Advertising Created the Consumption Habits of Our Society

Advertising Created the Consumption Habits of Our Society Consumption today has a totally different meaning than centuries or decades ago. There are different reasons researchers find to explain what is the reason behind of the consumption habit of our society. Many times marketing and advertisement are pointed out as the initiative power. Often happens that consumers buy a brand new telephone for example even if the old one has no problem but a new version of that model was launched. Why do people feel like this? Is it really necessary to change the phone? More and more often people decide to purchase goods, which they could not allow as they are out of there budget (Han, 2010). Do we really need that new phone? What makes us believe that yes, we do need it? Many other example could be listed here to underline the above problem area. This paper attempts to find answers for the questions mentioned above. In this analysis, the main assumption is that marketing and the marketing activities cause the desire in people to consume, and even over -consume in today’s life. First, the essay will describe briefly the relevant economic and historical background, afterwards will set out the hypothesis of the research and will provide pro and contra arguments to discuss this issue and finally will make a conclusion based on the results of the research. HISTORICAL AND ECONOMICAL BACKGROUND Comparing consumption back in history to what it is today there is a big difference (Goodwin et al. 2006). Few centuries ago the lifestyle of people varied they hardly did shopping outside their living area. Before the Industrial Revolution most of the people lived in villages and worked in agriculture. Back in that time we could not talk about fashion or trends pushing people into buying habits. Usually a winter coat lasted a lifetime. Certainly a small elite did exist but could not make any change in society in terms of changing the agrarian economy. Due to the Industrial Revolution industrialization began and changed the consumption. Fo r example textile production grew between 1760 and 1830 from 3 million pounds to 360 million pounds in Brittan. Consumerism, the word was used first in 1915 (Wikipedia, 2010). After the Industrial Revolution for the first time in history products were available to everyone at affordable prices and in enough quantity. This is how consumerism began. At the turn of the 20th century economist Thorsten Veblen writes about unnecessary and wasteful consumption (Wikipedia, 2010). By the end of the 20th century materialism raised, the reason of attending college was to earn more money and the culture changed into the direction of competition and disconnection. The range of wealthy people became the focus of marketing and the ones with less income could â€Å"purchase something new that will speak of their place in the tradition of affluence† (Wikipedia, 2010). In today’s consumerism in the 21st century, it can be observed that people try to differentiate from other. Poor people try to act and look like as they were rich and wealthy people try to act like celebrities, each one of them would like to be seen as coming from higher social class (Wikipedia, 2010).