TY  - GEN
AU  - Leonard, Hillary A.
SN  - 0098-9258
AU  - Leonard, Hillary A.
LA  - eng
CN  - ENP-26417044-2f54-4d5f-842c-3fe479206269
TI  - Consumption fantasies: a phenomenological view
PY  - 2005
AB  - 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. BMW promotes its car as the "ultimate driving machine" and a current Disney advertising campaign shows a dog dreaming of enjoying himself at the amusement park with the copy, "We all have our dreams." Do we imbue products with the ability to make our non-consumer dreams come true is this all there is to our consumer fantasies, or is there more? Hallmark is currently running a campaign showing cards as having the power to transform their social relationships. Television shows like the classic Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and the more recent MTV version, Cribs show the masses how the "other half" lives, giving them fodder to imagine the possibilities of homes. Extreme Makeover: the Home Edition brings the fantasy to ordinary people whose homes they transform into dream homes in a week. The tag line for this show explicitly evokes a fantasy stating that they are "Building dreams, changing lives.
Magazines such The Robb Report, Conde Naste Traveler, Outside, Modern Bride, Road and Track and the even the classified real estate section of New York Times Magazine offer fodder for our fantasies showing the latest and greatest in technologies, ideas for entertainment, exotic locations and luxurious hotels and spas, and mansions and estates. If we can’t afford the 850,00 dollar Buggati you can buy a poster for your wall. We can go to auto shows, and trade expos to sit in, touch, or try out the products of our dreams. Yet despite the fact that marketers capitalize on the fantasy concept, little of consumer research has attempted to systematically study consumer fantasies.
The word fantasy has its roots in the Greek word "phantasia" regarding the human capacity to imagine (Rook, 1988). Psychologists English and English defined fantasies as, "Imagining a complex object or event in concrete symbols as images, whether or not the object exists; or the symbols or images themselves: for example a daydream." (Klinger, 1971). And a daydream has been defined as a self-induced shift in consciousness, which is sometimes a way of compensating for a lack of external stimulation or escaping from problems in the real world (Singer, 1966)
This definition of daydreaming relates closely to Klinger’s definition of fantasies. In his book, the Structure and Functions of Fantasy (1971) he attempts to arrive at a theory of fantasy that explains its universality, variations, and functions. Klinger considers fantasy as most similar to dreams and play. Play is the motor response to the fantasy ideation and sub vocal processes. Play and fantasy are the same process, but as we age, we repress the motor action of play because it is no longer understood as socially age appropriate behavior and only the fantasy remains (Klinger, 1971).
Freud defines fantasy, along with dreams and play as one of the ’primary processes’ in which organisms behave without concern over their impact on their environment or feedback with which to correct their actions. These are opposed to "secondary processes, which are governed by rational, instrumental thoughts (Holbrook \textbackslash& Hirschman, 1982). This aspect of fantasies as juxtaposed with rational processes is useful for forming a definition of consumer fantasies.
Fantasies are seen as personal and unrestrained, related to easy solutions, escapism (Apter, 1982; Belk \textbackslash& Costa, 1998) as well as a misguided, selective or distorted view of reality (Apter, 1982; Nofz, 1984; Oettingen, 2002). Bruner believes we understand our world and reality through two modes of thinking: the paradigmatic mode, which is analytical, mathematical and formal versus the fictional or narrative mode, which may violate rules of logic, which opens up alternatives and possibilities. Fantasy on a nonacademic level, has been defined as unrestricted imagination, characterized by its improbability and fictional quality (The American College Dictionary, 1985)
In a recent article in Journal of Consumer Research, Belk, Ger, and Askegard (Belk, Ger, \textbackslash& Askegaard, 2003) characterize consumer desire as "a passion born between consumption fantasies and social situational contexts." Clearly consumer fantasies are related to consumer desire, yet important distinctions exist. Consumer desire is described as passionate consumption, explained as, "overpowering, something we give into, takes control of us and dominate our thoughts, feelings and actions." Fantasies on the other hand are consumer imaginations o and cravings for consumer goods not possessed, and returning to the dictionary definition, defined by their improbable and fictional quality.
A phenomenological approach, using in-depth interviews, is used to examine consumer fantasies as experienced by consumers. The basis of phenomenological research is to discover the structure of the phenomena under study from the perspective of the individual experiencing that phenomena (Sayre, 2001) and the interview is one of the most powerful ways to gain a deep understanding of another person’s perceptions (Thompson, Locander, \textbackslash& Pollio, 1989). The study seeks to learn what consumer fantasies mean to consumers, how they fantasize about products and experiences, what influences their fantasies, how they nourish their fantasies and what happens if the fantasies are achieved.
While research is at its most embryonic stage, preliminary research indicates that consumer fantasies change over time. Fantasies unsurprisingly are characterized by their distinction from the everyday and the easily accessible. And although fantasies are often conceived of in these terms of impossibility or improbability (Apter, 1982), consumer fantasies may involve compromise in order that they fit within situational contexts. This need to relate the fantasy to the reality of one’s circumstances seems to imply that the distinction between fantasy and reality is not entirely clear (Tuan, 1990).
Further research and analysis into the lived experience of consumer fantasies could help us understand how consumption effects are lives and futures.
References
The American College Dictionary. (Second College Edition ed.)(1985). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Apter, T. E. (1982). Fantasy Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Belk, R. W., \textbackslash& Costa, J. A. (1998). The mountain man myth: a contemporary consuming fantasy. Journal of Consumer Research, 25, 218-240.
Belk, R. W., Ger, G., \textbackslash& Askegaard, S. (2003). The fires of desire. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(3), 326-351.
Holbrook, M. B., \textbackslash& Hirschman, E. C. (1982). The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. The Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2), 132-140.
Klinger, E. (1971). Structure and Functions of Fantasy. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Nofz, P. M. (1984). Fantasy-Testing-Assessment: A Proposed Model for the Investigation of Mate Selection. Family Relations, 33(2), 273-281.
Oettingen, G. D. M. (2002). The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1198-1212.
Rook, D. W. (1988). Researching consumer fantasy. In Research in Consumer Behavior (Vol. 3, pp. 247-270): JAI Press Inc.
Sayre, S. (2001). Qualitative Methods for Marketplace Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Singer, J. L. (1966). The Inner World of Daydreaming. New York: Harper \textbackslash& Row.
Thompson, C., Locander, W. B., \textbackslash& Pollio, H. R. (1989). Putting consumer experience back into consumer research: the philosophy and method of existential-phenomenology. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(2), 133-146.
Tuan, Y.-F. (1990). Realism and fantasy in art, history and geography. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 80(3), 435-446.
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