The Status of Consumption and Consuming the Status: A Theoretical Discussion on Alain de Botton's ‘Status Anxiety’ in the Context of Post-Modern Consumer

Abstract

Consumption has become one of the most important determinants of social status, together with the Post-Modern society, which is also called the "age of mass consumption". This increase in consumption has also caused the discussion of the sustainability of the economy and natural resources to gain importance. It has resulted in the importance of marketing, which takes consumption as a direct research object. The existence of studies that interpret marketing science as a synthesis of the basic social sciences, economy, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, also shows this importance. In order for this process to be conducted more accurately, the approaches in the social sciences mentioned above should be discussed in the context of marketing. In this study, which was conducted for this purpose, the post-modern consumption phenomenon was discussed in the context of marketing with Alain de Botton's theory of Status Anxiety. In this study, first of all, status, snobbery, and envy phenomena were examined within the framework of Status Anxiety. Thus, the positions of these concepts in the post-modern consumption phenomenon were determined. Finally, a synthesis was put forward in the discussion and conclusion section together with these literature reviews. In this context, the implications for marketing in Botton's approach were compiled, and the solution proposals were criticized. As a result, the existence of a consumer who wants unlimited consumption leaves sustainability problems unsolved. In this context, consumers need to develop a consumption philosophy through alternative economic systems. In this study, deficiencies in Botton's theory were identified, and non-economized post-materialism and minimalism were presented as solutions.