S. Ratneshwar holds the Bailey K. Howard World Book Chair of Marketing and is also the Chair of the Marketing Department at the College of Business, University of Missouri (Columbia). His articles have been published widely and he currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Interactive Marketing. David Glen Mick is the Robert Hill Carter Professor of Marketing, at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia. His research has appeared in numerous journals and he currently serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of Marketing. He has served as Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and recently as President (2005) of the Association for Consumer Research.

'This book truly challenges us to think outside the box. The editors have assembled an impressive and diverse group of well respected scholars and some of the brightest young minds in the field. These authors push our thinking toward new frontiers in existing areas of consumer research (e.g., motivation, emotion vs. cognition, and decision making) as well as new topics (e.g., consumer hope, community and culture, intergenerational influences). This book will help set the research agenda for the next generation.' - Wayne D. Hoyer, The James L. Bayless/William S. Farish Chair for Free Enterprise, University of Texas at Austin 'This volume presents a rich variety of distinct approaches to understanding consumer motivations in an affluent society. These diverse approaches range from more atomistic views of consumers exercising approach or avoidance tendencies, pursuing goals, maximizing utility, responding to advertising, or making decisions, to more molar views of consumers participating in cultural systems, enacting rituals, engaging symbolic worlds, forming communities, or questing for identities. Rather than seeing these chapters as pieces of a coherent whole, the volume may be best read as a series of arguments on behalf of alternative paradigms. It is here that the book gains its power as a provocative contest of approaches by insightful authors steeped in different cultural mythologies and social worlds.' - Russell W. Belk, N. Eldon Tanner Professor, University of Utah

• Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Consumer Approach and Avoidance Behaviors Section 3: Rules, Variety, and Flexibility in Consumer Choice Section 4: Sense and Sensibility in Consumption Decisions Section 5: Consumer Identity: History and Virtuality Section 6: Community and Culture in Valuing Brands Section 7: Consuming Authenticity vs. Triviality Section 8: Commentaries