Marylyn Carrigan

The myth of the ethical consumer – do ethics matter in purchase behaviour?

Marketing ethics and social responsibility are inherently controversial, and years of research continue to present conflicts and challenges for marketers on the value of a socially responsible approach to marketing activities. This article examines whether or not consumers care about ethical behaviour, and investigates the effect of good and bad ethical conduct on consumer purchase behaviour. Through focus group discussions it becomes clear that although we are more sophisticated as consumers today, this does not necessarily translate into behaviour which favours ethical companies and punishes unethical firms. The article concludes by some thoughts on how marketers might encourage consumers to engage in positive purchase behaviour in favour of ethical marketing.

Shopping for a better world? An interpretive study of the potential for ethical consumption within the older market

This paper presents an interpretive study of older consumers and their potential for ethical consumption. Although latterly marketers are recognising the value of older consumers, research has not yet examined their attitudes and behaviour towards ethical consumption. From the collection of individual interviews conducted for this study, it would seem that older people share a sense of moral responsibility in their purchase behaviour, and as a community are willing to engage in affirmative purchasing and boycotting. Although there are perceived barriers to their participation in broader ethical purchasing activities, they would appear to be a potentially significant force in the consumer resistance movement. The findings suggest that as a group, older consumers should be considered as an important target market for ethical marketers who wish to benefit from their collective sense of social obligation.

The Older Consumer as Innovator: Does Cognitive Age hold the Key?

In the light of changing demographics and the increasing importance of the older consumer to marketing, this paper seeks to identify whether some older consumers may be identified as more innovative in their consumption than others. As a first step towards a fuller understanding of these consumers, the authors suggest using and comparing two measures, one related to domain specific innovative behaviour and the other concerned with the cognitive age of consumers. It was proposed that those consumers with a younger cognitive age might be more likely to be innovative in their consumption behaviour than others of the same chronological age. In this study the authors looked at innovative behaviour towards holiday destinations. The authors found no evidence of a younger cognitive age being linked to domain-specific innovativeness and suggest that this could be due to older consumers becoming increasingly ageless in their consumption behaviour.

A framework for sustainable marketing

This article examines how sustainable marketing could be achieved through the contribution of three existing marketing sub-disciplines; green marketing, social marketing and critical marketing. Green marketing facilitates the development and marketing of more sustainable products and services while introducing sustainability efforts into the core of the marketing process and business practice. Social marketing involves using the power of marketing to encourage sustainable behaviour among individuals, businesses and decision makers while also assessing the impact of current commercial marketing on sustainability. This links into the critical marketing paradigm which entails analyses of marketing theory, principles and techniques using a critical theory based approach. This analysis can help to guide regulation and control, development of marketing theory and practice, and to challenge the dominant institutions associated with marketing and the capitalist system, encouraging a marketing system in which sustainability is a key goal. The article concludes by offering a framework for sustainable marketing and a way forward for how this might be achieved.

The career identities of ‘mumpreneurs’: Women’s experiences of combining enterprise and motherhood

This article examines the experiences of women who establish new ventures in order to combine income generation with childcare responsibilities. Based on interviews with 20 ‘mumpreneurs’, we examined career narratives to show how these women described the transition to entrepreneurship and their experiences of this new mode of working. The findings suggest that the women weave a path between the discourses of intensive mothering and enterprise. Becoming self-employed was deemed preferable to being perceived as a housewife as it enabled identification with a discourse of intensive mothering, facilitating far greater engagement with children than was possible during previous corporate lives. However, the findings revealed tensions which required individualized strategies to address excessive working hours and constrain business growth.

“Mothers of invention”: maternal empowerment and convenience consumption

Purpose – The paper explores how the complex relationship between consumption and production evolves as women enact their roles as mothers, and reconstruct their self‐identity through their use or avoidance of convenience products.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative, individual interviews are used to allow an in‐depth analysis of the life stories of the group of respondents. An interpretive analysis reveals the purpose, patterns and rules followed by these individuals in their actions.Findings – Convenience consumption empowers these “mothers of invention” to instrumental and emotional autonomy through their rejection of unnecessary drudgery, and enables them to negotiate the role of caretaker within the family.Research limitations/implications – The implications of the study suggest that there is a role for marketing to remove any vestiges of guilt in convenience consumption by addressing the issues of sustainability, nutrition, quality and value in convenience products. Future research should inve...

Will ethical consumers sustain their values in the global credit crunch

Purpose – The current global recession is presenting new and difficult challenges for those customers wishing to consume sustainably and ethically, and the marketers who seek to provide the goods that allow them to do so. The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent international marketers can engage consumers with a social conscience and retain their loyalty both during and after the recession.Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores the impact the global recession is having upon consumers and marketers, and considers the evidence surrounding concerns that the demand for ethical products will decline across international markets as the recession deepens.Findings – The discussion acknowledges that while discount retailers are thriving, and customers are trading down, evidence suggests that across international markets a significant number of socially conscious consumers are still exhibiting ethical consumption behaviour. Future marketing opportunities lie in providing consumers with pro...

Conceptualising community consumption: Farmers’ markets and the older consumer

Since the late 1990s farmers’ markets have been growing in popularity as an alternative outlet for: healthy, local, organic and non‐organic, produce consistent with the values of green and ethical consumers, local and small producers to sell their goods and a venue where direct contact with the producers is possible and information about the goods may be sought. This paper seeks to explore further the concept of community as a key attribute of such markets. The paper argues that farmers’ markets can provide many of the exchanges consistent with the concept of community and that these are of significant importance to many shoppers but are particularly valued by older consumers.

Living production-engaged alternatives: An examination of new consumption communities

In this study we draw on varied theoretical perspectives to explore and gain an alternative understanding of consumption at New Consumption Communities (NCCs). Intrinsic to the notion of NCCs is a sense of community between production‐engaged consumers who question market practices deemed inadequate or unfair. Reported findings are part of a three‐year ethnographic research project and suggest that such communities have been overly perceived as presenting radical resistance to prevailing ideologies of consumer society. Collectively, they are more interested in entrepreneurial positive discourses, practices and choices, than in acting against consumer culture or markets. This view is buttressed by their varied production‐engaged practices, which in turn are problematized in relation to (perhaps outdated) notions of consumers, producers and their interrelationships. Finally, this paper attempts a fluid classification of the NCCs (Committed, Engaged Alternatives, Apprentices and Visionaries), and offers a view of alternative consumer behaviour that goes beyond the current “anti” discourses in the extant literature.

Defying marketing sovereignty: voluntary simplicity at new consumption communities

Purpose – To broaden the scope of our knowledge of collective voluntarily simplified lifestyles in the UK, by exploring whether voluntary simplifiers achieve their goals by adopting a simpler life.Design/methodology/approach – Radical forms of voluntary simplifier groups were explored through participant‐observation research. The methodology can be broadly classified as critical ethnography, and a multi‐locale approach has been used in designing the field.Findings – Although for some of these consumers voluntary simplicity seems to have reinstated the enjoyment of life, certain goals remain unfulfilled and other unexpected issues arise, such as the challenges of mobility in the attainment of environmental goals.Research limitations/implications – This is an ongoing research, however many opportunities for further research have arisen from this study. Quantitative research could be undertaken on the values and attitudes buttressing voluntary simplicity specifically in the UK. The extent to which such commu...