1st Edition

Consumer Behavior New Essays on the Study of Consumption

By Morris B. Holbrook Copyright 2025
296 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

296 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

296 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Consumer Behavior presents an autobiographical view of Morris B. Holbrook’s contributions to the study of consumer behavior, describing his life and work over the past 60 years via a collection of subjective personal introspective essays. This new collection extends, enlarges, and elaborates on the insights garnered over Holbrook’s career to provide a lively and thought-provoking exploration of... Read more

Part I:  Some Autobiographical Sketches

1. Morris B. Holbrook:  An Introduction

2. Morris B. Holbrook:  An Historical Autoethnographic Subjective Personal Introspection

3. Morris the Cat or the Wolf-Man on the Upper West Side:  Animal Metaphors and Me

Part II:  Some Comments on the Consumption Experience

4. Essay on the Origins, Development, and Future of the Consumption Experience as a Concept in Marketing and Consumer Research

5. Consumption Experiences in the Arts

Part III:  Some Theoretical and Methodological Considerations Concerning Consumer Value

6. Commentary:  Consumption Experiences, Consumer Value, Subjective Personal Introspection, the Photographic Essay, and Semiological/Hermeneutic Interpretation

7. The Concept of Consumer Value:  Its Development, Implications, and Trajectory

8. Consumption Criteria in Arts Marketing

Part IV:  Some Perspectives from Jazz

9. The Marketing Manager as a Jazz Musician

10. Reflections on Jazz Training and Marketing Education:  What Makes a Great Teacher?

Part V:  Some Criticisms, Cavils, Complaints, and Controversies

11. The Greedy Bastard’s Guide to Business

12. What For Art Thou, Marketing?

13. A Subjective Personal Introspective Essay on the Evolution of Business Schools, the Fate of Marketing Education, and Aspirations toward a Great Society

Appendix: Promotional Messages Featuring Experiential Claims – Full List of Over 600 Examples

References

Biography

Morris B. Holbrook is now-retired W. T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York City. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard College (English Literature) in 1965, his MBA from Columbia University in 1967, and his PhD in Marketing from Columbia in 1975. From 1975 to 2009, he taught courses at the Columbia Business School in such areas as sales management, marketing strategy, research methods, consumer behavior, and commercial communication in the culture of consumption. His research has covered a wide variety of topics in marketing and consumer behavior with a special focus on issues related to communication in general and to aesthetics, semiotics, hermeneutics, art, entertainment, music, jazz, motion pictures, nostalgia, and stereography in particular.