Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy

Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy edited by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001, 447 pp., $99.95, paper [ISBN: 0-8058-1731-X].

This compendium, edited by Thomas Reynolds and Jerry Olsen, contains a diverse and comprehensive set of literature regarding the means-end approach to understanding consumer decision-making processes. Although this approach has been successfully implemented in academic and business settings, the editors indicate that many individuals who may benefit from using it are unfamiliar with means-end concepts and applications. As such, the text is intended to help business managers and academic researchers understand the means-end perspective, and to demonstrate how individuals can use this particular approach to develop better business, marketing, and advertising strategies. Further, the editors explain that means-end theory has yet to be fully or formally explicated. The book is supposed to move us toward such a theory.

Briefly stated, the "means-end approach" refers to a set of techniques for interviewing individuals about the reasons behind their choices and interpreting individuals' interview responses. The approach assumes that people think at different levels of abstraction. That is, when making choices, consumers think about how the physical attributes of the products they purchase (the means) create consequences that help them to achieve certain values they consider important in life (the ends). Indeed, it is assumed that consumers place a great deal of importance on achieving end-level goals when making even seemingly mundane purchase decisions.

The book is divided into five sections. Section One provides an introduction to the means-end approach by defining it,...