California Management Review

Abstract

The article focuses on the changing trends in the development of consumer behavior. It also presents information on the concept of human motivation attributed to children of consumers and the emergence of separate congregations. After World War II, consumers at first wanted more of everything they had gone without during depression and war, more food, more clothing, more housing space, more cars, more medical care, more education, more recreation. The concept of human motivation they attributed to their children was based on their own experience, that the fulfillment of unsatisfied wants is the source of satisfaction. Thus was consumerism in that sense of the term was born out of previous privation. If the objective of having the best is invidiously motivated, however, then to rely on common definitions of what is the best in any category of consumption before long begins to defeat its purpose.

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