Marketing communication: principles and practice

C O N S U M E R B E H A V I O U R A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N
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1 Actually, both the consumer and producer are ‘marketers’ in the sense of coming
into a notional ‘marketplace’ to effect an exchange (interaction for interchange).

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reporting are necessarily an industry of culture creation. Culture arises
through the needs of people. Commodities can be used as cultural resources
for reworking to generate an own culture.
PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS
The acquisition and consumption of products (goods and services) can be
thought of as problem-solving behaviour. In this chapter we examine
explanations of people’s actions to solve problems (unmet needs) and their
search for what is needed to solve their problem, and where it is available.
Gabriel and Lang (1995) define a number of possible roles in which people
may be selectors, acquirers, and/or consumers (Table 3.1).
Table 3.1 describes largely alternative faces for consumers, that are neither
fully compatible nor incompatible. They do, however, provide food for
thought in considering the motivations of consumers and the ability of
marketers to influence their decisions and attitudes.
We all are consumers, and as such we participate in activities that are
motivated by a desire to fulfil a recognized need. We search for a product to
meet our need, select one that we believe will meet the need, then use it and
dispose of it, or terminate a service, once it has met our need. It can be argued
that consumption is, itself, a form of production – the production of meaning. 
The central concept of marketing and consumer behaviour is 
exchange
.
Because we cannot produce all of the things that we want to fulfil our need,
we must look to ‘the market’ for other people who produce what we want.
To get what we want, we exchange money with producers to satisfy their
needs. Gratification is a basic human pursuit. Money is a generalized
exchange medium, since it allows us to make satisfying exchanges without
having to provide a specific object.
Exchange is explored more fully in chapter four, when we examine the
concept from a communication perspective.