Consumer Aspirations Research Articles

From More to Better to Different to Less

The development of consumer aspirations changes direction repeatedly in observable phases, generated by common experiences. Each phase exhausts its initial promise through encountering its own unwanted consequences, environmental constraints, and emerging perspectives which alter motives, thus giving rise to the succeeding phase. Four such phases are discerned from World War II to the present, in which signs indicate consumption is being reoriented away from goods and toward services. The pace of transformation presses the young into the role of teaching their parents.

Socially Distant Reference Groups and Consumer Aspirations

Socially Distant Reference Groups and Consumer Aspirations

Socially Distant Reference Groups and Consumer Aspirations

Several specific effects of various social groups on consumer behavior have been studied. Venkatesan demonstrated experimentally that individuals' product choices may be affected by conformity and reactance in small face-to-face groups [10]. Stafford [9] and Witt [11] found that small primary groups influence certain brand choice decisions, and Bourne suggested that the purchase of certain types and brands of products may be influenced by a person's reference group [1]. However, there is a significant gap in knowledge about the effects on consumer behavior of the socially distant reference group.'