Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Birthday celebrations
Home coming celebrations
This shows that we are living in a consumer driven economy and therefore
consumption needs to be carefully studied as it is a key aspect of human behaviour.
1840–1920
During the 1840s Volney Palmer opened the first advertising agency in the world
which offered services as brokers for advertising space in newspapers. Gradually, the
number of advertising agencies increased which offered a wide range of advertising
related services.
Though production levels had increased the range of goods available was limited. In
1852, the world’s first department store, Le Bon Marché, opened in Paris and soon
others like Macy’s opened in New York in 1878.
How the science of Consumer Psychology grew in parallel with the consumer society 3
In 1913, Henry Ford invented the assembly line in 1913 which made manufacturing
easier and cheaper and cars became affordable by many people. This led to rapid growth
in manufacturing practices, hence increased competition between products and brands
which increased the need for advertising.
How the science of Consumer Psychology grew in parallel with the consumer society 4
During the 1920s and 1930s, consumer related advertising and research flourished.
Prior to the world war, the sales of various goods escalated but the trend changed when
the world war began.
1939–1970
During the World War II, there was an inevitable food shortage .The Department of
Agriculture in the US called upon Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist, to help convince
Americans to eat high protein foods such as hearts, kidneys and livers that had
previously been thrown away.
After the world war II, consumption around the world gradually started picking
up again and consequently a renewed interest in advertising emerged. At the same
period, Ernest Dichter introduced Freudian concepts into the US advertising
industry. Dichter wanted to understand how consumers’ unconscious desires
influenced consumer spending.
After the world war governments around the world were looking at ways to strengthen
their economies mainly through consumer spending. By 1950s politicians were busy
promoting the benefits of living in a consumer society which led to an increase in
advertising .Up to 1960s, a lot of consumer related research mushroomed .This
corresponded to the period the UK opened its first commercial TV station (1955).This
dominated the media industry until 1982 when another TV channel (channel 4) was
launched.