Conceptualizing and investigating patterns of consumer behaviour towards in-home shopping

This research examines intermediate patterns of joint consumption wherebyconstellations, anti constellations and configurations are seen as representing patterns ofconsumption which lie between the traditional micro (product-centred) and macro(societal-centred) studies of consumption. A series of models are developed: of therelationship between individuals and consumption from a social psychologicalperspective; of the formation of patterns of joint consumption; and of the three forceswhich influence patterns of consumption: the symbolic-functional force (located in theproduct); the physiological-esteem-self-actualization force (located in individual needs);and the expressive-instrumental force (located in activities or behaviour). A two stageempirical study explores the content, structure and context of consumption patternsamongst mail order shoppers in the U.K. The quantitative stage involved the applicationof correspondence analysis to data extracted from the BMRB/TGI database and thequalitative phase was a series of in-depth interviews with mail order industry marketingpersonnel.The findings confirmed the existence of three identifiable groups amongst mailorder shoppers, with different intermediate patterns of joint consumption representingdifferent sets of responses to the three forces which influence consumption and whichhad been modelled above. The research extends work on the grammar of consumption bydeveloping a set of rules of combination for analyzing the structure and levels of jointconsumption: constellations, anti constellations and configurations, which could beassociated with the groups of mail order shoppers. The study concludes that productscohere around social roles and that interdependence exists at two levels, firstly, amongstthe forces which influence consumption, and secondly, between consumption and thesocietal-cultural context. It was seen that functional and symbolic complementaritiescould be found in the intermediate patterns of joint consumption; and that differentcombinatorial rules could be applied to the different levels of consumption patternselicited for the various groups