A Classification Scheme for Understanding and Guiding Consumer
Behavior for Sustainability
Russell G. Derickson
The Innovation Affinity Group, LLC
381 Captains Court; Fort Collins CO 80524 USA
rgderick@msn.com
&
Presidio School of Management
Presidio Building 36, P.O. Box 29502; San Francisco CA 94129
rderickson@PresidioMBA.org
Abstract
Consumer behavior is complex and pluralistic in nature. Typically, any given individual
consumer exhibits more than one type of behavior, depending on stimulus and
conditioned, or even genetic, response. For example, a single consuming individual may
act one way when consuming “products” or “services” essential for survival, yet in an
entirely different way, often seemingly irrational, when it comes to “non-essential”
consumption related to social status or pleasure seeking, just to name but two
subcategories of so-called “non-essentials.” One has to look at the individual in both
isolated and social contexts to begin a study of consumer behavior. Naturally, with a
population of many individual consumers, coupled with local and global diversity, comes
an even more daunting and intertwined range of behaviors that may appear nearly
impenetrable to comprehension, challenging the goal of achieving sustainable
consumption on all scales, large and small.
A first step in penetrating consumer behavior, with the ultimate goal of developing
methods for guiding and achieving sustainable consumption, is to attempt to set forth a
system of classification that captures various types of consumer behavior under various
sets of influencing circumstances and settings. In doing so, we take a deeper look at the
notions of “essential” and “non-essential” consumption. A further step is to recognize and
distinguish types of consumers, not just types of behaviors. Thus, in unraveling human
consumptive behavior, it is useful to explore humans and inanimate entities, such as a
building or automobile, as distinct types of “consumer.” Essentially, humans as well as
all products and services are consumers in that they “consume” resources of one type or
another, renewable or non-renewable. In this paper, we will distinguish such inanimate
consumers as an agricultural product or a clothing item from an airplane, a car, or a
building, to list a few examples. Clearly, there are gradations within the general category
of inanimate consumer, and these gradations need to be fully examined and understood.
Certainly, humans are the agents responsible for designing, constructing, and operating
inanimate consumers, but the relationship between the human agent and a building, for
example, is quite different from the relationship with an automobile, broadly speaking.
With an automobile, the relationship can be much more emotional and serve much more
as an extension of the human agent, the ultimate consumer. The nature and nuances of the
relationship between the human consumer and various inanimate consumers is crucial to
understanding and developing sustainable initiatives. No two relationships are alike, and
each requires a separate approach for untangling the roadblocks to sustainability.
Building on the work of a multitude of thinkers in the realm of consumer behavior, this
paper proposes a classification scheme for understanding human consumptive patterns
based on an exploration of: a) the behavior of human consumers under various settings,
individually and in a social context, b) the distinction between the human and inanimate
consumer, and c) the nature of the relationship between the two types of consumer, with
the goal of developing guidance for achieving sustainable consumption.