Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being (12th Edition)

Book Preface

What Makes This Book Different: Buying, Having, and Being

As this book’s subtitle suggests, my vision of consumer behavior goes well beyond studying the act of buying—having and being are just as important, if not more so. Consumer behavior is more than buying things; it also embraces the study of how having (or not having) things affects our lives and how our possessions influence the way we feel about ourselves and about each other—our state of being. I developed the wheel of consumer behavior that appears at the beginning of text sections to underscore the complex—and often inseparable—- interrelationships between the individual consumer and his or her social realities.

In addition to understanding why people buy things, we also try to appreciate how products, services, and consumption activities contribute to the broader social world we experience. Whether we shop, cook, clean, play basketball, hang out at the beach, or even look at ourselves in the mirror, the marketing system touches our lives. As if these experiences aren’t complex enough, the task of understanding the consumer increases when we take a multicultural perspective.

We’ll explore these ideas with intriguing and current examples as we show how the consumer behavior discipline relates to your daily life. Throughout the twelfth edition, you’ll find up-to-the-minute discussions of topics such as dadvertising, meerkating, the imbibing idiot basis, swatting, and swishing. If you can’t identify all of these terms, I can suggest a textbook that you should read immediately!

Going Global

The U.S. experience is important, but it’s far from the whole story. This book also considers the many other consumers around the world whose diverse experiences with buying, having, and being we must understand. That’s why you’ll find numerous examples of marketing and consumer practices relating to consumers and companies outside the United States throughout the book. If we didn’t know it before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we certainly know it now: Americans also are global citizens, and it’s vital that we all appreciate others’ perspectives.