The Center for Consumer Research is a place in which ground-breaking research, seminars, and other projects will help forward-thinking organizations better understand the evolving needs and concerns of consumers.
People don’t buy things because of what they do; they buy things because of what they mean. Our choices of products and services, whether food, furniture, or fax machines, reflect a pattern of consumption that jointly defines a lifestyle. We can best understand the drivers of consumers’ individual decisions by viewing these choices through the more macro lens of lifestyle; how they work in concert to create social identity and communicate that identity to others. As the popular saying goes, “You are what you eat (or drive or wear…).”
A lifestyle perspective forces us to be holistic.It makes us recognize that while on the surface a food company is vastly different from an apparel company, which is different from a pharmaceutical company, which is different from an entertainment company which is different from a non-profit organization, at a deeper level these endeavors have more in common than is first apparent. Each is a thread consumers use to weave together a lifestyle that expresses their desired social identity.
At the Center for Consumer Research we leverage the research expertise of the faculty of Saint Joseph’s University, our connections to industry and the mission of the Haub School of Business to establish a “think tank” on issues related to consumer lifestyles.
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