This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Beckett, A. Articles by Nayak, A. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The reflexive consumer

Bristol Business School, UK, antony.beckett{at}uwe.ac.uk

Ajit Nayak

School of Management, University of Bath, UK, a.nayak{at}bath.ac.uk

Drawing on a detailed reading of the work of Peppers and Rogers (1993, 1997, 2004, 2005), this paper argues that their work offers an emblematic problematization of traditional mass marketing, which articulates a new mentality of marketing — collaborative marketing. Collaborative marketing, implemented through the practices of CRM, reframes the role and identity of the individual consumer within producer—consumer relationships, transforming them from sovereign chooser to active collaborator, or as they are termed here, reflexive consumers. Using Foucault's concept of governmentality the paper articulates the achievement of this transformation and the central role of reflexivity in this transformation of the consumer. We conclude that in redefining the nature of marketing, RM and CRM form new relays of power linking producer and consumer and that these relays re-interpret the antagonism between freedom and subjugation that lie at the heart of producer—consumer relationships.

Key Words: collaborative marketing • governmentality • reflexive consumption • reflexivity

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?