(5 minute read) 

This set of learning memos introduces students to the idea of Postmodernism and its lasting influences in areas of marketing and consumption. Postmodernism was a radical shift in all aspects of Western society during the 1950s and 60s, the effects of which are still being felt today around the world.

Postmodernism had a hugely disruptive influence on many aspects of society including consumer behaviour and marketing. It was seen to have heralded the trend of hedonic, pleasure-driven experiential consumption, with huge implications for the development of experiential marketing, resulting in the shaping of a new experiential society and economy.

The rise of Hedonic, pleasure driven experiential consumption was first conceptualised in the early 1980s in consumer research literature. The transformative trend in experiential consumption was felt in marketing practice as marketers expanded the idea and principles of marketing to virtually all aspects of life away from products and services. Apart from the huge use of sensory marketing to create experiences, marketing principles were also applied increasingly to various areas from sport, leisure, entertainment, recreation, arts, to politics, ideas, ideologies, and people.

The impact of this had several implications for Postmodern Marketing, the growth of the experiential society and experiential economy. Much of the West became centred on consumption and consumption economies. Globalisation accelerated this trend as huge swathes of manufacturing moved overseas. In marketing practice, managers realised that they no longer controlled the marketing process and that consumers were increasingly co-participants, co-producers, and collaborators in creating consumption meanings.

The impact of this was seen in the changing nature of shopping and its meanings and the relationship that consumers had with the act and process of shopping. Related to that, the idea of where we shopped became just as, if not more important than what we shopped for. Place – the third P of marketing – now became commodified, marketed, packaged, and branded like a product. Place marketing applied to a range of store and retail settings, servicescapes, brandlands, brandscapes, as well as non-retail consumption contexts and settings from heritage centres and street markets, museums, visitor attractions, to street art, nature, neighbourhoods, cities, and countries.

Academic research in consumer behaviour and marketing also felt its impact as it consciously moved away from psychological and economic perspectives to include more social and cultural perspectives, giving rise to a rich body of work which drew extensively from the wider social sciences and humanities and included interpretive works which illustrated rich insights into consumption. This body of work was synthesised as Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) in a meta-review by Arnould and Thompson in 2005 which is still considered a landmark paper.

This series of learning memos outlines key ideas in Hedonic and Experiential Consumption, Shopping, Retailing and Servicescapes, Postmodern Marketing and Consumer Culture Theory.