Imaginative consumption: The construction, meaning, and experience of consumer fantasy.

摘要

In this age of consumerism, consumer fantasies are widely held. Advertisements and marketing media frequently refer to fantasy vacations, dream homes, ultimate sports cars and fairytale weddings. This research develops an understanding of fantasies from the perspective of the consumer.; Concepts from four theorists, Campbell, Deleuze and Guattari, and Baudrillard, provide the framework for this study, which focuses on honeymoons, including the fantasies held prior to planning the trip, prior to leaving for the trip, and the feelings regarding the fantasy after the honeymoon. As a consumer experience scripted to be a fantasy, honeymoons offer a unique opportunity to understand consumer fantasies.; Using a multimethod approach comprised of phenomenological interviews and collage creation, this study arrives at a deep and exhaustive description of consumer fantasies. Nineteen phenomenological interviews were conducted with interviewees comprising 3 different groups: those with no concrete plans for a honeymoon, those in the planning stage of a honeymoon, and those who have returned from their honeymoon. In addition, I asked 2 separate groups to create a two-part collage, representing two contrasting images. One group created collages to portray a contrast of a fantasy honeymoon and a nightmare honeymoon. The second group created collages of a fantasy honeymoon on one side, and a fantasy trip (not a honeymoon) on the other side.; The study finds that people find pleasure in their fantasies, whether or not they are able to achieve them. And rather than being condemned to a unending cycle of disappointment, as Campbell theorizes, consumers are able to constructively recreate their fantasies manipulating their minds to believe that they have fulfilled their fantasies. Yet our fantasies for the most part are constrained within the cultural framework available in the mass market. Even when we claim we seek to break free of these normalizing fantasies, we find it difficult to escape and find the lines of flight that Delueze and Guattari advocate. Although the signs we consume may be becoming ever more distant from their original referents, we hold dear, in this case to the honeymoon fantasy, which we imbue with strong meaning.