Exploring Consumer Experiences as Rites of Passage

Abstract

Conceptualizing consumer experience as a rite of passage holds the potential for designing products entailing stronger attachment. We integrate theoretical perspectives from three disparate research areas: sociological theories of rituals, models of consumer rituals, and those on the value of objects for the sense of self, to explore the ritual types and objects which consumers engage in throughout their key life transitions. We report on secondary data analysis of six qualitative studies on consumers’ rites of passage. Our contributions include an initial framework integrating the lifecycle perspective with the typology of consumer’s rituals and objects, and implications to better support consumer’s experience in rites of passage.