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Ritual and relationships: Interpersonal influences on shared consumption
Ritual and Relationships: Interpersonal Influences on Shared Consumption
ELSEVIER
Brenda Gainer YORKUNMVERS~
I examine the symbolic meaning associated with participation in shared consumption rituals in terms of developing and maintaining social relationships among buyers. Ten depth interviews with consumers of the live performing arts are used to explore the social context of this particular form of shared consumption. Conclusion: common participation in shared consumption rituals, even if not performed face-to-face, can be used actively to manage the social relationships that bind consumers together in "small worlds." The major managerial implication of this finding is that the knowledge that one will share a consumption experience with friends and acquaintances affects brand choice. Other managerial implications with respect to target markets and positioning strate~es for products that are consumed jointly are discussed, as well as directions for further research on "relational" influence in a variety of product markets, j BUSN RES 1 9 9 5 . 32.253-260
t is generally accepted in consumer behavior that things (material artifacts or products) communicate symbolic meanings (Belk, 1988; Holman, 1981; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1981; Mehta and Belk, 1991; Solomon, 1983). However, recent studies on the importance of understanding ritual in consumer behavior have stressed the fact that, in addition to the symbolism of material artifacts or products, the actions involved in consumption may have symbolic meaning (Rook and Levy, 1983). Studies in consumer behavior on the symbolic importance of private ritual actions have adopted the same perspective as those on the symbolic importance of goods, that is, their main focus is on the meaning of these actions in terms of transforming or constructing the self (Rook, 1984, 1985; Schouten, 1991). Of course, as both these authors suggest, the self is intimately connected to a social environment. The literature on shared consumption rituals shows that rituals in which participants act jointly may be used to communicate meaning, not only about the self, but also about the relationships among individuals that bind them together into a "small world" (Cheal, 1988; Gainer and Fischer, 1991 ; Wallendorf and Arnould, 1991; Arnould and Price, 1993). It is this relational aspect of shared consumption rituals that is examined here, through a study of a particular shared service product, the live performing arts,
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Address correspondence to Brenda Gainer, Faculty of Administrative Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3. Journal of Business Research 32, 253-260 (1995) © 1995 Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
and consumers' attitudes toward the fact that they attend with other people. The attributes of a product a given company produces on the stage may be evaluated either as an objective entity, or as a subjective symbol that triggers the emotive responses characteristic of hedonic consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). In either case, the relationship traditionally of interest in the marketing literature is that between the consumer and the product. Yet, by shifting the locus of inquiry to the relationships among consumers, a company may be evaluated not only in terms of the ability of its stage performance to "satisfy," but in terms of its ability to provide a venue for the enactment of consumers' own performances. A model that conceives of arts consumption as a ritualized public performance in which both consumers and producers participate has recently been proposed by Deighton (1992). I, too, argue that in addition to choosing the product an arts company produces, consumers choose a company that provides an opportunity both to produce and consume the performances central to an interaction ritual of social reproduction. Thus, the paradoxical situation arises in which a company can be successful even if its staged product does not particularly satisfy many of its customers. Viewing arts attendance as a consumption ritual focused on building social relationships may explain phenomena such as that of a baroque orchestra which consistently finds that non-baroque composers (Beethoven and Mahler) are the first choice of the majority of its customersT
The Ritual Construct In the consumer behavior literature, the term ritual refers to a diverse range of human behavior covering a continuum from the intensely personal and private to the extremely elaborate and public. Definitions of ritual vary widely, but usually emphasize scripted behavior, the use of artifacts, a serious and intense atmosphere, and the symbolic meaning of actions (Rook, 1985). Others add that important features of ritual include an audience, evocative and stylized staging, and a community of believing participants; thus a condition of ritual behavior for some is that it must be public or shared in some way (Tetrault and Kleine, 1990). Many of these features appear to characterize arts attendance; for example, participation in the event is shared, a solemn, formal, and reverential atmosphere usually prevails, and a scripted code for behavior exists. In addition, viewing arts attendance through a dramaturgical "lens" that conISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00050-O
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ceives of public behavior as a performance (Goffman, 1957), allows us to use Turner's focus on social drama to understand the ritual of arts attendance as a social performance in which symbolic meanings involving both the "actor" and the "observer" are communicated and confirmed (Turner, 1969, 1984). Adopting this perspective, then, allows us to go beyond the manifest meaning of the staged performance to individual consumers (Gusfield and Michalowicz, 1984), and examine the importance of arts attendance in terms of providing a venue for consumers to communicate the values associated with a particular world view to others, and thus establish and maintain membership in a small social world. I do not argue that arts attendance serves the function that some say is the purpose of ritual, namely to transmit and maintain a social and moral order (Tetrault and Kleine, 1990). Instead I argue that arts attendance serves a different purpose, namely to construct the relationships of a future social life in a particular "small world." Thus arts attendance is not viewed as the "classic" functionalist ritual that Cheal (1990) has described as a "ritual of reification," that is one that serves to maintain the integrity of existing social structures and that appears to be declining with an increase in cultural variation and the consequent dissolution of traditional solidarities (Douglas and Isherwood, 1978). Instead I view arts attendance as what Cheal has termed a "ritual of reproduction," similar to Goffman's (1971 ) description of "maintenance rituals," in which individuals in a dislocated and impersonalized post-industrial world participate in order to establish and maintain the bonds of a particular "small world."
Rituals of Reproduction in Consumer Behavior Cheal argues that rituals of reproduction are based on an intensified "ritualization of interaction"; interaction through such a ritual communicates a powerful symbolic meaning about the transformation of atomized individuals into a "small world." This particular view of ritual has received only limited attention in the consumer behavior literature. In their study of home shopping parties, Frenzen and Davis (1990) have described a relationship between social connections among individuals and consumer behavior, although they were unable to find support for an economic utility model which posits that people "buy" the social capital inherent in relationships among consumers. Gainer and Fischer (1991) have argued that viewing purchases at home shopping parties as interactive consumption rituals, similar to gift giving, allows us to understand the behavior Frenzen and Davis observed as actions undertaken in the market in relationship-building opportunities, that exists within the market in household plastics. Wallendorf and Arnould's (1991 ) study of Thanksgiving also demonstrates that shared consumption activities are used symbolically to demonstrate inclusion in small worlds. These previous studies of interaction rituals in consumer
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behavior offer insights into consumer behavior with respect to arts attendance. For example, buyers at home shopping parties and participants in Thanksgiving feasts appear to engage in symbolic behavior that communicates meaning both about the self and about the community of individuals who participate. The use of consumption to establish the "self' to oneself and others is familiar; these studies of participatory rituals, however, suggest that the "self' is established symbolically not only through material objects, but in terms of social connection to others. Errington's (1987, 1990) studies of the complicated connection between the establishment of individual and community identities through participation in public performances with others reinforces this point. Secondly, Wallendorf and Arnould's (1991) work suggests that the shared symbolism of interaction rituals does not necessarily depend on face-to-face interaction. Reingen has discussed the role of conversation in terms of making private acts of consumption public and shared (1984). In an extensive discussion of a privately performed, yet participatory ritual, Valadez and Clignet (1984) argue that common behavior, even when performed by isolated individuals, may have a significant symbolic function in forging social bonds; housewives who participate in the private ritual of housework, by discussing their attention to and performance at housework, are able to use participation in this ritual to establish and maintain communal bonds with others who also participate. Viewing arts attendance as a post-industrial ritual of reproduction, then, leads to the following predictions with regard to consumer behavior toward this product. First, it appears that individuals are motivated to construct both the individual self and "small worlds" of relationships with others, and that these two are often interconnected. The second is that social relationships are often created and maintained through rituals of reproduction based on consumption, in which individuals join in shared performances with symbolic meaning. Third, in order to communicate symbolic meaning about relationships, a ritual does not necessarily need to be performed in concert with the other members of a particular small world, as long as the fact of its performance, and a belief in its importance, is communicated to them through conversation. Finally, the previous points lead to the hypothesis that consumers may choose a particular company not only on the basis of the staged performance, but on the basis of its ability to provide a suitable venue for the enactment of interaction rituals with significant others.
Method In order to examine how people use shared consumption of the live performing arts to develop and maintain the interpersonal relationships that bind autonomous individuals into "small worlds" of intimacy and community, an interpretive method was needed that would illuminate the different aspects of arts attendance described earlier. The method chosen was depth interviews; like other interpretive research methods, this one
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offers the opportunity to develop deep understandings of the role shared arts consumption plays in consumers' lives in their own terms (Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf, 1988; Hirschman, 1986; McCracken, 1988; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio, 1989). McCracken (1988) suggests that in order to generate themes in this type of qualitative research, at least eight key informants are required. Accordingly, 10 people were interviewed for this study (six females and four males; two of these people were interviewed as a couple). Potential subjects' names were supplied by an arts organization operating in a large northeastern city. The arts organization contacted selected people on its customer list and ascertained that they were willing to be interviewed; subsequently subjects were selected to achieve variety in age, stage in family life cycle, income, occupation, and level of arts attendance. Before the main stage of data collection began, three unstructured interviews were conducted in order to develop an effective interview protocol covering the themes mentioned previously as well as identifying emergent areas of study. The 10 semi-structured interviews that provided the final data ranged from an hour and a half to two and a half hours each. Questions discussed in each interview included "grand tour" questions relating to the general subject of the arts (McCracken, 1988), as well as specific questions regarding arts preferences and attendance patterns, the attendance patterns of friends and acquaintances, and the social meaning that arts attendance had for the subjects as well as the meaning that they felt it held for other consumers. Each interview was recorded and transcribed, and then supplemented with customer information provided by the arts organization as well as with field notes describing observations about the interview process and the respondents' personal circumstances. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Thus observations and interpretations of early interviews were used to develop themes that shaped and changed the design of both the interview protocol and the interview process as data collection proceeded. As the data were collected, they were coded into categories by the researcher, and as each new interview was completed, categories of meaning were compared both within and across interviews. After all the interviews were completed, the complete data set was analyzed using inductive methods (McCracken, 1988; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio, 1989) to identify and abstract patterns in the data. The data yielded the following three major themes that pertain to the meaning of arts attendance in terms of building "small worlds."
Participants Undertake Arts Attendance in Order to Pursue Interpersonal Goals Before beginning this study, information was gathered on the number of people who attend the performing arts with others as opposed to going alone. The organization cooperating in the
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study, for example, knew that 78% of their tickets were bought in pairs or groups of more than two, and only 22% of their tickets were bought singly. More importantly, they speculated that many of the tickets sold individually were purchased to add to others bought together in order to make up a larger group party. Interviews with three marketing managers of other arts organizations operating in the same city told the same story. The interviews conducted for this study confirmed this pattern. Only one of the people interviewed, a young woman of 21, had ever attended a live arts event alone. She appeared to be quite proud of this fact; she clearly felt that single attendance indicated that she really appreciated the core arts product in contrast to other attenders whom she felt attended primarily for social reasons. "I really feel that a lot of people are there not because they're real keen opera fans but because it was part of their social c i r c l e . . , and that's not really what brought me into opera." Almost immediately she added, however, that "I wouldn't say social things aren't part of the e v e n t . . . If I can attend with someone I w i l l . . , the opportunity to discuss what has been seen is part of the event r e a l l y . . , in fact, [the arts] are important to your relationships with p e o p l e . . , it gives you a common thing to talk about." This woman was the first one interviewed, but as the research proceeded, a similar pattern emerged generally. Many of the informants saw their own reasons for attending the arts as unique; they expressed an image of themselves as sensitive and intellectual individuals-in contrast to the majority of"other people" who were not and attended for social reasons. At the same time, however, the analysis of the transcripts showed that once such a statement was made, all participants readily talked about the social benefits arts attendance provided them. Thus, many respondents appeared to be deluded about the uniqueness of their own "non-social" motivation, as well as the complex social factors affecting their own attendance patterns. Although the transcripts show that all the participants seemed to be motivated in one way or another by social considerations, the fact that many people wanted to distance themselves from this motivation likely expresses a deeply held cultural conviction that this allegiance to community implies a loss of individuality and thus of self-worth (Lasch, 1984). The desire to attend with others was also expressed by a middle-aged man, a newspaper columnist who contrasted his behavior with regard to the performing arts with that toward the visual arts. He would often go to an art gallery alone to see an exhibit, but never attended the performing arts alone. At first he attributed this to the fact that he would go to galleries in a short time period, during the day, and that therefore it seemed too much trouble to get someone else to go. Later he stressed another aspect of his attendance, however. Because he is a former artist and has many friends who are engaged in the visual arts, he stated that he makes a point of seeing visual art shows that they have seen because they enjoy talking about the works together. However, he does not socialize with people who attend the performing arts regularly, so "it's more important to find someone to go with me at the time."
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This theme of wanting to share the experience surfaced in all the interviews. Some people felt that it added an extra dimension to the pleasure that they already experienced from the product; others explicitly stated that they participated in the arts in order to have a social experience. In either case, it appeared that the importance of shared participation in this form of consumption motivated people to undertake a number of behaviors in order to attend with others. What is of particular interest here are the people in the second category, i.e. those who appeared to undertake particular forms of arts purchases in order to actively manage the relationships binding them to others with whom they attended. The most common behavior consumers undertake that is influenced by relationship considerations appears to be subscribing. For instance, a single woman said, "I subscribe to the opera every year with the same f r i e n d . . , oh, we've gone for y e a r s . . , sometimes we wonder if it's worth it, but then we t h i n k . . , well, we'd never see each other . . . . "Another couple, married for five years, reminisced about why they first subscribed during their courtship. "We thought, we're going out now, what can we do together?" Another young woman, more recently married, was more explicit about this reason for attending; apparently she and her husband were both living at home before they were married and, as she put it, they had to go out to see each other. She added, however, that "now that we're married we don't have to go to the arts anymore." Some married couples, however, felt that subscribing to the arts was a way to ensure that they spent a certain number of evenings together every year. An older woman, married for thirty years, said that this was why she faithfully attended an orchestra in which she had very little interest, but of which her husband was very fond. Even the young woman who felt that they didn't have to go anymore thought that "now we're having a baby a subscription might be a good idea to guarantee doing something together, having a night out." Thus, not only did some subscribers seem to be motivated by a desire to see their friends or partners, as opposed to the arts product in question, but some were quite explicit that they would rather see or do something different if it weren't for the fact that social considerations were more important. In fact, in four out of the 10 interviews conducted, the respondent mentioned that he or she accompanied someone else to their preferred arts venue, simply in order to go with them. Of course not all arts consumers attend in pairs. One couple that was interviewed organizes a large group of 16-20 people from their church to subscribe to a particular arts organization every year. Although the woman is fond of the type of music that they play, the man was quite explicit that he only goes because he enjoys the group outing so much; he said that he was sure many people in the group felt the same way. "For me, it's the social thing; I really enjoy that aspect of i t . . . and for the church, it's really important too. I mean, everybody knows everybody a lot better, and feels more connected to each other . . . it's really a good thing." People not only felt that arts attendance should be shared, but that the relationship benefits of arts attendance could be
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augmented by adding other shared consumption activities to the occasion. The church group, for example, often went out to dinner together before the performance, and other respondents also mentioned other joint activities they undertake in addition to attending the performance, in order to augment the social features of the event. Several married couples mentioned that they went out for dinner together before the performance, and the two single women also did this or else went for a drink afterward with the man or other woman with whom they attended.
Participants Use Arts Attendance to "Build Bridges" to Socially Distant Acquaintances The general pattern described previously suggests that almost every arts consumer feels they have to attend with at least one other person they know, and that many go to some trouble or personal inconvenience in order to do so. Thus active management of close personal ties seems to be a strong interpersonal influence on this form of shared consumption• However, it appeared that arts buyers often share the experience with other people in the audience with whom they share what might be termed more "distant" social ties. The management of this type of social relationship also appears to exert an influence on buyer behavior toward the arts, although it seems to involve a less active type of social process. Only one person who was interviewed said that she knew no one else (apart from her spouse) who attended the same arts activities. All the others appeared to know several people who attended the same performances. Interestingly enough, these people were never dose friends or family members. This suggests that people attend with people who are very close to them, and at the same time they meet people there who are socially distant. When I asked what kind of relationship they shared with the people they had named, work acquaintances were mentioned frequently, and occasionally neighbors• Although people may attend in the first place in order to develop and strengthen close ties, it appears that the presence of distant ties in the audience also makes a difference to them. Several people mentioned that they liked a particular organization better because it turned out there were people they knew there. For example, one woman said, "we went because it was a fairly inexpensive night out, and then it turned out my neighb o r . . , a trumpeter, was there, and then a friend of my husband's from w o r k - b u t we didn't know they would be there before we w e n t - a n d that kind of makes it more interesting • . . that we know people." This woman had become a loyal subscriber to a classical orchestra, even though she said Irish folk music was really her favorite form of entertainment. Other people emphasized a sense of attachment to other audience members as an important benefit of arts attendance even more explicitly. Another woman, formerly a heavy arts-goer who had cut back when she had a baby, offered the following explanation of why she and her husband had kept the one sub-
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scription they did. "It's the b e s t . . , it's also p a r t i a l l y . . , we have a personal sense of attachment to the people t h e r e . . . get more of a sense of knowing other people t h e r e . . . " A third said, with regard to attending her favorite orchestra: "it's important when you know other p e o p l e . . , the whole feeling that you're not just a faceless number; I mean, I grew up in a small town; I went to a small university; that whole feeling . . . . "She contrasted this "feeling" she got from arts attendance at an organization where she knew quite a few other people with her general "feeling" about life in the big city in which she lived. In both these cases current relationships create a valued past, one much more distant than the other. The past is valuable because of the value of social relationships in which respondents were embedded. Thus the value of a current consumption situation appears to be evaluated in terms of its ability to reproduce the important feeling of sharing social ties with other people, whether that is through the maintenance of former ties, or through the development of new ones that are reminiscent of former relationships. The bonds formed through arts attendance also seem to be important to people's work lives. Several people also mentioned how much they enjoyed talking to other people at work about an arts event that they had both attended, even if not together. As one young woman said, "it's really nice to share things with p e o p l e . . , it doesn't matter to me if I saw them t h e r e . . , it's knowing that we had the same experience and can talk about i t . . . to be able to say 'wasn't that great!"' Another woman agreed with this sentiment, and added "I tell them about things I've seen and try to get them to go t o o - a n d sometimes I'll go to things I know they've seen." A woman who had just changed jobs recently commented on how the fact that some of her coworkers attended similar arts events made it easier for her to fit in; she felt her arts attendance was useful to her. She also felt that her co-workers' interest in similar leisure activities made her like her new job better, even though she didn't think they would ever socialize or go to the arts together. "But it's just nice to know that they're part of that world, and I imagine they feel the same about me." This conception of membership in the same "world" as a result of knowledge of shared consumption experiences seems to indicate that consumers value the contribution that arts attendance makes to both their close relationships and their more distant ones. Thus it seems that shared consumption can be used, not only to foster and maintain intimate relationships, within a marriage, for example, but also to build bridges to different, more distant, groups of people, such as neighbors or business acquaintances.
Participants Use Arts Attendance to Manage Individual and Community Identities Individuals in Transition Although shared consumption seems to be used generally to symbolize connections between individuals in the same "small
world," some people appear to participate in mutually recognized social rituals in order to make the transition from one small world of connected individuals to another. A young woman from a working class background who had recently married a lawyer made this clear. "We're in a period of flux with regard to friends; I had my own friends, and he has his, and we're kind of separating from my friends and I don't feel that comfortable with h i s . . , our best friends don't go to the arts; it's people who are more peripheral, but people I have more in common w i t h - b u t I don't love them." This young woman's confusion between "best friends" and people with whom she has something "in common," as well as her discomfort with her husband's lawyer friends, seems to indicate that she is in a period of transition not only with regard to friends, but with regard to herself. Later she talks about her personal development along paths that tended to distance her from her family and upbringing. "I come from a family that's riot really cultured; I'm not really into the class system or anything, but I do believe there are subtle differences because I have a university education and nobody else in my family does. I have been known to look like a snob . . . when I go home, if I talk about those things [the arts], it's roll the eyes, oh there she goes again . . . . This woman's comments suggest that she values the establishment of a new "small world" in and of itself. But it also appears that to her there is a connection between membership in "small worlds" and self-identity. Both the individuals interviewed in this study who were actively involved in separating from an old self-identity and establishing a new one described the same pattern of using joint consumption rituals to develop relationships with a new world as central to the construction of their new self. Another subject appeared to be experiencing less conflict about his transition from one world to another, although he put equal emphasis on the importance of arts consumption and association with arts-goers to his new identity. In his early sixties, recently divorced and retired from the army and now embarking on both a second career and marriage to a younger woman, he stressed that he had only lately become "an eclectic and sophisticated person . . . . "He continued, "I was for many years married to a woman who was a church devotee, and I went along with t h a t . . , but when I got out of that marriage I swore I would never go there or have anything to do with those people again. When I met my present wife, she introduced me to a whole new world of the arts and arts-goers . . . . " When I asked if they socialized much with other people who went to the same performances as they, he said no, but hastened to assure me "that I can hold my own with them anytime!" It is striking that both he and the upwardly mobile young woman mentioned previously talk about the different "worlds" of people with whom they used to associate arid with whom they are associated now through art attendance. Both also clearly feel that their participation in the arts demonstrates to other people that they are a certain type of person; in both cases, this is particularly important because they are in the process of becoming a new type of person. In other words, both are
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using the relational aspects of arts attendance in the social construction of their new self identities.
Gender Differences in the Social Construction of Self The fact that the two respondents quoted earlier used arts attendance both to establish a new group of friends and to establish a new self-identity should not obscure the differences between the man and the woman. The older man appears to see his association with the world of arts-goers as a facet of the self; he is interested in defining what type of person he is to himself and to others, and sees association with certain other people through his consumption activities as a demonstration of his personal characteristics. In this sense, he appears to be extending the self to others (Belk, 1988). The woman, on the other hand, appears to be partly motivated by the same considerations, but is also motivated by a desire for intimacy with others; she seems to feel uncomfortable with the people to whom she was formerly tied, and desires to establish new relationships with others. As opposed to defining the self in opposition to others, she appears to be defining her new self partly in terms of a web of social ties. This "communal" orientation is typically considered to be an essential aspect of feminine self-identity, whereas the man's competitive reply to my question about relationships earlier ("I can hold my own with them anytime") appears to be more typical of traditional masculine self-identity (Bern, 1974; Spence and Helmreich, 1978). The findings of this study are, of course, limited by both a small sample size and the fact that only one consumption ritual was studied in depth. Nevertheless, it appears that here the woman thinks of her individual self partly in terms of the social relationships she will enjoy in her new public role and the man does not, and this is consistent with the theoretical literature on gender identity and social connection. More importantly, she is using arts attendance to build the relationships of her "small world," and the man is not. This difference does not suggest that men do not want to form "small worlds," or that they do not use consumption rituals in order to do so. On the contrary, a body of work is beginning to emerge that demonstrates that sports rituals, for example, function in terms of"male bonding" (Deegan, 1989; Sabo, 1985). Holt, too, has described the methods that fans use to construct and maintain ties between members of the baseball world (1993). At the same time, Deighton (1992) has developed a conceptual framework that distinguishes sports attendance from arts attendance on the basis of "active" consumer performances as opposed to "passive" ones. The limited findings here raise the possibility that women may use more "passive" types of consumption rituals, such as arts attendance, to construct small worlds, whereas men may use more "active" ones.
Discussion To date, the marketing literature has only recognized one type of interpersonal influence on symbolic consumption, namely
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that which relates to self-identity. Influenced by symbolic interactionism, this literature sees individuals as performing symbolically before an audience of others from whom the individual is separated, in order to create the self (Dong, 1990; Schenk and Holman, 1980; Solomon, 1983). In part, this study supports the connection between the symbolism of shared consumption and self-identity. For example, the finding that individuals who are actively involved in separating from an old self-identity and establishing a new one may use joint consumption to develop relationships with a new world that is central to the construction of their new self reinforces Schouten's general argument that buyers in transition use symbolic consumption to formulate new "selves" (1991). However this study is rooted in a different view of consumption, one that not only views public consumer behavior as a joint consumer performance (Deighton, 1992), but examines shared consumption from the perspective of participatory ritual, in which individuals act symbolically together to achieve communal goals (Turner, 1969; Deegan, 1989). This study finds that people value the establishment of "small worlds" in and of itself, and emphasizes the role of joint symbolic consumption in creating and maintaining those worlds beyond the self. Thus, a second category of interpersonal influences on shared consumption needs to be recognized in the marketing literature. People do not always define themselves in opposition to others; here we see people using consumption to define themselves as part of a collectivity. The findings of this study highlight four particular aspects of this general conclusion that have implications for both managerial practice and further research. First, the importance of relationship considerations with respect to consumer behavior toward the arts is confirmed. Thus it appears that the sense of belonging to a "small world" that arts attendance provides can add value to the offerings of a particular company; indeed, some people went so far as to say that when they had to choose among several competing arts events, the presence of other people that they knew would influence them to purchase tickets for a particular performance because they valued the "community" benefits that such an experience provides. The key finding of this study, then, is that the market for the live performing arts appears to be a market in the venue for social interaction, and not always a market in the performance on the stage. Thus, although many arts companies are trying presently to build audiences through an effort to penetrate new markets of nontraditional customers, the findings here suggest that a more effective strategy might be to concentrate on penetrating existing segments more deeply with the goal of building an audience of socially interconnected consumers. In addition, encouraging audience members to use arts attendance relationally, through tactics such as offering group discounts or augmented services such as meal discounts, may p rove beneficial. Most importantly, a "meet people you know" positioning appears to be appropriate. Secondly, people value the role of consumption in not only
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achieving intimacy with close relatives and friends, but in building bridges to quite distant acquaintances. An important question for further research is to investigate whether particular consumer choices and behaviors vary with the type and strength of the social connections among participants in the market for a particular good or service. For example, do consumers find some shared activities more suitable for maintaining relationships with relatives or close friends and others better for building connections to work acquaintances? Within the same venue, do consumers act differently with respect to purchase amount or frequency if the other participants in the market are close or distant ties? Meanwhile, the findings here suggest that an arts company may find it worthwhile to offer programs through which consumers can interact more closely with other audience members with whom they have only a very vague connection. Such events could run the gamut from pre-concert lectures to "singles" receptions. Repositioning volunteer work in terms of the important relational benefit provided from meeting and "rubbing shoulders" with others, and away from the current "feel good" benefit, might also prove worthwhile. Furthermore, this study suggests that it would be particularly useful to target these benefits to individuals in transitional states, because there appears to be a close connection between the use of shared consumption in the social construction of small worlds and the social construction of self. A third question that this study raises with regard to relationship benefits is whether the use of different types of participatory consumption rituals varies with social characteristics of consumers such as gender, class or ethnicity. For example, is there some characteristic of arts attendance that makes it a preferred venue for women to construct and maintain small worlds? Or are women in general, socialized to engage in the "work" of relationship management in our society (Cheal, 1988; Fischer and Arnold, 1990), more likely to use any consumpticn activity to carry out this task? Are markets for shared service products that incorporate the elements of participatory ritual contributing to relationship management dominated by women? Or do men and women participate equally in such markets, but the buyer behavior of women is more likely to be affected by interpersonal influences that derive from relationship considerations? Answers to these questions would provide important information for the development of segmentation and positioning strategnes; it may be that women are a better target for "relational" products such as the arts, or alternatively, that different positions with respect to the relational aspects of arts attendance are suitable for male and female targets. Similar questions arise with respect to the generalizability of these findings with respect to social class. We know, for example, that arts attendance tends to be restricted to a socioeconomic group characterized by high levels of education and income (Andreasen and Belk, 1980). There is no reason to believe, however, that relationship-building is valued only by those in the upper and middle classes that attend the arts; in fact, evidence suggests that the desire to form social ties with others transcends social class (Wellman, 1992). At the same time, it
may be that whereas shared consumption of the "high arts" serves to build small social worlds for a particular class, other forms of shared consumption, such as folk festivals, sports events, or rock concerts, perform this function for others. Ethnic events may provide similar relationship benefits for participants, by grounding mutual participation in a consumption ritual in a shared ethnic identification (Errington, 1987). Finally, the relational symbolism characteristic of arts consumption likely applies to a wider range of consumption activities than those that involve shared, and thus visible, consumption. We saw here that individuals appear to be able to construct "small worlds" by using participation in the arts as the basis for conversation and social interaction elsewhere. The experience of shared arts attendance thus becomes a social "marker" that identifies members of particular groups within the larger culture, in the same way that clothes, hairstyles, or jewelry serve to mark the boundaries of other communities (Hebdige, 1979). This research, then, suggests that not only can experiences function as well as material objects as cultural markers, but that the conventional groupings of products and services along a "conspicuous/private" dimension in consumer behavior may be misguided. Consumers may modify categorizations such as these as they publicize and share traditionally "invisible" consumption in interaction rituals directed at creating and reinforcing the bonds of their small worlds. "Relational" interpersonal influence may affect markets for a range of products extending far beyond those that are consumed jointly.
References Andreasen, Alan R., and Belk, Russell W., Predictors of Attendance at the Performing Arts. J. Consumer Res. 7 (September 1980): 112-120. Arnould, Eric J., and Price, Linda L., River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter. J. Consumer Res. 20 (June 1993): 24-45. Belk, Russell W., Possessions and the Extended Self.J. Consumer Res. 15 (September 1988): 139-168. Belk, Russell, Sherry, John, and Wallendorf, Melanie, A Naturalistic Inquiry into Buyer and Seller Behavior at a Swap Meet.J. Consumer Res. 14- (March 1988): 44-9-4?0. Bem, Sandra L., The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny.J. Consuiting Clin. Psychol. 42 (2) (1974): 155-162. Cheal, David, The Gift Economy, Routledge, London. 1988. Cheal, David, The Postmodern Origin of Ritual. J. Theory 5oc. Behav. 18 (3) (1989): 269-290. Deegan, MaryJo, American Ritual Dramas: Social Rules and Cultural Meanings, Greenwood Press, New- York. 1989. Deighton, John, The Consumption of Performance. J. Consumer Res. 19 (3) (1992): 362-372. Dong, Hwan Lee, Symbolic lnteractionism: Some Implications for Consumer Self-Concept and Product Symbolism Research. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 17, M. Goldberg, G. Gorn, and R. Pollay, eds., Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT. 1990, pp. 386-393. Douglas, Mary, and Isherwood, Baron, The World of Goods: Toward an Anthropology of Consumption, Allen Lane, London, 1978.
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Errington, Frederick, Reflexivity Deflected: the Festival of Nations as an American Cultural Performance. Am. Ethnologist 14 (1987): 654-667. Errington, Frederick, The Rock Creek Rodeo: Excess and Constraint in Men's Lives. Am. Ethnologist 17 (1990): 628-645. Featherstone, Mike, Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, Sage Publications, London, 1991. Fischer, Eileen, and Arnold, Stephen, More Than a Labor of Love: Gender Roles and Christmas Shopping@ Consumer Res. 17 (December 1990): 333-345. Frenzen, Jonathan, Purchasing Behavior in Embedded Markets. J. Consumer Res. 17 (June 1990): 1-12. Gainer, Brenda, and Fischer, Efleen, To Buy or Not to Buy: That Is Not the Question: Female Ritual in Home Shopping Parties. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 18, Rebecca Holman and Michael Solomon, eds., Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT. 1991, pp. 597-602. Glaser, Barney G., and Strauss, Anselm L., The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine, Chicago. 1967. Goffman, Erring, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Doubleday, New York. 1959. Goffman, Erving, Relations in Public, Basic Books, New York. 1971. Gusfield,Joseph R., and Michalowicz,Jerzy, Secular Symbolism: Studies of Ritual, Ceremony, and the Symbolic Order in Modern Life.Annu. Rev. Sociol. 10 (1984): 417-435. Hebdige, Dick, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Methuen and Co. Ltd., London. 1979. Hirschman, Elizabeth C., Humanistic Inquiry in Marketing Research: Philosophy, Method, and Criteria.J. Marketing Res. 23 (August 1986): 237-249. Hirschman, Elizabeth C., and Holbrook, Morris B., Symbolic Consumer Behavior, Association for Consumer Research, Ann Arbor, MI. 1981, pp. 250-272. Hirschman, Elizabeth C., and Holbrook, Morris B., Hedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts, Methods and Propositions. J. Consumer Res. 46 (Summer 1982): 92-101. Holman, Rebecca H., Product Use as Communication: A Fresh Appraisal of a Venerable Topic, in Review of Marketing, Ben M Enis and Kenneth J. Roering, eds., American Marketing Association, Chicago. 1981, pp. 250-272. Holt, Douglas B., Forms of Consuming: A Theory-Building Case Study of Baseball Spectating. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, Chicago. 1993. Lasch, Christopher, The Minimal Self, Norton, New York. 1984. McCracken, Grant, The Long Interview, Sage, Newbury Park, CA. 1988.
Rook, Dennis, Ritual Behavior and Consumer Symbolism. Advances in Consumer Research vol. I l, T. Kinnear, ed. Association for Consumer Research, Ann Arbor, MI. 1984. Rook, Dennis W., The Ritual Dimension of Consumer BehavionJ. Consumer Res. 12 (December 1985): 251-264. Rook, Dennis W., and Levy, Sidney J., Psychosocial Themes in Consumer Grooming Rituals. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 10. Richard P. Bagozzi and Alice M. Tybout, eds. Association for Consumer Research, Ann Arbor, MI. 1983, pp. 329-336. Schenk, Carolyn Turner, and Holman, Rebecca H., A Sociological Approach to Brand Choice: The Concept of Situational stir-Image. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 7. Jerry C. Olson, ed., Association for Consumer Research, Ann Arbor, MI. 1980, pp. 610-614. Schouten, John W., Selves in Transition: Symbolic Consumption in Personal Rites of Passage and Identity Reconstruction. J. Consumer Res. 17 (March 1991): 412-424. Solomon, Michael R., The Role of Products as Social Stimuli: A Symbolic Interactionism Perspective. J. Consumer Behavior 10 (December 1983): 319-329. Spence, J., and Helmreich, R., Masculinity and Femininity: Their Psychological Dimensions, Correlates and Antecedents. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1978. Tetreault, Mary A., and Kleine III, Robert E., Ritual, Ritualized Behavior, and Habit: Refinements and Extensions of the Consumption Ritual Construct. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 17. M. Goldberg, G. Gorn, and R. Pollay, eds., Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT. 1990, pp. 31-38. Thompson, Craig, Locander, William, and Poflio, Howard, Putting Consumer Experience Back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential Philosophy. J. Consumer Res. 16 (September 1989): 133-146. Turner, Victor, The Ritual Process, Aldine, Chicago. 1969. Turner, Victor, The Anthropology of Performance, in On the Edge of the Bush: Anthropology as Experience, V. Turner, ed., The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 1984, pp. 177-204. Valadez, Joseph J., and Clignet, Remi, Household Work as an Ordeal: Culture of Standards Versus Standardization of Culture. Am. J. Sociol. 89 (4) (1984): 812-835. Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Mentor Books, New York. 1953. Wallendorf, Melanie, and Arnould, EricJ., "We Gather Together": Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day. J. Consumer Res. 18 (1) (1991): 13-31. Wellman, Barry, Men in Networks: Private Communities, Domestic Friendships, in Men's Friendships. Peter M. Nardi, ed., Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. 1992, pp. 74-114.
ELSEVIER
Brenda Gainer YORKUNMVERS~
I examine the symbolic meaning associated with participation in shared consumption rituals in terms of developing and maintaining social relationships among buyers. Ten depth interviews with consumers of the live performing arts are used to explore the social context of this particular form of shared consumption. Conclusion: common participation in shared consumption rituals, even if not performed face-to-face, can be used actively to manage the social relationships that bind consumers together in "small worlds." The major managerial implication of this finding is that the knowledge that one will share a consumption experience with friends and acquaintances affects brand choice. Other managerial implications with respect to target markets and positioning strate~es for products that are consumed jointly are discussed, as well as directions for further research on "relational" influence in a variety of product markets, j BUSN RES 1 9 9 5 . 32.253-260
t is generally accepted in consumer behavior that things (material artifacts or products) communicate symbolic meanings (Belk, 1988; Holman, 1981; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1981; Mehta and Belk, 1991; Solomon, 1983). However, recent studies on the importance of understanding ritual in consumer behavior have stressed the fact that, in addition to the symbolism of material artifacts or products, the actions involved in consumption may have symbolic meaning (Rook and Levy, 1983). Studies in consumer behavior on the symbolic importance of private ritual actions have adopted the same perspective as those on the symbolic importance of goods, that is, their main focus is on the meaning of these actions in terms of transforming or constructing the self (Rook, 1984, 1985; Schouten, 1991). Of course, as both these authors suggest, the self is intimately connected to a social environment. The literature on shared consumption rituals shows that rituals in which participants act jointly may be used to communicate meaning, not only about the self, but also about the relationships among individuals that bind them together into a "small world" (Cheal, 1988; Gainer and Fischer, 1991 ; Wallendorf and Arnould, 1991; Arnould and Price, 1993). It is this relational aspect of shared consumption rituals that is examined here, through a study of a particular shared service product, the live performing arts,
I
Address correspondence to Brenda Gainer, Faculty of Administrative Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3. Journal of Business Research 32, 253-260 (1995) © 1995 Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
and consumers' attitudes toward the fact that they attend with other people. The attributes of a product a given company produces on the stage may be evaluated either as an objective entity, or as a subjective symbol that triggers the emotive responses characteristic of hedonic consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). In either case, the relationship traditionally of interest in the marketing literature is that between the consumer and the product. Yet, by shifting the locus of inquiry to the relationships among consumers, a company may be evaluated not only in terms of the ability of its stage performance to "satisfy," but in terms of its ability to provide a venue for the enactment of consumers' own performances. A model that conceives of arts consumption as a ritualized public performance in which both consumers and producers participate has recently been proposed by Deighton (1992). I, too, argue that in addition to choosing the product an arts company produces, consumers choose a company that provides an opportunity both to produce and consume the performances central to an interaction ritual of social reproduction. Thus, the paradoxical situation arises in which a company can be successful even if its staged product does not particularly satisfy many of its customers. Viewing arts attendance as a consumption ritual focused on building social relationships may explain phenomena such as that of a baroque orchestra which consistently finds that non-baroque composers (Beethoven and Mahler) are the first choice of the majority of its customersT
The Ritual Construct In the consumer behavior literature, the term ritual refers to a diverse range of human behavior covering a continuum from the intensely personal and private to the extremely elaborate and public. Definitions of ritual vary widely, but usually emphasize scripted behavior, the use of artifacts, a serious and intense atmosphere, and the symbolic meaning of actions (Rook, 1985). Others add that important features of ritual include an audience, evocative and stylized staging, and a community of believing participants; thus a condition of ritual behavior for some is that it must be public or shared in some way (Tetrault and Kleine, 1990). Many of these features appear to characterize arts attendance; for example, participation in the event is shared, a solemn, formal, and reverential atmosphere usually prevails, and a scripted code for behavior exists. In addition, viewing arts attendance through a dramaturgical "lens" that conISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00050-O
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ceives of public behavior as a performance (Goffman, 1957), allows us to use Turner's focus on social drama to understand the ritual of arts attendance as a social performance in which symbolic meanings involving both the "actor" and the "observer" are communicated and confirmed (Turner, 1969, 1984). Adopting this perspective, then, allows us to go beyond the manifest meaning of the staged performance to individual consumers (Gusfield and Michalowicz, 1984), and examine the importance of arts attendance in terms of providing a venue for consumers to communicate the values associated with a particular world view to others, and thus establish and maintain membership in a small social world. I do not argue that arts attendance serves the function that some say is the purpose of ritual, namely to transmit and maintain a social and moral order (Tetrault and Kleine, 1990). Instead I argue that arts attendance serves a different purpose, namely to construct the relationships of a future social life in a particular "small world." Thus arts attendance is not viewed as the "classic" functionalist ritual that Cheal (1990) has described as a "ritual of reification," that is one that serves to maintain the integrity of existing social structures and that appears to be declining with an increase in cultural variation and the consequent dissolution of traditional solidarities (Douglas and Isherwood, 1978). Instead I view arts attendance as what Cheal has termed a "ritual of reproduction," similar to Goffman's (1971 ) description of "maintenance rituals," in which individuals in a dislocated and impersonalized post-industrial world participate in order to establish and maintain the bonds of a particular "small world."
Rituals of Reproduction in Consumer Behavior Cheal argues that rituals of reproduction are based on an intensified "ritualization of interaction"; interaction through such a ritual communicates a powerful symbolic meaning about the transformation of atomized individuals into a "small world." This particular view of ritual has received only limited attention in the consumer behavior literature. In their study of home shopping parties, Frenzen and Davis (1990) have described a relationship between social connections among individuals and consumer behavior, although they were unable to find support for an economic utility model which posits that people "buy" the social capital inherent in relationships among consumers. Gainer and Fischer (1991) have argued that viewing purchases at home shopping parties as interactive consumption rituals, similar to gift giving, allows us to understand the behavior Frenzen and Davis observed as actions undertaken in the market in relationship-building opportunities, that exists within the market in household plastics. Wallendorf and Arnould's (1991 ) study of Thanksgiving also demonstrates that shared consumption activities are used symbolically to demonstrate inclusion in small worlds. These previous studies of interaction rituals in consumer
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behavior offer insights into consumer behavior with respect to arts attendance. For example, buyers at home shopping parties and participants in Thanksgiving feasts appear to engage in symbolic behavior that communicates meaning both about the self and about the community of individuals who participate. The use of consumption to establish the "self' to oneself and others is familiar; these studies of participatory rituals, however, suggest that the "self' is established symbolically not only through material objects, but in terms of social connection to others. Errington's (1987, 1990) studies of the complicated connection between the establishment of individual and community identities through participation in public performances with others reinforces this point. Secondly, Wallendorf and Arnould's (1991) work suggests that the shared symbolism of interaction rituals does not necessarily depend on face-to-face interaction. Reingen has discussed the role of conversation in terms of making private acts of consumption public and shared (1984). In an extensive discussion of a privately performed, yet participatory ritual, Valadez and Clignet (1984) argue that common behavior, even when performed by isolated individuals, may have a significant symbolic function in forging social bonds; housewives who participate in the private ritual of housework, by discussing their attention to and performance at housework, are able to use participation in this ritual to establish and maintain communal bonds with others who also participate. Viewing arts attendance as a post-industrial ritual of reproduction, then, leads to the following predictions with regard to consumer behavior toward this product. First, it appears that individuals are motivated to construct both the individual self and "small worlds" of relationships with others, and that these two are often interconnected. The second is that social relationships are often created and maintained through rituals of reproduction based on consumption, in which individuals join in shared performances with symbolic meaning. Third, in order to communicate symbolic meaning about relationships, a ritual does not necessarily need to be performed in concert with the other members of a particular small world, as long as the fact of its performance, and a belief in its importance, is communicated to them through conversation. Finally, the previous points lead to the hypothesis that consumers may choose a particular company not only on the basis of the staged performance, but on the basis of its ability to provide a suitable venue for the enactment of interaction rituals with significant others.
Method In order to examine how people use shared consumption of the live performing arts to develop and maintain the interpersonal relationships that bind autonomous individuals into "small worlds" of intimacy and community, an interpretive method was needed that would illuminate the different aspects of arts attendance described earlier. The method chosen was depth interviews; like other interpretive research methods, this one
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offers the opportunity to develop deep understandings of the role shared arts consumption plays in consumers' lives in their own terms (Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf, 1988; Hirschman, 1986; McCracken, 1988; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio, 1989). McCracken (1988) suggests that in order to generate themes in this type of qualitative research, at least eight key informants are required. Accordingly, 10 people were interviewed for this study (six females and four males; two of these people were interviewed as a couple). Potential subjects' names were supplied by an arts organization operating in a large northeastern city. The arts organization contacted selected people on its customer list and ascertained that they were willing to be interviewed; subsequently subjects were selected to achieve variety in age, stage in family life cycle, income, occupation, and level of arts attendance. Before the main stage of data collection began, three unstructured interviews were conducted in order to develop an effective interview protocol covering the themes mentioned previously as well as identifying emergent areas of study. The 10 semi-structured interviews that provided the final data ranged from an hour and a half to two and a half hours each. Questions discussed in each interview included "grand tour" questions relating to the general subject of the arts (McCracken, 1988), as well as specific questions regarding arts preferences and attendance patterns, the attendance patterns of friends and acquaintances, and the social meaning that arts attendance had for the subjects as well as the meaning that they felt it held for other consumers. Each interview was recorded and transcribed, and then supplemented with customer information provided by the arts organization as well as with field notes describing observations about the interview process and the respondents' personal circumstances. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Thus observations and interpretations of early interviews were used to develop themes that shaped and changed the design of both the interview protocol and the interview process as data collection proceeded. As the data were collected, they were coded into categories by the researcher, and as each new interview was completed, categories of meaning were compared both within and across interviews. After all the interviews were completed, the complete data set was analyzed using inductive methods (McCracken, 1988; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio, 1989) to identify and abstract patterns in the data. The data yielded the following three major themes that pertain to the meaning of arts attendance in terms of building "small worlds."
Participants Undertake Arts Attendance in Order to Pursue Interpersonal Goals Before beginning this study, information was gathered on the number of people who attend the performing arts with others as opposed to going alone. The organization cooperating in the
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study, for example, knew that 78% of their tickets were bought in pairs or groups of more than two, and only 22% of their tickets were bought singly. More importantly, they speculated that many of the tickets sold individually were purchased to add to others bought together in order to make up a larger group party. Interviews with three marketing managers of other arts organizations operating in the same city told the same story. The interviews conducted for this study confirmed this pattern. Only one of the people interviewed, a young woman of 21, had ever attended a live arts event alone. She appeared to be quite proud of this fact; she clearly felt that single attendance indicated that she really appreciated the core arts product in contrast to other attenders whom she felt attended primarily for social reasons. "I really feel that a lot of people are there not because they're real keen opera fans but because it was part of their social c i r c l e . . , and that's not really what brought me into opera." Almost immediately she added, however, that "I wouldn't say social things aren't part of the e v e n t . . . If I can attend with someone I w i l l . . , the opportunity to discuss what has been seen is part of the event r e a l l y . . , in fact, [the arts] are important to your relationships with p e o p l e . . , it gives you a common thing to talk about." This woman was the first one interviewed, but as the research proceeded, a similar pattern emerged generally. Many of the informants saw their own reasons for attending the arts as unique; they expressed an image of themselves as sensitive and intellectual individuals-in contrast to the majority of"other people" who were not and attended for social reasons. At the same time, however, the analysis of the transcripts showed that once such a statement was made, all participants readily talked about the social benefits arts attendance provided them. Thus, many respondents appeared to be deluded about the uniqueness of their own "non-social" motivation, as well as the complex social factors affecting their own attendance patterns. Although the transcripts show that all the participants seemed to be motivated in one way or another by social considerations, the fact that many people wanted to distance themselves from this motivation likely expresses a deeply held cultural conviction that this allegiance to community implies a loss of individuality and thus of self-worth (Lasch, 1984). The desire to attend with others was also expressed by a middle-aged man, a newspaper columnist who contrasted his behavior with regard to the performing arts with that toward the visual arts. He would often go to an art gallery alone to see an exhibit, but never attended the performing arts alone. At first he attributed this to the fact that he would go to galleries in a short time period, during the day, and that therefore it seemed too much trouble to get someone else to go. Later he stressed another aspect of his attendance, however. Because he is a former artist and has many friends who are engaged in the visual arts, he stated that he makes a point of seeing visual art shows that they have seen because they enjoy talking about the works together. However, he does not socialize with people who attend the performing arts regularly, so "it's more important to find someone to go with me at the time."
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This theme of wanting to share the experience surfaced in all the interviews. Some people felt that it added an extra dimension to the pleasure that they already experienced from the product; others explicitly stated that they participated in the arts in order to have a social experience. In either case, it appeared that the importance of shared participation in this form of consumption motivated people to undertake a number of behaviors in order to attend with others. What is of particular interest here are the people in the second category, i.e. those who appeared to undertake particular forms of arts purchases in order to actively manage the relationships binding them to others with whom they attended. The most common behavior consumers undertake that is influenced by relationship considerations appears to be subscribing. For instance, a single woman said, "I subscribe to the opera every year with the same f r i e n d . . , oh, we've gone for y e a r s . . , sometimes we wonder if it's worth it, but then we t h i n k . . , well, we'd never see each other . . . . "Another couple, married for five years, reminisced about why they first subscribed during their courtship. "We thought, we're going out now, what can we do together?" Another young woman, more recently married, was more explicit about this reason for attending; apparently she and her husband were both living at home before they were married and, as she put it, they had to go out to see each other. She added, however, that "now that we're married we don't have to go to the arts anymore." Some married couples, however, felt that subscribing to the arts was a way to ensure that they spent a certain number of evenings together every year. An older woman, married for thirty years, said that this was why she faithfully attended an orchestra in which she had very little interest, but of which her husband was very fond. Even the young woman who felt that they didn't have to go anymore thought that "now we're having a baby a subscription might be a good idea to guarantee doing something together, having a night out." Thus, not only did some subscribers seem to be motivated by a desire to see their friends or partners, as opposed to the arts product in question, but some were quite explicit that they would rather see or do something different if it weren't for the fact that social considerations were more important. In fact, in four out of the 10 interviews conducted, the respondent mentioned that he or she accompanied someone else to their preferred arts venue, simply in order to go with them. Of course not all arts consumers attend in pairs. One couple that was interviewed organizes a large group of 16-20 people from their church to subscribe to a particular arts organization every year. Although the woman is fond of the type of music that they play, the man was quite explicit that he only goes because he enjoys the group outing so much; he said that he was sure many people in the group felt the same way. "For me, it's the social thing; I really enjoy that aspect of i t . . . and for the church, it's really important too. I mean, everybody knows everybody a lot better, and feels more connected to each other . . . it's really a good thing." People not only felt that arts attendance should be shared, but that the relationship benefits of arts attendance could be
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augmented by adding other shared consumption activities to the occasion. The church group, for example, often went out to dinner together before the performance, and other respondents also mentioned other joint activities they undertake in addition to attending the performance, in order to augment the social features of the event. Several married couples mentioned that they went out for dinner together before the performance, and the two single women also did this or else went for a drink afterward with the man or other woman with whom they attended.
Participants Use Arts Attendance to "Build Bridges" to Socially Distant Acquaintances The general pattern described previously suggests that almost every arts consumer feels they have to attend with at least one other person they know, and that many go to some trouble or personal inconvenience in order to do so. Thus active management of close personal ties seems to be a strong interpersonal influence on this form of shared consumption• However, it appeared that arts buyers often share the experience with other people in the audience with whom they share what might be termed more "distant" social ties. The management of this type of social relationship also appears to exert an influence on buyer behavior toward the arts, although it seems to involve a less active type of social process. Only one person who was interviewed said that she knew no one else (apart from her spouse) who attended the same arts activities. All the others appeared to know several people who attended the same performances. Interestingly enough, these people were never dose friends or family members. This suggests that people attend with people who are very close to them, and at the same time they meet people there who are socially distant. When I asked what kind of relationship they shared with the people they had named, work acquaintances were mentioned frequently, and occasionally neighbors• Although people may attend in the first place in order to develop and strengthen close ties, it appears that the presence of distant ties in the audience also makes a difference to them. Several people mentioned that they liked a particular organization better because it turned out there were people they knew there. For example, one woman said, "we went because it was a fairly inexpensive night out, and then it turned out my neighb o r . . , a trumpeter, was there, and then a friend of my husband's from w o r k - b u t we didn't know they would be there before we w e n t - a n d that kind of makes it more interesting • . . that we know people." This woman had become a loyal subscriber to a classical orchestra, even though she said Irish folk music was really her favorite form of entertainment. Other people emphasized a sense of attachment to other audience members as an important benefit of arts attendance even more explicitly. Another woman, formerly a heavy arts-goer who had cut back when she had a baby, offered the following explanation of why she and her husband had kept the one sub-
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scription they did. "It's the b e s t . . , it's also p a r t i a l l y . . , we have a personal sense of attachment to the people t h e r e . . . get more of a sense of knowing other people t h e r e . . . " A third said, with regard to attending her favorite orchestra: "it's important when you know other p e o p l e . . , the whole feeling that you're not just a faceless number; I mean, I grew up in a small town; I went to a small university; that whole feeling . . . . "She contrasted this "feeling" she got from arts attendance at an organization where she knew quite a few other people with her general "feeling" about life in the big city in which she lived. In both these cases current relationships create a valued past, one much more distant than the other. The past is valuable because of the value of social relationships in which respondents were embedded. Thus the value of a current consumption situation appears to be evaluated in terms of its ability to reproduce the important feeling of sharing social ties with other people, whether that is through the maintenance of former ties, or through the development of new ones that are reminiscent of former relationships. The bonds formed through arts attendance also seem to be important to people's work lives. Several people also mentioned how much they enjoyed talking to other people at work about an arts event that they had both attended, even if not together. As one young woman said, "it's really nice to share things with p e o p l e . . , it doesn't matter to me if I saw them t h e r e . . , it's knowing that we had the same experience and can talk about i t . . . to be able to say 'wasn't that great!"' Another woman agreed with this sentiment, and added "I tell them about things I've seen and try to get them to go t o o - a n d sometimes I'll go to things I know they've seen." A woman who had just changed jobs recently commented on how the fact that some of her coworkers attended similar arts events made it easier for her to fit in; she felt her arts attendance was useful to her. She also felt that her co-workers' interest in similar leisure activities made her like her new job better, even though she didn't think they would ever socialize or go to the arts together. "But it's just nice to know that they're part of that world, and I imagine they feel the same about me." This conception of membership in the same "world" as a result of knowledge of shared consumption experiences seems to indicate that consumers value the contribution that arts attendance makes to both their close relationships and their more distant ones. Thus it seems that shared consumption can be used, not only to foster and maintain intimate relationships, within a marriage, for example, but also to build bridges to different, more distant, groups of people, such as neighbors or business acquaintances.
Participants Use Arts Attendance to Manage Individual and Community Identities Individuals in Transition Although shared consumption seems to be used generally to symbolize connections between individuals in the same "small
world," some people appear to participate in mutually recognized social rituals in order to make the transition from one small world of connected individuals to another. A young woman from a working class background who had recently married a lawyer made this clear. "We're in a period of flux with regard to friends; I had my own friends, and he has his, and we're kind of separating from my friends and I don't feel that comfortable with h i s . . , our best friends don't go to the arts; it's people who are more peripheral, but people I have more in common w i t h - b u t I don't love them." This young woman's confusion between "best friends" and people with whom she has something "in common," as well as her discomfort with her husband's lawyer friends, seems to indicate that she is in a period of transition not only with regard to friends, but with regard to herself. Later she talks about her personal development along paths that tended to distance her from her family and upbringing. "I come from a family that's riot really cultured; I'm not really into the class system or anything, but I do believe there are subtle differences because I have a university education and nobody else in my family does. I have been known to look like a snob . . . when I go home, if I talk about those things [the arts], it's roll the eyes, oh there she goes again . . . . This woman's comments suggest that she values the establishment of a new "small world" in and of itself. But it also appears that to her there is a connection between membership in "small worlds" and self-identity. Both the individuals interviewed in this study who were actively involved in separating from an old self-identity and establishing a new one described the same pattern of using joint consumption rituals to develop relationships with a new world as central to the construction of their new self. Another subject appeared to be experiencing less conflict about his transition from one world to another, although he put equal emphasis on the importance of arts consumption and association with arts-goers to his new identity. In his early sixties, recently divorced and retired from the army and now embarking on both a second career and marriage to a younger woman, he stressed that he had only lately become "an eclectic and sophisticated person . . . . "He continued, "I was for many years married to a woman who was a church devotee, and I went along with t h a t . . , but when I got out of that marriage I swore I would never go there or have anything to do with those people again. When I met my present wife, she introduced me to a whole new world of the arts and arts-goers . . . . " When I asked if they socialized much with other people who went to the same performances as they, he said no, but hastened to assure me "that I can hold my own with them anytime!" It is striking that both he and the upwardly mobile young woman mentioned previously talk about the different "worlds" of people with whom they used to associate arid with whom they are associated now through art attendance. Both also clearly feel that their participation in the arts demonstrates to other people that they are a certain type of person; in both cases, this is particularly important because they are in the process of becoming a new type of person. In other words, both are
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using the relational aspects of arts attendance in the social construction of their new self identities.
Gender Differences in the Social Construction of Self The fact that the two respondents quoted earlier used arts attendance both to establish a new group of friends and to establish a new self-identity should not obscure the differences between the man and the woman. The older man appears to see his association with the world of arts-goers as a facet of the self; he is interested in defining what type of person he is to himself and to others, and sees association with certain other people through his consumption activities as a demonstration of his personal characteristics. In this sense, he appears to be extending the self to others (Belk, 1988). The woman, on the other hand, appears to be partly motivated by the same considerations, but is also motivated by a desire for intimacy with others; she seems to feel uncomfortable with the people to whom she was formerly tied, and desires to establish new relationships with others. As opposed to defining the self in opposition to others, she appears to be defining her new self partly in terms of a web of social ties. This "communal" orientation is typically considered to be an essential aspect of feminine self-identity, whereas the man's competitive reply to my question about relationships earlier ("I can hold my own with them anytime") appears to be more typical of traditional masculine self-identity (Bern, 1974; Spence and Helmreich, 1978). The findings of this study are, of course, limited by both a small sample size and the fact that only one consumption ritual was studied in depth. Nevertheless, it appears that here the woman thinks of her individual self partly in terms of the social relationships she will enjoy in her new public role and the man does not, and this is consistent with the theoretical literature on gender identity and social connection. More importantly, she is using arts attendance to build the relationships of her "small world," and the man is not. This difference does not suggest that men do not want to form "small worlds," or that they do not use consumption rituals in order to do so. On the contrary, a body of work is beginning to emerge that demonstrates that sports rituals, for example, function in terms of"male bonding" (Deegan, 1989; Sabo, 1985). Holt, too, has described the methods that fans use to construct and maintain ties between members of the baseball world (1993). At the same time, Deighton (1992) has developed a conceptual framework that distinguishes sports attendance from arts attendance on the basis of "active" consumer performances as opposed to "passive" ones. The limited findings here raise the possibility that women may use more "passive" types of consumption rituals, such as arts attendance, to construct small worlds, whereas men may use more "active" ones.
Discussion To date, the marketing literature has only recognized one type of interpersonal influence on symbolic consumption, namely
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that which relates to self-identity. Influenced by symbolic interactionism, this literature sees individuals as performing symbolically before an audience of others from whom the individual is separated, in order to create the self (Dong, 1990; Schenk and Holman, 1980; Solomon, 1983). In part, this study supports the connection between the symbolism of shared consumption and self-identity. For example, the finding that individuals who are actively involved in separating from an old self-identity and establishing a new one may use joint consumption to develop relationships with a new world that is central to the construction of their new self reinforces Schouten's general argument that buyers in transition use symbolic consumption to formulate new "selves" (1991). However this study is rooted in a different view of consumption, one that not only views public consumer behavior as a joint consumer performance (Deighton, 1992), but examines shared consumption from the perspective of participatory ritual, in which individuals act symbolically together to achieve communal goals (Turner, 1969; Deegan, 1989). This study finds that people value the establishment of "small worlds" in and of itself, and emphasizes the role of joint symbolic consumption in creating and maintaining those worlds beyond the self. Thus, a second category of interpersonal influences on shared consumption needs to be recognized in the marketing literature. People do not always define themselves in opposition to others; here we see people using consumption to define themselves as part of a collectivity. The findings of this study highlight four particular aspects of this general conclusion that have implications for both managerial practice and further research. First, the importance of relationship considerations with respect to consumer behavior toward the arts is confirmed. Thus it appears that the sense of belonging to a "small world" that arts attendance provides can add value to the offerings of a particular company; indeed, some people went so far as to say that when they had to choose among several competing arts events, the presence of other people that they knew would influence them to purchase tickets for a particular performance because they valued the "community" benefits that such an experience provides. The key finding of this study, then, is that the market for the live performing arts appears to be a market in the venue for social interaction, and not always a market in the performance on the stage. Thus, although many arts companies are trying presently to build audiences through an effort to penetrate new markets of nontraditional customers, the findings here suggest that a more effective strategy might be to concentrate on penetrating existing segments more deeply with the goal of building an audience of socially interconnected consumers. In addition, encouraging audience members to use arts attendance relationally, through tactics such as offering group discounts or augmented services such as meal discounts, may p rove beneficial. Most importantly, a "meet people you know" positioning appears to be appropriate. Secondly, people value the role of consumption in not only
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achieving intimacy with close relatives and friends, but in building bridges to quite distant acquaintances. An important question for further research is to investigate whether particular consumer choices and behaviors vary with the type and strength of the social connections among participants in the market for a particular good or service. For example, do consumers find some shared activities more suitable for maintaining relationships with relatives or close friends and others better for building connections to work acquaintances? Within the same venue, do consumers act differently with respect to purchase amount or frequency if the other participants in the market are close or distant ties? Meanwhile, the findings here suggest that an arts company may find it worthwhile to offer programs through which consumers can interact more closely with other audience members with whom they have only a very vague connection. Such events could run the gamut from pre-concert lectures to "singles" receptions. Repositioning volunteer work in terms of the important relational benefit provided from meeting and "rubbing shoulders" with others, and away from the current "feel good" benefit, might also prove worthwhile. Furthermore, this study suggests that it would be particularly useful to target these benefits to individuals in transitional states, because there appears to be a close connection between the use of shared consumption in the social construction of small worlds and the social construction of self. A third question that this study raises with regard to relationship benefits is whether the use of different types of participatory consumption rituals varies with social characteristics of consumers such as gender, class or ethnicity. For example, is there some characteristic of arts attendance that makes it a preferred venue for women to construct and maintain small worlds? Or are women in general, socialized to engage in the "work" of relationship management in our society (Cheal, 1988; Fischer and Arnold, 1990), more likely to use any consumpticn activity to carry out this task? Are markets for shared service products that incorporate the elements of participatory ritual contributing to relationship management dominated by women? Or do men and women participate equally in such markets, but the buyer behavior of women is more likely to be affected by interpersonal influences that derive from relationship considerations? Answers to these questions would provide important information for the development of segmentation and positioning strategnes; it may be that women are a better target for "relational" products such as the arts, or alternatively, that different positions with respect to the relational aspects of arts attendance are suitable for male and female targets. Similar questions arise with respect to the generalizability of these findings with respect to social class. We know, for example, that arts attendance tends to be restricted to a socioeconomic group characterized by high levels of education and income (Andreasen and Belk, 1980). There is no reason to believe, however, that relationship-building is valued only by those in the upper and middle classes that attend the arts; in fact, evidence suggests that the desire to form social ties with others transcends social class (Wellman, 1992). At the same time, it
may be that whereas shared consumption of the "high arts" serves to build small social worlds for a particular class, other forms of shared consumption, such as folk festivals, sports events, or rock concerts, perform this function for others. Ethnic events may provide similar relationship benefits for participants, by grounding mutual participation in a consumption ritual in a shared ethnic identification (Errington, 1987). Finally, the relational symbolism characteristic of arts consumption likely applies to a wider range of consumption activities than those that involve shared, and thus visible, consumption. We saw here that individuals appear to be able to construct "small worlds" by using participation in the arts as the basis for conversation and social interaction elsewhere. The experience of shared arts attendance thus becomes a social "marker" that identifies members of particular groups within the larger culture, in the same way that clothes, hairstyles, or jewelry serve to mark the boundaries of other communities (Hebdige, 1979). This research, then, suggests that not only can experiences function as well as material objects as cultural markers, but that the conventional groupings of products and services along a "conspicuous/private" dimension in consumer behavior may be misguided. Consumers may modify categorizations such as these as they publicize and share traditionally "invisible" consumption in interaction rituals directed at creating and reinforcing the bonds of their small worlds. "Relational" interpersonal influence may affect markets for a range of products extending far beyond those that are consumed jointly.
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