.42
By granting access to new and abundant goods, big businesses’ marketers managed to create a new consumer profile, one that would turn into a powerful role model. American- inspired, this model was designed to represent a universal goal of modernisation, democracy and progress.43
Other factors strengthened and consolidated this mass consumption growth. Among legal, ideological and commercial factors, the most remarkable were the following: a strong and persuasive marketing, capable of highlight novelty’s sensuality and attraction, implemented by big business, especially international firms; the development of markets; the shifting of goods and services (such as housing, transportation, medical care and meals) from collective provision by the work unit to individual provision on the open and often unregulated market; the judgment of independent brokers who analysed and criticised the products; the legislation adopted by each country; and even the level of religion engagement in each state affairs.44
This massive consumer society brought several advantages: widespread wealth, better quality of life, higher standards of living, new and better jobs and better working conditions, and even ‘qualitative changes in demographics, new trends of social and geographical mobility, and the growing appeal of standardised goods as badges of both democratization and social status’.45
41 While some goods were taking for granted in advanced economies, they remained luxuries in the so called
emerging markets and developing economies.
42 Sharon Zukin and Jennifer Smith Maguire, ‘Consumers and Consumption’ (2004) 30 ARS 189 citing Appadurai
A, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (UMP, 1996) 72.
43 ibid 176 and 188.
44 ibid 175 and 179-80. It can also be mentioned that: ‘in each country, state (and party) officials decide to modernize
the economy by introducing market incentives, allowing individual property ownership, and – as both an incentive to the work force and a means of stimulating aggregate demand – encouraging the production of goods to satisfy consumer desires’, ibid 189-90.
From then on, in spite of the global economy’s highs and lows, the needs, tastes and desires of people have evolved, and consumption ‘assumed an overwhelming significance in modern life’.46
This phenomenon happened particularly in the late 1990s, due to information and communication technologies tremendous growth.47 Mobile connectivity has been used extensively from both consumers and enterprise segments, with impressive uptakes even in developing economies, and it has proven to be transformational. In the last fifteen years, the world witnessed a digital and information revolution that has completely changed the patterns of consumption, as we will see further on. Apart from mobile global subscriptions, that have reached around seven billion in 2015,48 sales of technologically sophisticated goods such as smartphones, smartwatches, laptops, tablets, action cameras, 3D printers and music gear, made up a greater portion of household around the world.49 An example, for a better understanding, are the technological brands that became almost a cult and that gather crowds several days prior to the launch of certain products. It goes so far as people sleeping on streets and people being paid large sums of money by foreigner fans that want to get the products months or days ahead of the release in their own countries.50 Some people aspire to get these products immediately because they are not willing nor to wait neither to keep the older version of the product. Even more if that one specific acquisition makes them feel a member of an elite product’s club, which is as well associated with creativity, success and a bright future.51
Why people consume and what motivates such pronounced behaviour is what we are going to see next.
46 Sharon Zukin and Jennifer Smith Maguire, ‘Consumers and..., 173.
47 World Bank, The Little Data Book on Information and Communication Technology 2015 (Washington, DC,
2016) v.
48 World Bank, World Development Indicators 2016 (Washington, DC, 2016) 120.
49 Noting that not all social groups and countries have been affected in the same way, it is worth remember that
developing economies experienced a steady decline in absolute poverty, induced by information and communication technologies that improved access to basic services and created employment opportunities, see World Economic Forum, The Global Information Technology Report 2015 - ICTs for Inclusive Growth (2015) 4 and 33. Mobile communications had, and still have, a particularly important impact in rural areas: ‘for example, farmers in developing countries have benefited from new ICT services such as real-time information about commodity prices and weather, and from the ease of money transfers’, ibid 3.
50 David Gilbert, ‘Apple Mania - Why do People Queue up for iPhones?’ (International Business Times, 20
September 2013) <www.ibtimes.co.uk/apple-mania-why-queue-iphone-5s-5c-507741> accessed 18 January 2017.
51 ‘The Russian Expert Explained the Phenomenon of Queuing for the New iPhone’ (AppleApple.top World News,
29 September 2016) <http://appleapple.top/the-russian-expert-explained-the-phenomenon-of-queuing-for-the- new-iphone> accessed 18 January 2017.
B. … Hold onto the Extended Self
If there is a particular reason for such consumerist behaviour is an issue that has been studied for some time, by psychologists, psychoanalysts, public relations and advertisers. According to Russell Belk, understanding the meaning that consumers attribute to their possessions is halfway to understand consumers’ behaviours and consequently to understand the broader existence of human beings.52
‘People are what they have and possess’ is far from being a brand new idea but it is still full of meaning.53 Nowadays, people do not buy only a product. They acquire also
immediate satisfaction as well as self-esteem and happiness, and this happens because ‘people’s fragile sense of self needs support’,54 and because ‘the objects we possess and consume (...) tell us things about ourselves that we need to hear in order to keep ourselves from falling apart’.55
Russell Belk even stated that ‘people seek, express, confirm, and ascertain a sense of being through what they have’.56 And this happens early in life, as early as infants learn to distinguish self from the surrounding environment and, later on, from others, especially the ones that may envy their possessions. Although the emphasis placed on material possessions decreases with age, it remains high throughout life as people seek to express themselves through possessions and use material goods to seek happiness, to remind themselves of experiences, accomplishments and other people in their lives, and even to create a sense of immortality after death. Accumulating stuff and goods provides people a sense of past and reminds them who they are and where they have come from.57
People can actually believe that their possessions are part of themselves, and the same happens with external objects and personal possessions, including also body parts, vital organs, a person’s mind, other persons (family and friends), places, affiliations and group
52 Russell W Belk, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’ (1988) 15(2) The Journal of Consumer Research 139. 53 As early as 1890, William James understood that ‘a man’s Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not
only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands, and yacht and bank-account’, see Russell W Belk, ‘Possessions and..., 139 citing James W, The Principles of Psychology (New York: Holt, 1890).
54 Russell W Belk, ‘Possessions and..., 139 citing Tuan YF, ‘The Significance of the Artifact’ (1980) 70(4)
Geographical Review.
55 Russell W. Belk, ‘Possessions and..., 148 citing Csikszentmihalyi M, ‘The Symbolic Function of Possessions:
Towards a Psychology of Materialism’ (paper presented at the 90th Annual Convention of the American
Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 1982).
56 Russell W Belk, ‘Possessions and..., 146. 57 ibid 160.
possessions. Consequently, the more power and control people have over a certain thing, item or a person, the more they feel that thing, item or person as their own and as themselves.
All this innate and inner process is not immune of external influences. On the contrary, they are limitless and overwhelming. The modern consumer is not anymore an isolated individual doing shopping. Instead, it is a participant of a contemporary phenomenon called consumerist culture or consumerism,58-59 that involves the promotion of a social and economic strategy encouraging a non-stop acquisition of goods and services, in ever- increasing amounts.
As everyone knows, consumers’ behaviour involves much more than understanding what products consumers buy.60 This idea was preconised by Edward Bernays61 in the 1920s, and the documentary The Century of the Self,62 produced by Adam Curtis and aired in 2002 by BBC Two, revealed the circumstances in which this process occurred. Edward Bernays took his uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas about human beings (based on irrational forces hidden inside each person) and showed, for the first time, to American corporations, how they could make people want things that they did not need, by linking mass production goods to their unconscious desires. In the process, Edward Bernays found out that was a lot more going on in human decision making (either between individuals or among groups) and that irrelevant objects could become powerful emotional symbols of how people wanted to be seen by others. Additionally, Edward Bernays wanted to assure that when buying something, people engaged themselves, emotionally or personally, in that product or service, culminating in the idea that if a person did not need a new piece of clothing, buying it would make them feel better anyway. In the same vein, Paul Mazur shared the opinion that people should be trained
58 Neva Goodwin and others, ‘Consumption and..., 4.
59 Consumerism is ‘the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods’. See ‘consumerism, n’
(OED Online, OUP, 2017) <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/consumerism> accessed 10 March 2017.
60 To provide a better insight: ‘Loudon and Bitta (1994), defined consumer behaviour as “the decision process and
physical activity individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services”. It encompasses concepts drawn from psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and economics. This means that, in developing products that consumers would obtain value, marketers require good understanding of how consumers treat their purchase decisions’, see Uttera Chaudhary and Ankita Asthana, ‘Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Consumer Brand Loyalty: Does it Really Matter?’ (2015) 5(12) International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 220-1.
61 Edward Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of consumption, public relations and propaganda,
who played an extremely powerful and influential role throughout his entire life. Known for being the father of public relations, Edward Bernays used psychological techniques in public relations to achieve crowd manipulation.
62 David Lessig, ‘The Century of the Self (Full Documentary)’ (9 July 2015) <www.youtube.com/watch?v
to desire, to want new things even before the olds were entirely consumed. Concluding, mentalities should be shaped so man’s desires could overshadow their needs.
This innovative approach of manipulating the masses was extended not only to business but also to politics. Herbert Hoover, who served as the thirty-first President of the United States of America from 1929 to 1933 during the Great Depression, was the first politician to agree with the idea that consumerism had become the central motor of American life. In a room full of public relations and advertisers he said: ‘You have taken over the job of creating desire and have transformed people into constantly moving happiness machines, machines which have become the key to economic progress’.63
Whereas politicians began to embrace the idea that advertising was the key to world prosperity, an unprecedented coalition between business and government took place. Recognising that assets and possessions become a way of communication between people was a fact that impelled the governments to succumb to the pressures and skills of big business to gain power. So, both started to use psychological techniques to read, create and fulfil people’s inner selfish desires, and to make their products and speeches as pleasing as possible to consumers and voters. It was a win-win situation in the pursuit of creating model citizens and model consumers, promoting thus a stable society and a valuable possibility to make money. Regardless of the point of view, these days, citizens are considered consumers – the homo sapiens evolved into the homo economicus.64
After the Second World War, psychoanalysis was truly and effectively put into big business’s practice, and Ernest Dichter’s key arguments were fundamental for this accomplishment. He considered that the way people quite often tried to work off their frustrations was by spending on self-sought gratification, and if one identified himself with a product, it could have indeed a therapeutic value. The contemporary man was internally ready to fulfil his self-image by purchasing products that will compliment him, his spiritual and ego satisfaction.65 Besides, Ernest Dichter considered that products had the power to give people
63 ibid.
64 Carla Amado Gomes, ‘Consumo Sustentável: Ter ou Ser, Eis A Questão’ in Gomes CA, Textos Dispersos de
Direito do Ambiente - Volume IV (AAFDL, Lisboa, 2014) 280.
65 Victor Lebow, an economist and retail analyst consultant, made the following observation in 1955: ‘our
enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate’, see Victor Lebow, ‘Price Competition in 1955’ (1955) Journal of Retailing 1-7.
a feeling of common identity with those around them, enhancing their social confidence and success.
The 1950s were also marked by a considerable leap in advertisement, especially because the modern practice of selling advertisement time to multiple sponsors had begun. Advertising impact became increasingly strong and it can be an extremely manipulator activity. Since that time, through advertisement, people are being told what to want and what to buy. Currently markets and brands are still driving consumers’ behaviour in order to create someone that would buy their things and that would act as their tools. There is no doubt that people’s attitudes and behaviours, not only as consumers, are conditioned.66 Very few people
are truly free from society’s conventions, rules, constraints, prejudices and judgements. For