Hedonism and Consumer

Behavior

Presented by: Group 6

 Hedonism-The pursuit of pleasure

Hedone
“pleasure”+ ism
= Hedonism

The belief that pleasure

is the most important
thing in life
 Happiness or pleasure as
the supreme end of life
 Focus on deriving
pleasure from the
experience of
consumption
 More likely to be anti-
depressant
 Does not worry about
the consequences of
actions
 Unpredictable, self-
destructive
 Reckless with money
 Hedonic Consumption
use of a product to fulfill fantasies and satisfy emotions
Hedonist Consumers

Consumers who
prefer pleasure
as a major
element of their
life & give
priority to this
rather than
anything else
 Hedonist Consumers
 Individual satisfaction
 Learning new trends
 Entertainment
 Physical activity
 Sensorial stimulation
 Social experience
 Communication with people who have
similar interests
 Attractiveness of the reference group,
status and authority
 Bargaining enjoyment
Classifications of Hedonism

1. Psychological
hedonism
2. Evaluative or Ethical
hedonism
3. Reflective or
Normative hedonism
 Psychological Hedonism
The Tendency to Seek Pleasure and
Avoid Pain
 Human beings always act in pursuit of their self interest
 People want to do what they can to maximize their
pleasure and to minimize their pain
 deep-seated convictions, cultural or religious beliefs
which motivate a person to act for the benefit of family
or society, or the expectation of an afterlife.
 Evaluative or Ethical Hedonism
Certain Ethical or Moral Ends as Desirable
Because Attaining Them Will Result in
Happiness
 persuade others that these goals ought to be pursued, and
that achieving them will result in pleasure.
 encourage the individual to sacrifice or restrict immediate
sensual gratification in favor of a more rational
gratification
 raises the problem of deciding exactly what ends are
desirable and why
Reflective or Normative Hedonism

Seeks to Define Value in Terms of

Pleasure .

 Determines value solely according to the pleasure

experienced, without regard for the future pleasure or
pain resulting from a particular action.
 Not all experiences of pleasure could be considered
valuable
 Pleasure Principle
 Pleasure sought as a primary goal.
 All pleasant feeling or experience,
contentment, delight, enjoyment,
love, joy, satisfaction, relief,
gratitude, gratification, liking,
ecstasy, euphoria, elation and so on.
Hedonism and Product symbolism
 All products have some degree of
symbolic meaning and arouse at least
some degree of hedonic motivations
among individuals
 Purchase of coffee or detergents is likely
to be less in hedonic value as compared
to a to product with higher degree
information processing and involvement
such as cellular phones.
 Culture
Culture is the sum total of
learned beliefs, values and
customs that serve to regulate the
consumer behavior of members
of a particular society
Hedonism and Cultural Influence
A system of shared symbols and
meanings impacting behavior
including shopping behavior.
These meanings differ across
cultures
 Cultural Factors affecting Consumer Behavior

Religion

Age
 Cultural Factors affecting Consumer Behavior

 Gender
 Geographical
Location
 Social Status
 Hedonism and Consumer Innovativeness
Willingness to innovate
A tendency to buy or adopt new product or a preference
for new and different experience

Further broken down for hi-tech product

1.Global innovativeness
2.Domain specific innovativeness
3.Innovative behavior
 Hedonistic Consumerism

 levels of consumption are extremely high

 Structured socioeconomic relation by radically breaking with
traditional institution and behaviors
 highly wasteful and discriminatory pattern of consumption
that predominates in current capitalist model
 materially distinguished itself from its antecedent by providing
mass rather than luxury goods
 Hedonic consumption
approaches vs.
 Relates to pleasure experienced
from the behavior
 Emphasize on the nature of the
emotional and experience state
 Opera, ballet, modern dance,
painting, photography,
sculpture, crafts
 Luxury goods are consumed
primarily for hedonic pleasure.
Traditional Consumption
approaches
 Relates to usefulness, value,
and wisdom of the behavior as
perceived by the consumer.
 Emphasize on Processing of
information
 Focus on package goods
(toothpaste, cigarettes, cereal,
detergent, beer) and major
durables (appliances,
automobiles
 While necessities are required
to meet utilitarian goods