Reflections

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT):

Twenty Years of Research

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ERIC J. ARNOULD
CRAIG J. THOMPSON*

This article provides a synthesizing overview of the past 20 yr. of consumer re-
search addressing the sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects
of consumption. Our aim is to provide a viable disciplinary brand for this research
tradition that we call consumer culture theory (CCT). We propose that CCT has
fulfilled recurrent calls for developing a distinctive body of theoretical knowledge
about consumption and marketplace behaviors. In developing this argument, we
redress three enduring misconceptions about the nature and analytic orientation
of CCT. We then assess how CCT has contributed to consumer research by
illuminating the cultural dimensions of the consumption cycle and by developing
novel theorizations concerning four thematic domains of research interest.

T he past 20 yr. of consumer research have produced a

flurry of research addressing the sociocultural, expe-
riential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption.
nal of Material Culture; Research in Consumer Behavior;
and a host of books and edited volumes. Accordingly, our
thematic review is by no means intended to be exhaustive
In this article, we offer a thematic overview of the moti- or all inclusive.
vating interests, conceptual orientations, and theoretical Over the years, many nebulous epithets characterizing this
agendas that characterize this research stream to date, with research tradition have come into play (i.e., relativist, post-
a particular focus on articles published in the Journal of positivist, interpretivist, humanistic, naturalistic, postmod-
Consumer Research (JCR). Owing to the length constraints ern), all more obfuscating than clarifying. Each fails to sig-
of this forum, we regrettably cannot give due consideration nify the theoretical commonalities and linkages within this
research tradition. They either place too much emphasis on
to the full spectrum of culturally oriented consumer research
methodological distinctions or they invoke overly coarse and
that appears in other publication venues such as the Euro-
increasingly irrelevant contrasts to a presumed dominant
pean Journal of Marketing; Culture, Markets, and Con-
consumer research paradigm. A more appropriate and com-
sumption; International Journal of Research in Marketing; pelling academic brand would focus on the core theoretical
Journal of Consumer Culture; Journal of Marketing; Jour- interests and questions that define this research tradition.
Accordingly, we offer the term “consumer culture theory”
*Eric J. Arnould is E. J. Faulkner Professor of Marketing and Director
CBA Agribusiness Programs, 310 C CBA, Department of Marketing, Uni-
(CCT).
versity of Nebraska–Lincoln, NE 68588-0492, e-mail (earnould2@unl.edu). This CCT is not a unified, grand theory, nor does it aspire
Craig J. Thompson is the Gilbert and Helen Churchill Professor of Marketing, to such nomothetic claims. Rather, it refers to a family of
University of Wisconsin–Madison, 4251 Grainger Hall, 975 University Av- theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relation-
enue, Madison, WI 53706; e-mail (cthompson@bus.wisc.edu). We thank
Dawn Iacobucci for the opportunity to orchestrate this reflection on the field
ships between consumer actions, the marketplace, and cul-
and Soren Askegaard, Russ Belk, David Crockett, Susan Dobscha, Fuat Firat, tural meanings. While representing a plurality of distinct
Guliz Ger, Kent Grayson, Doug Holt, Steven Kates, Al Muñiz, Jeff Murray, theoretical approaches and research goals, CCT researchers
Hope Schau, John Sherry, and Alladi Venkatesh for thoughtful commentary nonetheless share a common theoretical orientation toward
on earlier versions. Most of all, we thank our many colleagues who have the study of cultural complexity that programmatically links
inspired our thinking on matters of culture and consumption.
their respective research efforts. Rather than viewing culture
868

䉷 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. ● Vol. 31 ● March 2005

All rights reserved. 0093-5301/2005/3104-0017$10.00
CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY 869

as a fairly homogenous system of collectively shared mean- Bristor and Fischer 1993; Firat and Venkatesh 1995; Hirsch-
ings, ways of life, and unifying values shared by a member man 1993; Holbrook and O’Shaughnessy 1988; Hudson and
of society (e.g., Americans share this kind of culture; Jap- Ozanne 1988; Murray and Ozanne 1991; Sherry 1991;
anese share that kind of culture), CCT explores the hetero- Sherry and Kozinets 2001) and domain-specific reviews of
geneous distribution of meanings and the multiplicity of its substantive contributions (Belk 1995; Mick et al. 2004;
overlapping cultural groupings that exist within the broader Sherry 2004). Rather than replicate prior efforts, we provide
sociohistoric frame of globalization and market capitalism. a thematic framework that profiles four major interrelated
Thus, consumer culture denotes a social arrangement in research domains that are explored by CCT researchers. We
which the relations between lived culture and social re- further suggest that this body of research fulfills recurrent
sources, and between meaningful ways of life and the sym- calls by Association for Consumer Research (ACR) presi-
bolic and material resources on which they depend, are me- dents and other intellectual leaders for consumer research
diated through markets. to explore the broad gamut of social, cultural, and indeed

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The consumption of market-made commodities and de- managerially relevant questions related to consumption and
sire-inducing marketing symbols is central to consumer cul- to develop a distinctive body of knowledge about consumers
ture, and yet the perpetuation and reproduction of this sys- and consumption (Andreasen 1993; Belk 1987a, 1987b; Fol-
tem is largely dependent upon the exercise of free personal kes 2002; Holbrook 1987; Kernan 1979; Lehmann 1996;
choice in the private sphere of everyday life (Holt 2002). Levy 1992; MacInnis 2004; Olson 1982; Richins 2001;
The term “consumer culture” also conceptualizes an inter- Sheth 1985; Shimp 1994; Wells 1993; Wright 2002; Zaltman
connected system of commercially produced images, texts, 2000). In sum, CCT is an interdisciplinary research tradition
and objects that groups use—through the construction of that has advanced knowledge about consumer culture (in all
overlapping and even conflicting practices, identities, and its heterogeneous manifestations) and generated empirically
meanings—to make collective sense of their environments grounded findings and theoretical innovations that are rel-
and to orient their members’ experiences and lives (Kozinets evant to a broad constituency in the base social science
2001). These meanings are embodied and negotiated by disciplines, public policy arenas, and managerial sectors.
consumers in particular social situations roles and relation-
ships. Further, consumer culture describes a densely woven
network of global connections and extensions through which DEMYTHOLOGIZING (WHAT CONSUMER
local cultures are increasingly interpenetrated by the forces CULTURE THEORY IS NOT)
of transnational capital and the global mediascape (Appa-
We offer this review both as an entree for those who have
durai 1990; Slater 1997; Wilk 1995).
not followed the development of CCT and as an integrative
Perhaps most important, CCT conceptualizes culture as
frame of reference for those who have. While CCT research
the very fabric of experience, meaning, and action (Geertz
has witnessed tremendous growth over the last 20 yr., PhD
1983). Owing to its internal, fragmented complexity, con- programs in marketing (the primary academic constituency
sumer culture does not determine action as a causal force. of the ACR/JCR community) remain oriented around mi-
Much like a game where individuals improvise within the croeconomic theory, cognitive psychology, experimental de-
constraints of rules (Bourdieu 1990), consumer culture—and sign, and quantitative analytical methods. Accordingly, most
the marketplace ideology it conveys—frames consumers’ consumer researchers have not received training in the the-
horizons of conceivable action, feeling, and thought, making oretical traditions and research methodologies common in
certain patterns of behavior and sense-making interpreta- CCT research. This circumstance, coupled with some lin-
tions more likely than others (Askegaard and Kjeldgaard gering vestiges of the 1980s paradigm battles, has given rise
2002; Holt 1997; Kozinets 2002; Thompson and Hirschman to three enduring misunderstandings about CCT that impede
1995). appreciation of its aims, analytic logics, and disciplinary
This “distributed view of cultural meaning” (Hannerz contributions.
1992, 16) emphasizes the dynamics of fragmentation, plu- First and foremost among these myths is that consumer
rality, fluidity, and the intermingling (or hybridization) of culture theorists study particular contexts as ends in them-
consumption traditions and ways of life (Featherstone 1991; selves; therefore, the argument goes, CCT contributes little
Firat and Venkatesh 1995). While a distributive view of to theory development in consumer research (Lehmann
culture is not the invention of CCT, this research tradition 1999; Simonson et al. 2001). To paraphrase Geertz’s (1973)
has significantly developed this perspective through empir- famous axiom, however, consumer culture theorists do not
ical studies that analyze how particular manifestations of study consumption contexts; they study in consumption con-
consumer culture are constituted, sustained, transformed, texts to generate new constructs and theoretical insights and
and shaped by broader historical forces (such as cultural to extend existing theoretical formulations. Consumer cul-
narratives, myths, and ideologies) and grounded in specific ture theory has its historical roots in calls for consumer
socioeconomic circumstances and marketplace systems. researchers to broaden their focus to investigate the ne-
Other colleagues have produced overviews of CCT’s phi- glected experiential, social, and cultural dimensions of con-
losophy of science foundations and methodological orien- sumption in context (Belk 1987a, 1987b; Holbrook and
tations (Anderson 1986, 1988; Arnold and Fischer 1994; Hirschman 1982). Thus, the field, rather than the laboratory,
870 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

became the natural context for CCT. However, the resulting Although JCR is not a managerial journal, this myth of
diversity of investigative contexts (see table 1) makes it easy irrelevance arose, in part, from the ferment of the 1980s
to lose sight of the theoretical forest and to classify these paradigm-broadening controversies (see Lutz 1989), which
studies on the basis of their topical setting—the flea market also inspired reflections on the relationships between con-
study, the Star Trek study, the skydiving study—rather than sumer research and its academic, public, and business con-
the theoretical questions interrogated in that research setting. stituencies. Most particularly, Belk (1986, 1987b) and Hol-
This mistake would be analogous to classifying experimen- brook (1987) cautioned that being unduly wedded to a
tal research in terms of its research stimuli, thus leading to managerial perspective posed formidable barriers to inves-
discussions of the beer and wine study, the camera study, tigating consumption in its full experiential and sociocultural
or the cake mix study. scope and to developing an autonomous discipline of con-
A second misconception is that the primary differences
sumer behavior that would not be regarded as a subspecialty
between CCT and other traditions of consumer research are

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of marketing, advertising, or the base disciplines. In the
methodological. Unquestionably, qualitative data and an array
of related data collection and analysis techniques have been fervor of those debates, such calls for an ecumenical con-
quite central to CCT (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994; Belk, ception of relevance were sometimes misconstrued as a re-
Sherry, and Wallendorf 1988; Kozinets 2002; Mick 1986; nunciation of managerial relevance.
Murray and Ozanne 1991; Spiggle 1994; Thompson, Locan- At that time, consumer researchers most typically defined
der, and Pollio 1989). This methodological predilection fol- managerial relevance in terms of a rational choice paradigm
lows from the aims that drive CCT rather than from a passion and its corresponding focus on purchase behavior. However,
for qualitative data or vivid description per se. Consumer subsequent developments, such as customer relation man-
culture theory focuses on the experiential and sociocultural agement, lifestyle and multicultural marketing, and the pro-
dimensions of consumption that are not plainly accessible liferation of so-called identity brands (Holt 2003), have
through experiments, surveys, or database modeling (Sherry brought consumer meanings to the center of managerial con-
1991), including such issues as product symbolism, ritual cerns, and consequently ethnographic methods have become
practices, the consumer stories in product and brand mean- commonplace in applied market research (Frank 1997; Os-
ings, and the symbolic boundaries that structure personal and borne 2002). In hindsight, even during the disciplinary tur-
communal consumer identities. However, CCT neither ne- moil of the 1980s, it would have been possible to argue that
cessitates fidelity to any one methodological orientation nor an understanding of consumer symbolism and lifestyle ori-
does it canonize a qualitative-quantitative divide. Consumer entations is essential to successful marketing strategies (see
culture theory researchers embrace methodological pluralism Levy 1959, 1981) and to have anticipated many of Wells’s
whenever quantitative measures and analytic techniques can (1993) discovery-oriented proposals for enhancing the rel-
advance the operative theoretical agenda (e.g., Arnould and evance of consumer research.
Price 1993; Coulter, Price, and Feick 2003; Grayson and Mar- As we will detail in the next section, the dominant thrust
tinec 2004; Grayson and Shulman 2000; McQuarrie and Mick of CCT research addresses issues that are highly relevant
1992; Moore and Lutz 2000; Sirsi, Ward, and Reingen 1996).
to social scientific, managerial, and public policy constitu-
Given this commitment to multimethod investigations
encies. Consumer culture theory is organized around a core
of consumption phenomena in natural settings, it is ironic
that CCT research is misperceived in some disciplinary set of theoretical questions related to the relationships among
quarters as a sphere of creative expression, voyeurism, consumers’ personal and collective identities; the cultures
entertaining esoterica, and sonorous introspection of lim- created and embodied in the lived worlds of consumers;
ited relevance to consumer research’s broader theoretical underlying experiences, processes and structures; and the
projects or the pragmatic interests of managers and policy nature and dynamics of the sociological categories through
makers. Accordingly, we observe that the occasional JCR and across which these consumer culture dynamics are en-
article on introspection (Gould 1991) or the use of poetry acted and inflected. In pursuit of this project, CCT research
as a mode of representation (Sherry and Schouten 2002) draws from an interdisciplinary body of theory to develop
sometimes looms larger in the disciplinary imagination novel analytic theoretical frameworks that can illuminate
than in the day-to-day conduct of CCT research itself. the sociocultural dynamics that drive the consumption cycle
To adopt the vernacular of the behavioral decision theory and to advance a theoretical conversation that has arisen
(BDT) tradition, this myth manifests a classic judgment around four interrelated research domains.
bias—availability—whereby a few exceptional and con-
troversial experimental moments in the CCT tradition
take (social) cognitive precedence over its baseline re- quo paradigmatic conventions (e.g., Wallendorf and Brucks 1993). As
search activities.1 Sherry and Schouten discuss (2002, 221), researchers working in this re-
search tradition have a pronounced preoccupation with methodological
1
These controversial experimental moments (e.g., Gould 1991) do serve issues of validity, voice, reflectivity, and representation. Owing to its epis-
an important function within the CCT tradition by periodically testing its temological grounding, CCT is infused by a spirit of critical self-reflection
epistemic boundaries, calling for renewed reflections on the relationships and paradigmatic reinvention and a corresponding antipathy toward the
between the knower and the known, and forcing reconsideration of status idea of settling into a comfortable, but intellectually stultifying orthodoxy.
CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY 871

ILLUMINATING (WHAT CONSUMER Illuminating Four Research Programs in

CULTURE THEORY IS) Consumer Culture Theory
The theoretical questions and research agendas pursued
Illuminating the Consumption Cycle by CCT cut across the process-oriented categories of ac-
quisition, consumption, and disposition much in way that
The disciplinary pioneers of CCT encouraged investi- the theoretical scope of marketing research transcends the
gation of the contextual, symbolic, and experiential aspects 4Ps framework. In broad terms, CCT has advanced con-
of consumption as they unfold across a consumption cycle sumer behavior knowledge by illuminating sociocultural
that includes acquisition, consumption and possession, and processes and structures related to (1) consumer identity
disposition processes and analysis of these phenomena from projects, (2) marketplace cultures, (3) the sociohistoric pat-
macro-, meso-, and micro-theoretical perspectives (Belk terning of consumption, and (4) mass-mediated marketplace

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1987b, 1988; Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989; Hirsch- ideologies and consumers’ interpretive strategies. To avoid
man and Holbrook 1982; Holbrook 1987; McCracken 1986; the error of reification, we stress that these research pro-
Mick 1986). This research agenda has been significantly grams form a holistic research tradition. Specific CCT stud-
advanced over the last 20 yr. ies address various aspects of each, and hence they are not
Consumer culture theory has illuminated the symbolic, neatly typologized. Still, for purposes of analytic exposition,
embodied, and experiential aspects of acquisition behaviors it is possible to distinguish among the kinds of issues that
(Fischer and Arnold 1990; Joy and Sherry 2003; Otnes, fall under each and to identify studies that bring these re-
Lowrey, and Shrum 1997; Sherry 1990; Thompson, Locan- spective theoretical issues to the theoretical foreground.
der, and Pollio 1990) and the sociocultural complexities of
exchange behaviors and relationships (Belk et al. 1988; Belk Consumer Identity Projects. Consumer culture theory
and Coon 1993; Deighton and Grayson 1995; Peñaloza and concerns the coconstitutive, coproductive ways in which
Gilly 1999). Gift giving provides an exemplary case of a consumers, working with marketer-generated materials,
whole class of consumption phenomena whose study forge a coherent if diversified and often fragmented sense
emerged from this shift in research aims (Belk 1976; Joy of self (Belk 1988; McCracken 1986). The corollary premise
2001; Mick and DeMoss 1990; Ruth, Otnes, and Brunel is that the marketplace has become a preeminent source of
1999; Sherry 1983; Wooten 2000). mythic and symbolic resources through which people, in-
Consumption and possession practices—particularly their cluding those who lack resources to participate in the market
hedonic, aesthetic, and ritualistic dimensions—have perhaps as full-fledged consumers, construct narratives of identity
been the most widely studied constellation of phenomena (Belk 1988; Hill 1991; Hill and Stamey 1990; Holt 2002;
identified with the CCT tradition (e.g., Belk, Ger, and As- Levy 1981). In this work, consumers are conceived of as
kegaard 2003; Belk et al. 1989; Fournier 1998; Grayson and identity seekers and makers. Consumer identity projects are
Shulman 2000; Hirschman and Holbrook 1982; Joy and typically considered to be goal driven (Mick and Buhl 1992;
Sherry 2003; Mick and DeMoss 1990; Mick and Fournier Schau and Gilly 2003), although the aims pursued may often
1998; Richins 1994; Rook 1985, 1987; Thompson 1996; be tacit in nature (and vaguely understood; see Arnould and
Wallendorf and Arnould 1988). While disposition practices Price 1993; Thompson and Tambyah 1999) and marked by
have received comparatively less attention, CCT studies points of conflict, internal contradictions, ambivalence, and
have shown that they play a significant role in consumers’ even pathology (Hirschman 1992; Mick and Fournier 1998;
negotiation of role and identity transitions (Bonsu and Belk Murray 2002; O’Guinn and Faber 1989; Otnes et al. 1997;
2003; McAlexander, Schouten, and Roberts 1993; Mc- Thompson 1996). These complications frequently engender
Cracken 1986; Ozanne 1992; Patterson, Hill, and Malloy the use of myriad coping strategies, compensatory mecha-
1995; Price, Arnould, and Curasi 2000; Schouten 1991; nisms, and juxtapositions of seemingly antithetical meanings
Young 1991). and ideals. In their work on digital self-presentation, for
More broadly still, CCT research has emphasized the pro- instance, Schau and Gilly (2003) show how consumers use
ductive aspect of consumption. Consumer culture theory brands and hyperlinks to create multiple nonlinear cyber
explores how consumers actively rework and transform self-representations without necessarily sacrificing the idea
symbolic meanings encoded in advertisements, brands, retail of an integrated self.
settings, or material goods to manifest their particular per- Consumer culture theorists have turned attention to the
sonal and social circumstances and further their identity and relationship between consumers’ identity projects and the
lifestyle goals (Grayson and Martinec 2004; Holt 2002; Ko- structuring influence of the marketplace, arguing that the mar-
zinets 2001, 2002; Mick and Buhl 1992; Peñaloza 2000, ket produces certain kinds of consumer positions that con-
2001; Ritson and Elliott 1999; Scott 1994a). From this per- sumers can choose to inhabit. While individuals can and do
spective, the marketplace provides consumers with an ex- pursue personally edifying goals through these consumer po-
pansive and heterogeneous palette of resources from which sitions, they are enacting and personalizing cultural scripts
to construct individual and collective identities (e.g., that align their identities with the structural imperatives of a
Thompson and Hirschman 1995; Murray 2002; Schau and consumer-driven global economy. In this spirit, Kozinets
Gilly 2003). (2001) explores how fan identity is constituted in relationship
 TABLE 1

EXAMPLES OF CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY RESEARCH CONTEXTS AND THEIR CORRESPONDING THEORETICAL INTERESTS

Context Author(s) Points of theoretical contribution

Working class adoption Allen 2002 A sociological theory of tacit consumer choice
of business
education
Possessions in a less- Arnould 1989 A cultural theorization of preference formation and the diffusion of innovations
developed country
(Niger)
White-water river Arnould and Price Defining extended leisure service encounters and its implications for customer
rafting 1993 satisfaction

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Consumers’ intergener- Curasi, Price, and Individual and familial identity formation processes; the dynamics of inalienable wealth
ational transfer of Arnould 2004;
possessions Price, Arnould, and
Curasi 2000
Gift giving and gift Belk and Coon 1993; Formation and structuration of a moral economy; age and gender role definition and
reception Fischer and enactment in consumer society
Arnold 1990;
Joy 2001;
Otnes, Lowrey,
and Kim 1993;
Ruth, Otnes, and
Brunel 1999;
Sherry 1983;
Wooten 2000
Reenactments of Belk and Costa 1998 Consumer fantasy, the ritual impulse, and the reformulation of social roles via the en-
Mountain Men actment of consumer fantasies
rendezvous
Swap meets and flea Belk, Sherry, and Consumer relationships to market structures; sociocultural dynamics of exchange
markets Wallendorf 1988; relationships
Sherry 1990
Death rituals in Ghana Bonsu and Belk 2003 Postmortem consumer identity work
Sky-diving Celsi, Rose, and A dynamic model of consumer motivations and cultural account of consumer risk tak-
Leigh 1993 ing behaviors
Romanian women’s Coulter, Price, and Rethinking the origin and development of brand knowledge and involvement
use of cosmetics Feick 2003
Consumers who lost Deighton and Gray- An empirically based theorization of consumer self-seduction
money in the Chon- son 1995
dra-Za mail order
scam
Five women and their Fournier 1998 A social relationship model of consumer-brand relationships
favorite brands
Thanksgiving dinners; Heisley and Levy Cultural rituals; construction, maintenance, and negotiation of family relationships
ordinary family 1991; Wallendorf through consumption
dinners and Arnould 1991
Homeless women Hill 1991; Hill and Materialism and self-identity in cases of involuntary disposition
Stamey 1990
Drug addiction Hirschman 1992 Toward a theory of the lived experience of compulsive consumption behavior
experiences
Baseball spectatorship Holt 1995 A model of consumption practices
Consumer lifestyle Holt 1997 The role of consumption practices in sustaining symbolic boundaries between social
choices in a small groups, as formed by complex intersections of sociological collectivities
town/rural setting
Aesthetic experiences Joy and Sherry 2003 A post-Cartesian theory of embodied consumer experiences
of museum patrons
Urban gay men Kates 2002 Oppositional consumption practices and the contesting of gender distinctions
Star Trek fans Kozinets 2001 Theorizing how consumers find Utopian meanings in the commercialized sphere of
popular culture and explicating the ideological constitution of fandom
Burning Man Festival Kozinets 2002 Investigating the dialectic between consumer resistance and capitalist ideologies
participation
Indian, Haitian, and Mehta and Belk Contributing to a postassimilationist, poststructural theory of ethnicity
Mexican immigrants 1991;
Oswald 1999;
Peñaloza 1994
Danish brothers’ inter- Mick and Buhl 1992 A theorization of how consumers interpret multiple meanings of advertisements de-
pretations of pending on their life themes and projects
advertisements
CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY 873

TABLE 1 (Continued)

Context Author(s) Points of theoretical contribution

Consumers reports of Mick and DeMoss A theorization of nonrational consumer purchase decision and the role of their con-
self-gifting occasions 1990 sumption in self-identity maintenance
Consumers of Volvos Muñiz and O’Guinn A cultural theory of community in postmodern society and the role of brands in com-
and Apple 2000 munity formation
computers
Heritage Village theme O’Guinn and Belk The impact of consumer culture and consumerist ideologies on religious norms and
park 1989 experiences of the sacred
Western stock shows Peñaloza 2001 Consumers’ active process in the coproduction of marketplace meanings and the role
and rodeos of commodified cultural myths in mediating marketplace relationships
British high school stu- Ritson and Elliott A theory of the social usages of advertising

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dents talking about 1999
advertisements
Personal Web sites Schau and Gilly 2003 A theorization of consumer’s commercialized, nonlinear self-presentation in
cyberspace
Harley Davidson riders Schouten and Mc- The structure and dynamics of consumer subcultures and reworking of identity
Alexander 1995
Natural food and Sirsi, Reingen, and A microcultural theorization of consumer belief and value systems and their diffusion
health alternatives Ward 1996; through social networks
Thompson and
Troester 2002
Working mothers Thompson 1996 The gendering of consumer lifestyles and its impact on preferences
(jugglers)
Men’s and women’s Murray 2002; Consumers active use marketplace ideologies via resistance interpretations that play
experiences of Thompson and off ideological contradictions and paradoxes, and the ideological mapping of their
fashion Haytko 1997 identity projects via brand meanings and fashion styles
and body image
Expatriates living in Thompson and Tam- An analysis of cosmopolitanism as a consumer ideology and its role in the shaping of
Singapore byah 1999 consumer goals

to utopian ideals and the cooptation of those ideas by cor- (McCracken 1986; Witkowski 1989), African (Arnould
porate media; Belk et al. (2003) explore how desiring con- 1989; Bonsu and Belk 2003), Asian (Applbaum and Jordt
sumer subjects are constituted by the marketplace ideals pro- 1996; Joy 2001; Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989), and eastern
mulgated in the discourses of global corporate capitalism (also European contexts (Coulter et al. 2003).
see Murray 2002; Thompson and Tambyah 1999). Holt (2002) This stream of CCT research also addresses the ways in
details how the postmodern economy thrives by producing which consumers forge feelings of social solidarity and create
“unruly bricoleurs” who express personal sovereignty and distinctive, fragmentary, self-selected, and sometimes tran-
claims to personal authenticity through nonconformist acts of sient cultural worlds through the pursuit of common con-
consumption and thereby place the marketplace and its sym- sumption interests (Belk and Costa 1998; Kozinets 2002;
bols at the center of their identities. In a related vein, Grayson Schouten and McAlexander 1995). Whether characterized as
and Martinec (2004) suggest that experiences of authenticity a subculture of consumption (Kates 2002; Schouten and
(in tourist settings) are systematically linked to particular McAlexander 1995), a consumption world (Holt 1995), a
forms of signification (indexical and iconic authenticity) and consumption microculture (Thompson and Troester 2002), or
consumers’ corresponding imaginative and fantasy-oriented a culture of consumption (Kozinets 2001), this genre of CCT
elaborations upon these different semiotic modalities. builds upon Maffesoli’s (1996) ideas on neotribalism. Ac-
Marketplace Cultures. The study of marketplace cul- cording to Maffesoli, the forces of globalization and postin-
tures addresses some of the most distinctive features of the dustrial socioeconomic transformation have significantly
marketplace-culture intersection. In contrast to traditional eroded the traditional bases of sociality and encouraged in-
anthropological views of people as culture bearers, consum- stead a dominant ethos of radical individualism oriented
ers are seen as culture producers. The key research question around a ceaseless quest for personal distinctiveness and au-
driving this program of research is this: how does the emer- tonomy in lifestyle choices. In response to these potentially
gence of consumption as a dominant human practice re- alienating and isolating conditions, consumers forge more
configure cultural blueprints for action and interpretation, ephemeral collective identifications and participate in rituals
and vice versa? One family of CCT research devoted to of solidarity that are grounded in common lifestyle interests
marketplace cultures has sought to unravel the processes by and leisure avocations (also see Cova 1997; Firat and Ven-
which consumer culture is instantiated in particular cultural katesh 1995; Muñiz and O’Guinn 2001).
milieu and the implications of this process for people ex- Much of the initial work on marketplace subcultures has
periencing it. Such research has examined North American focused on youth subcultures (Thornton 1996). Consumer
874 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

culture theory research has shown that the tribal aspects of nities retain traditional markers of community, while relax-
consumption are quite pervasive. These studies highlight ing constraints of geography, and are characterized by ex-
how experiential consumption activities, such as skydiving plicit attempts to build community through consumption of
(Celsi, Rose, and Leigh 1993), fandom (Kozinets 2001), commercial brands (Muñiz and O’Guinn 2000). In another
countercultural lifestyles (Kates 2002; Thompson and Troes- vein, postassimilationist consumer research suggests that
ter 2002), and temporary consumption communities (Ar- ethnic identities have, in some sense, become hypercultural
nould and Price 1993; Belk and Costa 1998; Kozinets 2002), in that the culture of origin is socially reconstructed as some-
foster collective identifications grounded in shared beliefs, thing consumable (costume, foods, crafts, music) as part of
meanings, mythologies, rituals, social practices, and status attempts to assert an anchoring for identity in fluid social
systems. contexts (Askegaard, Arnould, and Kjeldgaard 2005; Os-
This research has also shown that marketplace cultures wald 1999). Further, postassimilationist consumer research
often define their symbolic boundaries through an ongoing provides a dynamic and agentic alternative to more mech-

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opposition to dominant (i.e., middle-class) lifestyle norms anistic structural models of acculturation (Peñaloza 1994).
and mainstream consumer sensibilities (see Brown, Kozi-
nets, and Sherry 2003; Kates 2002; Muñiz and O’Guinn Mass-Mediated Marketplace Ideologies and Consum-
2000; Muñiz and Schau 2005; Schouten and McAlexander ers’ Interpretive Strategies. Consumer culture theory ex-
1995). In contrast to classic sociological accounts of sub- amines consumer ideology—systems of meaning that tend
culture, in-group social status in these settings is achieved to channel and reproduce consumers’ thoughts and actions
not through adherence to monolithic consumption norms but in such a way as to defend dominate interests in society
through displays of localized cultural capital (particular (Hirschman 1993). The questions guiding this research pro-
forms of knowledge and skills valued in the group) and skill gram figure prominently in much critical and media theory
in combining, reworking, and innovating the pool of sym- outside of consumer research (e.g., Dawson 2003; Fiske
bolic resources that are shared by group members (see Belk 1989; Hall 1993; Lears 1994; Twitchell 1996). They include
and Costa 1998; Celsi et al. 1993; Kates 2002; Kozinets the following: What normative messages do commercial
2001, 2002; McAlexander, Schouten, and Koenig 2002). media transmit about consumption (Hirschman 1988)? How
do consumers make sense of these messages and formulate
The Sociohistoric Patterning of Consumption. The critical responses (Hetrick and Lozada 1994; Hirschman and
third domain that CCT addresses is the institutional and Thompson 1997; Murray and Ozanne 1991; Murray,
social structures that systematically influence consumption, Ozanne, and Shapiro 1994)? In this research program, con-
such as class, community, ethnicity, and gender. Consumers sumers are conceived of as interpretive agents whose mean-
are conceived of as enactors of social roles and positions ing-creating activities range from those that tacitly embrace
(Otnes, Lowrey, and Kim 1993). In short, the driving re- the dominant representations of consumer identity and life-
search problematic is set by the question: what is consumer style ideals portrayed in advertising and mass media to those
society and how is it constituted and sustained? that consciously deviate from these ideological instructions.
To address this problematic, consumer culture theorists This latter family of interpretive strategies gives rise to var-
investigate the processes by which consumption choices and iegated forms of identity play and sometimes shades into
behaviors are shaped by social class hierarchies (Allen 2002; strident criticisms of corporate capitalism and marketing as
Holt 1997, 1998; Wallendorf 2001); gender (Bristor and a social institution (Holt 2002; Kozinets 2002; Kozinets and
Fischer 1993; Dobscha and Ozanne 2001; Fischer and Ar- Handelman 2004; Murray 2002; Thompson 2004).
nold 1990; Thompson 1996; Thompson and Haytko 1997; At the macro level, CCT research investigates the influ-
Thompson, Locander, and Pollio 1990); ethnicity (Belk ences that economic and cultural globalization exert upon
1992; Mehta and Belk 1991; Reilly and Wallendorf 1987; consumer identity projects and identity-defining patterns of
Wallendorf and Reilly 1983); and families, households, and social interaction distinctive social contexts (Arnould 1989;
other formal groups (Moore-Shay, Wilkie, and Lutz 2002; Belk et al. 2003; Bonsu and Belk 2003; Coulter et al. 2003;
Wallendorf and Arnould 1991; Ward and Reingen 1990). In Wilk 1995). Moving down to a meso level of analysis, con-
this branch of work, Holt (1997, 1998) shows how cultural sumer culture theorists also explore how particular cultural
capital endowments distributed by social class systemati- production systems, such as marketing communications or
cally structure consumer preferences. Wallendorf (2001) the fashion industry (McCracken 1986; Thompson and
suggests that literacy, a skill set fundamental to effective Haytko 1997), systematically predispose consumers toward
consumer behavior, is distributed by class and race. Allen certain kinds of identity projects.
(2002) shows how working-class consumer choices are The theoretical understanding of structural predisposing
molded by tacit cultural capital endowments into which they has been significantly developed by research on the design
have been socialized and that systematically thwart their and management of servicescapes (both built and natural)
explicit social mobility goals. and the systematic effects they exert over consumer expe-
Reciprocally, CCT examines the relationships among con- riences (McAlexander et al. 2002; Peñaloza 2000, 2001;
sumers’ experiences, belief systems, and practices and these Price and Arnould 1999; Price, Arnould, and Tierney 1995;
underlying institutional and social structures. For example, Sherry 1990, 1998; Sherry and McGrath 1989). These stud-
research on brand communities shows that such commu- ies highlight how servicescapes transform cultural ideals
CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY 875

into material realities and, furthermore, how treasured cul- interactions in which consumers collectively critique and
tural narratives, such as Wild West mythologies, tales of rework the meanings of a given campaign. It is interesting
athletic achievement, or romantic narratives of revitalization that few of these interactions actually instigate pressures to
through nature, are reworked to serve commercial aims and buy the product or brand advertised.
to channel consumer experiences in certain trajectories (Ar- In this family of CCT studies, consumers are conceptu-
nould and Price 1993; Joy and Sherry 2003; Peñaloza 2001; alized as interpretive agents rather than as passive dupes.
Sherry 1998). Just as a store layout can direct consumers’ Thus, various forms of consumer resistance inevitably greet
physical movements through retail space, servicescapes the dominant normative ideological influence of commercial
have a narrative design that also directs the course of con- media and marketing. Consumers seek to form lifestyles
sumers’ mental attention, experiences, and related practices that defy dominant consumerist norms or that directly chal-
of self-narration. lenge corporate power (Dobscha and Ozanne 2001; Kozinets
Studies operating in this research domain frequently draw 2002; Murray and Ozanne 1991; Murray et al. 1994; Thomp-

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from semiotic and literary critical theories to analyze the son and Haytko 1997). In this vein, Kozinets and Handelman
symbolic meanings, cultural ideals, and ideological induce- (2004) call into question the standard assumption that a
ments encoded in popular culture texts and the rhetorical natural alliance exists between consumers and consumer
tactics that are used to make these ideological appeals com- activists. By highlighting activists’ quasi-evangelical quest
pelling (Escalas and Stern 2003; Hirschman 1988, 1990; to instigate significant changes in the moral outlook of main-
Holbrook and Grayson 1986; McQuarrie and Mick 1996; stream consumers (who are deemed to be part of the prob-
Mick 1986; Sherry and Camargo 1987; Stern 1993, 1995, lem), this study also extends prior theorizations that construe
1996). Scott (1990, 1994a, 1994b) has shown how a cul- consumer activism as primarily motivated by an ethos of
turally oriented view of the elements that form the gestalt good citizenship and an antinomy toward corporations.
of an advertisement (i.e., its music, imagery, and copy),
coupled with an understanding of typical interpretive strat- DISCUSSION
egies that are used to make sense of an ad, leads to a dra-
matically different account of how advertising works from Consumer culture theory is fulfilling the recurrent calls
that found in conventional information processing accounts. of consumer research’s thought leaders for a distinctive body
Similarly, Escalas and Stern (2003) and McQuarrie and of theoretical knowledge about consumption and market-
place behaviors. It strives to systematically link individual
Mick (1992, 1996, 1999) employ pluralistic multimethods
level (or idiographic) meanings to different levels of cultural
approaches, the latter to analyze rhetorical and imagistic
processes and structure and then to situate these relationships
qualities that contribute to advertising resonance and en-
within historical and marketplace contexts. It presents a con-
courage more complex advertising processing than classical
tinual reminder that consumption is a historically shaped
models describe.
mode of sociocultural practice that emerges within the struc-
Consumer culture theorists read popular culture texts (ad- tures and ideological imperatives of dynamic marketplaces.
vertisements, television programs, films) as lifestyle and Whereas mainstream consumer research is sometimes cri-
identity instructions that convey unadulterated marketplace tiqued for ivory tower theorizing (Lehmann 1996; Wells
ideologies (i.e., look like this, act like this, want these things, 1993), CCT research is fundamentally concerned with the
aspire to this kind of lifestyle) and idealized consumer types cultural meanings, sociohistoric influences, and social dy-
(Belk and Pollay 1985; Hirschman 1988, 1990; Schroeder namics that shape consumer experiences and identities in
and Borgerson 1998; Stern 1993, 1995). By decoding and the myriad messy contexts of everyday life (Fournier 1998;
deconstructing these mass-mediated marketplace ideologies, Holt 1997, 1998; Peñaloza 1994; Thompson et al. 1990;
consumer culture theorists reveal the ways in which capi- Wallendorf and Arnould 1991). Accordingly, CCT research-
talist cultural production systems invite consumers to covet ers investigate how consumers consume (Holt 1995) across
certain identity and lifestyle ideals. Deighton and Grayson a gamut of social spaces (e.g., the home, the office, diverse
(1995) offer a counterintuitive spin on this interpretive agent retail settings, the Web, leisure enclaves, tourist sites), fre-
viewpoint by analyzing how consumers willingly become quently making use of multiple data sources and triangu-
complicit in their own seduction by marketplace narratives. lation techniques (Arnould and Price 1993; Belk et al. 2003;
Most research on consumers’ practices of ideological re- Celsi et al. 1993; Grayson and Martinec 2004; Mick and
sistance highlights the creative and often sophisticated ways Fournier 1998; Moore and Lutz 2000).
in which consumers critically reinterpret media and adver- Consumer culture theory research also highlights that the
tising ideals and ideological inducements (Scott 1994a). For proverbial real world, for any given consumer, is neither
example, Mick and Buhl (1992) profile the way in which unified, monolithic, nor transparently rational (Belk et al.
consumers’ life themes and life projects shape their readings 2003; Curasi, Price, and Arnould 2004; Hirschman 1985;
of advertisements. Thus, consumers bend advertisements to Mick and Fournier 1998; Price et al. 2000; Rook 1985;
fit their life circumstances rather than feel a pressure to Thompson 1996). Consumer culture theory research shows
conform to a specific ideological representation. Ritson and that many consumers’ lives are constructed around multiple
Elliott (1999) show that advertisements often become a so- realities and that they use consumption to experience real-
cial resource for humor, social bonding, and conversational ities (linked to fantasies, invocative desires, aesthetics, and
876 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

identity play) that differ dramatically from the quotidian (see al. 2003; Coulter et al. 2003; Wilk 1995). Finally, building
Belk and Costa 1998; Deighton and Grayson 1995; Firat on the idea of cultural capital (Allen 2002; Holt 1998), CCT
and Venkatesh 1995; Holt 2002; Holt and Thompson 2004; could readily pursue a culturally informed resource-based
Joy and Sherry 2003; Kozinets 2001, 2002; Martin 2004; theory of the customer that dovetails in some ways with
Schau and Gilly 2003; Schouten and McAlexander 1995). resource-based theories of the firm (Hunt and Morgan 1995,
What are the new frontiers for CCT? One area conspicu- 1996). Such a consumer-centric theory would investigate
ously absent from this review, and by implication JCR, is how customers allocate economic, social, and cultural cap-
broader analyses of the historical and institutional forces that ital resources between competing brand and service offer-
have shaped the marketplace and the consumer as a social ings and use them to enrich their endowments. This theo-
category (e.g., Cohen 2003). One likely reason for the paucity retical innovation could move us toward a theory of
of macro-level analyses of consumer culture is the difficulty customer value cocreation (Vargo and Lusch (2004).
of undertaking such work in a journal-length article. One way What about the relationship between CCT and other con-

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to encourage and stimulate more encompassing historical re- sumer research traditions? The expansion of CCT coincides
search would be for consumer researchers to give greater with increasing concerns over the field’s fragmentation and
credence to books and the JCR monograph series. One spe- the seeming lack of a common theoretical vernacular and
cific form of this research that we would like to encourage agreed-upon motivating problems and questions to bind con-
strives to tell cultural history through the commodity form sumer researchers together in a common, distinguishing in-
(broadly defined). These works not only highlight the socio- tellectual project. These concerns follow from a decidedly
historical significance of consumption generally but also often modernist construction of science and the concomitant idea
have an impact on broader academic and social conversations that a scientific field progresses by developing a unified
concerned with marketing’s effects on society (e.g., Ritzer system of knowledge around a common domain of interest
1993; Schor 1998). For example, Schlosser’s Fast Food Na- (e.g., Hunt 1991). From this standpoint, disciplinary diver-
tion (2001) uses the ubiquity of fast food consumption to sity is a problem because it fosters differing camps, each
critically analyze the socioeconomic and cultural forces that pursuing their own particularistic questions, whose knowl-
have transformed the nature of work, leisure, and family re- edge claims are unlikely to coalesce. In this way, consumer
lationships in post–World War II America. Holt (2004) shows research threatens to become a tower of Babel.
how longitudinal changes in advertising campaigns for iconic In contradistinction to this angst-inducing allegory, we
brands, such as Bud and Mountain Dew (and their respective suggest that the field is enhanced by the presence of multiple
failures and successes), are related to specific cultural tensions conversations. Consumer research is a vital and maturing
and economic anxieties that dominate particular historical mo- field of inquiry, not because it has steadily advanced toward
ments. Finally, Firat and Dholakia (1998) provide a sweeping a singular body of theory but rather because it can generate
historical panorama that delineates how a new kind of con- and sustain multiple theoretical conversations, each speak-
sumer has emerged from the sociocultural ferment in the ing to distinctive theoretical questions. To anthropomorphize
transformative shifts from modernity to postmodernity. a bit, this polyvocal fluency makes the consumer research
Moving to a more mid-range level of analysis, an intrigu- field a more interesting and creative conversationalist and
ing issue, still in its theoretical infancy, concerns the moral enables it to forge greater and more varied linkages to other
constitution of consumption and the nature of moral dilem- branches of social science, governmental and public policy
mas and challenges that the commercialization of everyday agencies, and the world of management.
life, including its most intimate moments, pose for consum- Furthermore, the presence of different conversations does
ers (Belk and Coon 1993; Borgmann 2000; Hochschild not preclude cross-paradigmatic engagement and enrich-
2003; Illouz 1997). A second promising area is the tem- ment. By virtue of sharing a common disciplinary matrix,
porality of consumption experiences, a topic instigated broad topical concerns link different consumer research
through interest in nostalgia (Holbrook 1993) and reinvig- traditions and enable consumer researchers to poach and
orated under the rubric of retroscapes and retrobranding cross-fertilize ideas, methods, and contexts from a variety
(Brown and Sherry 2003; Brown et al. 2003). Implicit to a of theoretical conversations that differentially address core
number of recent CCT studies is the idea that servicescapes topics. In prior work, we characterized the cross-fertilization
afford consumers different kinds of (embodied) temporal that can arise from this kind of conversational interaction
experiences, enabling museum patrons to revel in the lan- and poaching as retextualization (Thompson, Stern, and Ar-
guid experience of aesthetic appreciation (Joy and Sherry nould 1998), whereby theoretical insights and constructs
2003) or ESPN Zone patrons to feel the dizzying rush of a from one paradigmatic conversation are reconceptualized
rapid fire, adrenalin-infused sport spectacle (Kozinets et al. and reworked in relationship to a different paradigmatic
2004). These studies point to a need to explore consumer vernacular. Through retextualization, CCT research has re-
understandings of history and temporality more generally. framed and revitalized core analytic constructs, such as
A third promising sphere for further inquiry is the global- brand loyalty (Fournier 1998, McAlexander et al. 2002;
ization of consumer culture and its manifestations in less- Muñiz and O’Guinn 2000), consumer lifestyles (Holt 1997;
developed countries (Arnould 1989; Bonsu and Belk 2003) Thompson 1996), retail experiences (Kozinets et al. 2004;
and those characterized by transitional economies (Belk et Peñaloza 2001; Peñaloza and Gilly 1999; Sherry 1998),
CONSUMER CULTURE THEORY 877

advertising information processing (Escalas and Stern 2003; Askegaard, Søren and Dannie Kjeldgaard (2002), “The Water Fish
McQuarrie and Mick 1992, 1996, 1999; Scott 1994a, 1994b; Swim In? Relations between Culture and Marketing in the
Stern 1995, 1996), customer satisfaction (Arnould and Price Age of Globalization,” in Perspectives on Marketing Rela-
1993; Fournier and Mick 1999), and consumer involvement tionships, ed. Thorbjørn Knudsen, Søren Askegaard, and Niels
Jørgensen, Copenhagen: Thomson, 13–35.
(Coulter et al. 2003). Belk, Russell W. (1976), “It’s the Thought That Counts: A Signed
To close with an anthropological insight, scientific culture Digraph Analysis of Gift-Giving,” Journal of Consumer Re-
as an organization of diversity creates myriad situations in search, 3 (December), 155–62.
which “people must deal with other peoples’ meanings . . . ——— (1986) “What Should ACR Want to Be When It Grows
at times, perhaps, one can just ignore them. Often enough Up?” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 13, ed. Richard
however, one may comment on them, object to them, feel J. Lutz, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research,
stimulated by them, take them over for oneself, defer to 423–24.
them, or take them into account in any of a number of other ——— (1987a), “A Modest Proposal for Creating Verisimilitude

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ways” (Hannerz 1992, 14). Such a disciplinary situation may in Consumer-Information-Processing Models and Some Sug-
not always be comfortable or comforting, but it can be en- gestions for Establishing a Discipline to Study Consumer Be-
havior,” in Philosophical and Radical Thought in Marketing,
ergizing, thought provoking, and inspiring, and it can pro- ed. A. Fuat Firat, Nikilesh Dholakia, and Richard P. Bagozzi,
vide a fertile intellectual ground for theoretical innovations Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 361–72.
and advancements. ——— (1987b), “Presidential Address: Happy Thought,” Ad-
vances in Consumer Research, Vol. 14, ed. Melanie Wallen-
[Dawn Iacobucci served as editor for this article.] dorf and Paul Anderson, Provo, UT: Association for Con-
sumer Research, 1–4.
——— (1988), “Possessions and the Extended Self,” Journal of
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