Ritual and relationships: Interpersonal influences on shared consumption

Abstract I examine the symbolic meaning associated with participation in shared consumption rituals in terms of developing and maintaining social relationships among buyers. Ten depth interviews with consumers of the live performing arts are used to explore the social context of this particular form of shared consumption. Conclusion: common participation in shared consumption rituals, even if not performed face-to-face, can be used actively to manage the social relationships that bind consumers together in “small worlds.” The major managerial implication of this finding is that the knowledge that one will share a consumption experience with friends and acquaintances affects brand choice. Other managerial implications with respect to target markets and positioning strategies for products that are consumed jointly are discussed, as well as directions for further research on “relational” influence in a variety of product markets.

[1]  Grant Mccracken.  The long interview , 1988 .

[2]  Dong Hwan Lee.  Symbolic Interactionism: Some Implications For Consumer Self-Concept and Product Symbolism Research , 1990 .

[3]  Barry Wellman,et al.  Men in networks: Private communities, domestic friendships. , 1992 .

[4]  F. Errington.  reflexivity deflected: the festival of nations as an American cultural performance , 1987 .

[5]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[6]  V. Turner,et al.  On the Edge of the Bush: Anthropology as Experience , 1987 .

[7]  Jonathan K. Frenzen,et al.  Purchasing Behavior in Embedded Markets , 1990 .

[8]  Brian Torode,et al.  Subculture: The Meaning of Style. , 1981 .

[9]  Dennis W. Rook.  The Ritual Dimension of Consumer Behavior , 1985 .

[10]  J. Gusfield,et al.  Secular Symbolism: Studies of Ritual, Ceremony, and the Symbolic Order in Modern Life , 1984 .

[11]  Theodore Humphrey.  We Gather Together , 1991 .

[12]  To Buy Or Not to Buy? That Is Not the Question: Female Ritual in Home Shopping Parties , 1991 .

[13]  R. Belk,et al.  Predictors of Attendance at the Performing Arts , 1980 .

[14]  E. Hirschman.  Humanistic Inquiry in Marketing Research: Philosophy, Method, and Criteria , 1986 .

[15]  William B. Locander,et al.  Putting Consumer Experience Back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential-Phenomenology , 1989 .

[16]  P. Nardi.  Men's Friendships , 1992 .

[17]  J. Deighton,et al.  The Consumption of Performance , 1992 .

[18]  Melanie Wallendorf,et al.  "We Gather Together": Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day , 1991 .

[19]  Thomas V. Bonoma,et al.  Review of marketing , 1978 .

[20]  Rebecca H. Holman,et al.  A Sociological Approach to Brand Choice: the Concept of Situational Self Image , 1980 .

[21]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[22]  J. Schouten.  Selves in Transition: Symbolic Consumption in Personal Rites of Passage and Identity Reconstruction , 1991 .

[23]  Robert E. Kleine,et al.  Ritual, Ritualized Behavior, and Habit: Refinements and Extensions of the Consumption Ritual Construct , 1990 .

[24]  Linda L. Price,et al.  River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter , 1993 .

[25]  T. Veblen.  The Theory of the Leisure Class , 1901 .

[26]  R. Belk.  Possessions and the Extended Self , 1988 .

[27]  M. R. Solomon.  The Role of Products as Social Stimuli: A Symbolic Interactionism Perspective , 1983 .

[28]  D. Cheal.  The Postmodern Origin of Ritual , 1988 .

[29]  E. Hirschman,et al.  Hedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts, Methods and Propositions , 1982 .

[30]  R. Helmreich,et al.  Masculinity & femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents , 1978 .

[31]  C. Lasch.  The Minimal Self , 1984 .

[32]  S. Bem.  The measurement of psychological androgyny. , 1974, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[33]  D. Cheal.  The Gift Economy , 1988 .

[34]  M. Deegan.  American Ritual Dramas: Social Rules and Cultural Meanings , 1989 .

[35]  Dennis W. Rook,et al.  Psychosocial Themes in Consumer Grooming Rituals , 1983 .

[36]  F. Errington.  the Rock Creek rodeo: excess and constraint in men's lives , 1990 .

[37]  S. Arnold,et al.  More than a Labor of Love: Gender Roles and Christmas Gift Shopping , 1990 .

[38]  Victor Turner,et al.  The anthropology of performance , 1986 .

[39]  M. Featherstone.  Consumer Culture and Postmodernism , 1991 .

[40]  R. Clignet,et al.  Household Work as an Ordeal: Culture of Standards Versus Standardization of Culture , 1984, American Journal of Sociology.