Exploring consumer experiences as rites of passage

• Author: A. Coman/C. Sas
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov/Lancaster University, UK
• Pages: 47-56

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

EXPLORING CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

AS RITES OF PASSAGE

A. COMAN1 C. SAS2

Abstract: Conceptualising consumer experience as a rite of passage holds

the potential for designing products entailing stronger attachment. We

integrate theoretical perspectives from three disparate research areas:

sociological theories of rituals, models of consumer’s rituals and those on the

value of objects for the sense of self, to explore the ritual types and objects

which consumers engage in throughout they key life transitions. We report on

secondary data analysis of six qualitative studies on consumer’s rites of

passage. Our contributions include an initial framework integrating the

lifecycle perspective with the typology of consumer’s rituals and objects, and

implications to better support consumer’s experience in rites of passage.

Key words: consumer experience, rites of passage, sense of self,

consumption and disposal.

1. Introduction

The last decades have been marked by an increased interest in rituals, both in academia

and the large public. The long history of ritual studies originating in the sociological and

anthropological theories has been accompanied by a more recent revival in consumer

research. The value of conceptualizing consumption as ritual is reflected in designing for

transcendent consumer experience which, as an emotionally rich and highly memorable

experience holds the potential for product attachment and brand loyalty (Schouten et al.,

2007). Consumption rituals have been defined as consumption of goods around sacred

events, bearing similarities with the rites of passage described in sociological theories

(Bartholomew, 2011). Two important concepts in both rituals and consumer behaviour is

sense of self (Belk, 1988) and life transitions (Erikson, 1982) when people take on new

socially acceptable roles. There has been however limited research integrating these

theoretical perspectives and exploring consumer’s rites of passage throughout the

lifecycle Ozanne (1992). To address this, we describe a secondary analysis of six studies

on consumer’s rites of passage, answering the following research questions:

• Which are the types of consumer’s rites of passage across life stages?

• Which types of products are being used as ritual objects?

• What aspects of self become relevant in consumer’s rites of passage?

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, alina.coman@unitbv.ro

2 Lancaster University, UK., c.sas@lancaster.ac.uk