Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective

Citation

Foxall, G.R. (1999), "Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 5/6, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.1999.33.5_6.1.1

Face it: marketing is an American subject. The text books that we have traditionally tended to use tell us that. Replete with US examples, in which dollars are the only currency, US ethnic minorities the only ethnic minorities, US lifestyles the sole approaches to living, they point up the inevitable conclusion that both US and non‐US marketing academics have tacitly accepted for so long: only US scholarship can do justice to this subject matter. Your results are only valid, your contributions only count as real knowledge, if they appear in a US journal. There are small glimmers of hope in so far as some US authors and researchers feel a need to internationalise their textbooks, do comparative studies, and, just occasionally, cite non‐US journals. But the underlying academic ethnocentrism remains resolute. The ‘‘Europeanisation′′ of textbooks that originated in the USA proves all too often to be the final insult.

The real answer lies in the emergence of confidence among non‐US marketing academics ‐‐ not the confidence needed to do different work that meets the highest standards (we have always had that) but the confidence to believe in our achievements, publicise them, and refuse to compromise. We have often lacked that kind of self‐belief. Too many UK teachers of marketing, for instance, have been ready to take refuge in the supposed ‘‘relevance′′ and managerial applicability of their work rather than to compete on an intellectual basis. Let me not paint too dark a picture: things are changing and individuals are making a difference, as authors of textbooks and scientific papers, and as original thinkers. But I think a general pattern of European subservience remains. That is why this book is such a welcome addition to the canon of consumer behaviour texts.

There are two very significant reasons to welcome it. First, it is, as the authors emphasise, European in intent and content (without failing to recognise the very substantial intellectual contributions made elsewhere, notably of course where consumer research is concerned in the USA). While excepting some US authors, they point out that certain topics are usually missing from their textbooks, including the home production of products and services, financial behaviour, the external effects of consumption. The coverage is thus broader than is found in the vast majority of consumer behaviour texts. But the authors do much to undermine the cultural gulf among consumer researchers which is seldom breached in the US texts. As Antonides and Van Raaij note:

The American texts start from the American situation, from American media and shopping malls and from American brands and products. How many European consumers drink root beer or wine coolers? And how many European students have shopped in an American mall, or know the magazine Ebony?

Although the chapter headings are often identical to those found in standard texts, the book by Antonides and Van Raaij firmly embeds the consumer behaviour with which it is concerned in European cultural and ideological contexts. The difference is that it is not thereby culturally one‐sided. It merely recognises that European readers need to know, for instance, how EC competitive and consumer policy influences consumer choice, how the changing values of European citizens influence consumption, and how the media preferences of Europeans (and of each of the separate cultures within Europe) influence persuasibility.

But the second reason ought to be decisive in the long run: this text takes a social scientific approach rather than a marketing perspective. In particular, it contains topics and insights available only from an economic psychology viewpoint. Written by two authors who have made very substantial progress in putting economic psychology on the intellectual map, that is not surprising. The intellectual style is firmly based on the psychology and economics of consumer behaviour. There is no attempt to link consumer choice inextricably to a single political or marketing system, but every attempt is made to understand consumer choice as a field of human behaviour to which the social sciences apply. The section on post‐modern consumption is thus one of the most appealing to appear thus far in the marketing literature. There are still too many photographs illustrating the obvious (no doubt a hangover from the tradition the book seeks to replace) but they can be forgiven in this first edition because this text has the potential to unify consumer research by bringing academic cultures closer together.