Books and Journals

The titles on this page provide statistics and trends on consumers. Suggested subject headings for searching the catalog are listed at the bottom of the page.

Books

Books on consumer behavior and target marketing cover key concepts, usually from a marketer or market researcher's point of view. Some books specifically look at data trends and include statistics on consumers. The following are just a few of the titles on these topics, which link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Best Customers by New Strategist Press Editors (Editor)
Call Number: HC110.C6 N49 2018
ISBN: 9781937737399
Published/Created: 2018
"Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2014 Consumer Expenditure Survey, [this book] examines spending patterns by the demographic characteristics of households ... [It] analyzes household spending on more than 300 products and services by age of householder, household income, household type, race and Hispanic origin of householder, region of residence, and educational attainment of most educated household member. It identifies which households spend the most on a product or service (the best customers) and which control the largest share of spending (the biggest customers) ... New Strategist has calculated the indexes and market shares to reveal the trends. Text accompanies each table that identifies the best and biggest customers, analyzes spending patterns, describes spending trends for the product over the past few years, and products future trends based on the nation's changing demographics." —From publisher's description.
Captains of Consciousness Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen
Call Number: HF5813.U6 E94
ISBN: 0070198454
Published/Created: 1976
Captains of Consciousness offers a historical look at the origins of the advertising industry and consumer society at the turn of the twentieth century. Not limiting his critique strictly to consumers and the advertising culture that serves them, Stuart Ewen provides a fascinating history of the ways in which business has refined its search for new consumers by ingratiating itself into Americans' everyday lives. —From publisher’s description.
Consumer Behavior by Michael R. Solomon
Call Number: HF5415.32 .S6 2017
ISBN: 9780134129938
Published/Created: 2017
"Solomon's Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being deepens the study of consumer behavior into an investigation of how having (or not having) certain products affects our lives. Solomon looks at how possessions influence how we feel about ourselves and each other, especially in the canon of social media and the digital age. In the Twelfth Edition, Solomon has revised and updated the content to reflect major marketing trends and changes that impact the study of consumer behavior." —From publisher's description.
Consumer Marketing by Richard K. Miller & Associates
Call Number: HF5415.1 .C588
Published/Created: Annual, 2009-present
This book provides a wide range of consumer marketing statistics from across different industries and advertising mediums, which may be useful in determining which strategies are best suited to your business.
Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Frank Trentmann
Call Number: HC79.C6 T74 2016
ISBN: 9780713999624
Published/Created: 2016
The epic history of consumption, and the goods that have transformed our lives over the past 600 years. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British empire to the present. —From publisher's description.
Green Consumerism by Ruchika Singh Malyan (Editor); Punita Duhan (Editor)
Call Number: HF5413 .G7254 2019
ISBN: 9781771886949
Published/Created: 2019
"This new volume, Green Consumerism: The Behavior of New Age Consumer, provides a holistic understanding the importance of promoting green products and discusses consumers' buying intentions and decisions. The chapters consider consumer behavior theory in the context of green or ecologically friendly products from both the academic and business perspectives. The chapters present the latest empirical and analytical research in the field of green marketing and provide an abundance of information about profitable and sustainable ways and strategies to deal with environmental problems. ... Topics discussed in the volume include green pricing, green consumer behavior, various dimensions of consumer purchase intention, sustainable marketing, innovation techniques used to go green, eco-awareness, and other ongoing developments in this rapidly expanding area." —From publisher's description.
Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior by Sharon Ng (Editor); Angela Y. Lee (Editor)
Call Number: HF5415.32 .H3635 2015
ISBN: 9780199388516
Published/Created: 2015
"Research on the influence of culture on consumer decision-making and consumption behavior has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. With increasing globalization, managers are becoming increasingly aware that operating in multiple markets is crucial for firms' survival and growth. As the world's growth engine shifts from Europe and North America to Asia and Latin America, it has become apparent that an inward-looking and domestic focus strategy will not be sustainable in the long run. And success in foreign markets requires marketers to understand not just what consumers in these markets need but also how they think, behave, consume, and purchase. Numerous studies have documented cultural differences in values and beliefs, motivational orientations, emotions, self-regulation, and information-processing styles, and the effects of these cultural variations on consumer behavior such as brand evaluation, materialism, and impulsive consumption. In this volume, experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives trace the historical development of culture research in consumer psychology and examine the theoretical underpinnings that account for these findings and the current state of the field." —From publisher's description.
Market Segmentation Analysis by Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grün, Friedrich Leisch
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9789811088186
Published/Created: 2018
"This open access book offers something for everyone working with market segmentation: practical guidance for users of market segmentation solutions; organisational guidance on implementation issues; guidance for market researchers in charge of collecting suitable data; and guidance for data analysts with respect to the technical and statistical aspects of market segmentation analysis." —From publisher's description.
The open access e-book can be downloaded freely from Springer External.
New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America by Richard S. Tedlow
Call Number: HF5415.1 .T44 1996
ISBN: 0875846726
Published/Created: 1996
This seminal history of mass marketing is an account of how the United States became the world's first & foremost consumer society. Considering the roles of demographic change, advances in transportation & communication, & corporate culture, Tedlow illustrates the dynamics of competition by recounting the epic confrontations between Coke & Pepsi, Ford & GM, A&P & its rivals, & Sears & Montgomery Ward. —From publisher’s description.
The Oxford Handbook of Consumption by Frederick F. Wherry (Editor); Ian Woodward (Editor)
Call Number: HC79.C6 O938 2019
ISBN: 9780190695583
Published/Created: 2019-09-30
"The Oxford Handbook of Consumption consolidates the most innovative recent work conducted by social scientists in the field of consumption studies and identifies some of the most fruitful lines of inquiry for future research...The volume includes essays by many of the key researchers in the field, some of whom have only recently, if at all, crossed the disciplinary lines that this volume has enabled. The contributors have tried to address several key questions: What motivates consumption and what does it mean to be a consumer? What social, technical, and cultural systems integrate and give character to contemporary consumption? What actors, institutions, and understandings organize and govern consumption? And what are the social uses and effects of consumption?" —From publisher's description.
Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail by Daniel Herbert and Derek Johnson (Editors)
Call Number: HF5439.M267 P65 2020
ISBN: 9780813595528
Published/Created: 2019
"Point of Sale offers the first significant attempt to center media retail as a vital component in the study of popular culture. It brings together fifteen essays by top media scholars with their fingers on the pulse of both the changes that foreground retail in a digital age and the history that has made retail a fundamental part of the culture industries. The book reveals why retail matters as a site of transactional significance to industries as well as a crucial locus of meaning and interactional participation for consumers. In addition to examining how industries connect books, DVDs, video games, lifestyle products, toys, and more to consumers, it also interrogates the changes in media circulation driven by the collision of digital platforms with existing retail institutions." —From publisher's description.
A Theory of Shopping by Daniel Miller
Call Number: HF5415.33.G72 L665 1998
ISBN: 9780801485510
Published/Created: 1998
This book is about shopping for ordinary things. It is also about love and devotion manifest within families and about the nature of sacrificial ritual. A significant contributor to material culture studies, Daniel Miller is an acute observer and an exceptional storyteller. He approaches shopping not as an end in itself but as a means to discover what people's practices, closely observed, reveal about their relationships. The ethnographic sections of the book are based on a year's study of shopping on a street in North London. This provides the basis for a sensitive description of how shoppers develop and imagine the social relationships most important to them through the medium of selecting goods. Among the characteristics of these shopping expeditions are the concept of "the treat," and the centrality of thrift. Miller juxtaposes on his account of shopping various theories that anthropologists have brought to bear on the ritual of sacrifice, including that of the French philosopher George Bataille. —From publisher's description.
Upside: Profiting from the Profound Demographic Shifts Ahead by Kenneth W. Gronbach
Call Number: HF5415.127 .G763 2017
ISBN: 9780814434697
Published/Created: 2017
"What will happen when retiring Boomers free up jobs? How will Generation Y alter housing and transportation? Which states will have the most dynamic workforces when the Millennials settle into their careers? The next generational wave is shaking up the rank and file. How will it all affect you? Demographics not only define who we are, where we live, and how our numbers change, but--for those who can read beyond the raw figures--they open up hidden business opportunities that lie ahead.In Upside, demographer Kenneth Gronbach has put this powerful yet little-understood science to work finding the answers to all these questions and more. After synthesizing reams of data to show how the different generations have impacted and will continue to impact markets and economies, Gronbach has provided for readers the lively and certainly surprising answers." —From publisher's description.

Journals

Academic journals are another source for statistics. While some of these research articles may have a narrow focus and therefore the data might not cover all the variables of your specific market, they provide excellent insights into consumer behavior that may relate broadly to your topic or industry. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Journal of Consumer Psychology by Wiley
Call Number: HF5415.32 .J677
Published/Created: 1991 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal and open access articles are available from the publisher's website. External
Journal of Consumer Research by University of Chicago / Oxford
Call Number: HF5415.3 .J68
Published/Created: 1974 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal is available from the publisher's website. External
Psychology & Marketing by Wiley
Call Number: HF5415.34 .P78
Published/Created: 1984 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal and open access articles are available from the publisher's website. External
Journal of Retailing by Institute of Retail Management / Elsevier
Call Number: HF5001 .J65
Published/Created: 1925 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal and open access articles are available from the publisher's website. External
Journal of Consumer Policy by Springer
Call Number: HF5415.3 .Z44
Published/Created: 1977 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal and open access articles are available from the publisher's website. External
Young Consumers by Emerald
Call Number: HF5415.332.C45
Published/Created: 2004 - present
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Information about the journal and open access articles are available from the publisher's website. External
American Demographics Magazine
Call Number: HB3505 .A66
Published/Created: 1979-2004
Available online from several subscription databases to onsite patrons and other subscribers. Merged with Advertising Age in 2004.

Library of Congress Catalog Searches

Additional works on consumer research in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Online Catalog under appropriate Library of Congress subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the following list of Library of Congress subject headings to link directly to the Catalog and automatically execute a search for the subject selected. For assistance in locating the many other subject headings which relate to this subject, please consult a reference librarian.

Doing Consumer Research: A Resource Guide

Books and Journals

Books

Journals

Library of Congress Catalog Searches