Macromarketing Metrics of Consumer Well-Being: An Update

This commentary updates much of the research related to the various constructs and metrics of consumer well-being. Specifically, I review the research to date concerning several conceptualizations and metrics of consumer well-being from both public and academic sectors. Public sector metrics include Cost of Living, Total Consumption Expenditure, Consumer Complaint, and Quality. Selected contributions to consumer well-being metrics from the academic sector include Shopping Satisfaction, Shopping Well-Being, Possession Satisfaction, Acquisition/Possession Satisfaction, Consumption Life Cycle, Community, Need Satisfaction, Perceived Value in Life, and Bottom-up Spillover. I then provide some thoughts about how these metrics can be improved and ideas that may spur future research. In doing so, I address issues related to construct validity to public sector metrics by demonstrating association with human development measures. Metrics from the academic sector can also be improved by testing association with newly established constructs of well-being (e.g., eudaimonia, social well-being) and introducing moderating effects of individual differences (e.g., consumer involvement, consumer lifestyle) as well as product-related differences (e.g., experiential versus material consumption; marketplace activities related to luxury versus nonluxury goods and services; and products beneficial to society versus sin products).

Automated summary

This commentary reviews research on different conceptualizations and metrics of consumer well-being from both public and academic sectors, discussing improvements that can be made to these metrics and suggesting future research directions. Public sector metrics include Cost of Living, Total Consumption Expenditure, and Consumer Complaint, while academic sector contributions include Shopping Satisfaction and Possession Satisfaction. The author also explores the need to test associations with newly established constructs of well-being and introduce moderating effects of individual and product-related differences.