Ontological Consumer Research

This work claims that ontological consumer research alters our directedness as researchers because the existential-phenomenological meaning of being explicitly resumes a novel horizon in which we understand the field of consumer research. The most important consequences for the subject matter of consumer research are that the horizon, within which we understand a product, the consumer, experiences, and even marketing, is enlarged. The consumer becomes a temporal and intentional being that, at any time, may question the contemporary conditions within which s/he exists. Methodologically, the suspicious hermeneutical questioning becomes an important emphasis for conducting research. This version of hermeneutics is referred to as ontological hermeneutics. As for the subject matter, a product is not an object with qualities anymore. It cannot be separated from our experiences. The product is our experiences. As our experience cannot be separated from who we are, the question of who we are during experiences becomes crucial. This means that we must abandon the commercial room or space as the primary source for our understanding.